Problematising the Circular Economy: What is the Problem Represented to Be?

Since the 1990s Carol Bacchi has been developing an approach to policy research called ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’ (Bacchi 1999, 2009, Bacchi and Goodwin 2016). Bacchi’s approach is theoretically informed and eminently deployable, with its theoretical foundations in Feminist and Foucauldian theory, and its practical application enabled through an analytical strategy (informed by a series of questions) which helps guide a user’s analysis of particular policy problematisations (Bacchi 2012). Bacchi’s approach has been widely used in gender (Bacchi 2009, Osborne et al 2008, Bacchi et al 2006), public health (Alexander and Coveney 2013), drug and alcohol policy (Fraser and Moore 2011, Bacchi 2018, Bacch 2015), and migration (Jorgensen 2012) to name a few. However, it has yet to find much traction in the field of environmental policy. Therefore, within this context this paper has dual purposes. Firstly, it outlines Bacchi’s approach and situates it within the context of the broader post-positivist turn in policy studies. Secondly, it provides an early application of Bacchi’s approach in the field of environmental policy, through an analysis of policy discourse surrounding the circular economy (CE). CE discourse is attracting considerable policy interest in many countries, because of its potential to de-couple economic activity from environmental impacts, and its potential as a source of economic value, whereby greater value is obtained per unit of natural resource used. However, there are many ways in which the CE can be conceptualised, which has implications for the kinds of policy and governance responses developed and implemented. In this paper I apply Bacchi’s approach to the question of how the CE is problematised in policy discourse in Victoria, Australia, drawing on material associated with a parliamentary inquiry into waste and recycling and associated policy texts.