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Paper short abstract

Following the German bioeconomy framework, this research investigates networked responsibility relationships and the associated practices in the context of a regional transformation. We identify politics of networks and show how hegemonic frameworks crystalize into practices on a regional scale.

Paper long abstract

For nearly two decades, the conceptual idea of bioeconomy has travelled into normative frameworks on different levels of international, European and national governance. In order to address the various societal, technological and environmental challenges of current times, bioeconomy frameworks aim to operationalize scientific-technological vehicles leading to novel, circular value chains based on biogenic, recycled and residual raw materials. Following the latest German Bioeconomy Strategy of 2020, the regional implementation of an emerging bioeconomy gained traction by accessing funding programs and new governance initiatives faclitating regional societal and industrial transformations. This case study investigates how regional actors of the German Rhenish Lignite Area, currently facing the phase-out of lignite mining, take on responsibility (or not) to transform economic practices and allow bioeconomy emergence. More specifically, we apply the theoretical framework of networked responsibility relationships outlined by Stahl (2022, 2023, 2024) as a scheme to delineate the imagined practices and further explore how these practices support, restrict, or shape the emergence of a bioeconomy itself. On the basis of qualitative interviews, we gathered empirical data across various regional actors from fields of governance, research and industry over a period of three years. We identify different mechanisms of responsibility ascriptions leading to imagined and enacted politics of networks and how these responsibilities contribute to the emergence of a bioeconomy in the Rhenish Lignite Area. Our research shows how top-down approaches of a hegemonic normative framework, such as bioeconomy, crystalize into practices based on networked responsibility relationships.

Keywords: bioeconomy, networked responsibility relationships, transformation