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Responsibility as a field: The circular economy of water, waste, and energy

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  • Federico Savini
  • Mendel Giezen

Abstract

Responsibilities are a central matter of concern of environmental politics because they underpin regulatory frameworks of utility services. Yet, in scholarship concerned with sustainability transitions and governance, responsibility is reductively understood as a legal obligation or allotted task. Building on an institutionalist perspective, this paper conceptualized responsibility as a field of contention where actors negotiate, contest, and articulate what we define as subjectivist and collectivist responsibilities. Defining and using the concept of ‘fields of responsibility’, the paper analyzes how responsibilities (mis)match and contradict in controversial policymaking around the ‘circular economy’: a wide policy program for restructuring water, energy, and waste utility services and infrastructures in Amsterdam region. In so doing, it reveals the logic of contemporary environmental governance: in approaching climate targets, actors actively take on responsibilities while at the same time maintaining a conservative view of their role and responsibilities. We call these phenomena over-stretching and under-reaching.

Suggested Citation

  • Federico Savini & Mendel Giezen, 2020. "Responsibility as a field: The circular economy of water, waste, and energy," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 38(5), pages 866-884, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:38:y:2020:i:5:p:866-884
    DOI: 10.1177/2399654420907622
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Federico Savini, 2013. "Political dilemmas in peripheral development: investment, regulation, and interventions in metropolitan Amsterdam," Planning Theory & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 333-348, September.
    2. Mendel Giezen, 2018. "Shifting Infrastructure Landscapes in a Circular Economy: An Institutional Work Analysis of the Water and Energy Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-17, September.
    3. Anu Ramaswami & Christopher Weible & Deborah Main & Tanya Heikkila & Saba Siddiki & Andrew Duvall & Andrew Pattison & Meghan Bernard, 2012. "A Social‐Ecological‐Infrastructural Systems Framework for Interdisciplinary Study of Sustainable City Systems," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 16(6), pages 801-813, December.
    4. Vanesa Castán Broto & Harriet Bulkeley, 2013. "Maintaining Climate Change Experiments: Urban Political Ecology and the Everyday Reconfiguration of Urban Infrastructure," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(6), pages 1934-1948, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Viktor Wildeboer & Federico Savini, 2022. "THE STATE OF THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY: Waste Valorization in Hong Kong and Rotterdam," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 749-765, September.
    2. Willem Salet, 2021. "Public Norms in Practices of Transitional Planning—The Case of Energy Transition in The Netherlands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-25, April.
    3. Wang, Xue-Chao & Jiang, Peng & Yang, Lan & Fan, Yee Van & Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír & Wang, Yutao, 2021. "Extended water-energy nexus contribution to environmentally-related sustainable development goals," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).

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