Doughnut Economics, instrumental innovation and policy change in urban governance: a Policy Instrument Constituency approach to the Amsterdam circular strategy

This paper is a piece of political sociology of public action, mobilising the Policy Instrument Constituency theory to assess policy change into a subnational context. Building on a unique case, we assessed the theoretical condensation process from Kate Raworth’s post-growth Doughnut theory to an innovative incentivising instrument framing the municipality of Amsterdam’s circular economy strategy in 2020. While Doughnut Economics is a theoretical framework to (re)frame socio-economic systems within planetary boundaries, and incorporate social and environmental externalities in the calculation of economic performance, we consider its innovation trajectory in a subnational context. In doing so, we identified policy change mechanisms and underlined the strengths and weaknesses of the model’s ambiguity. Moreover, we have identified how, from the increased attention paid to circular economy, both locally and in the European Union, the development of the Amsterdam circular economy strategy politicized this yet consensual notion. Beyond offering an exploratory analysis of this policy process, this case study offers a Policy Instrument Constituency application to urban governance in relation with the Multiple Stream Framework. In this perspective, we have put forward the problem co-construction process enabled by the dialogue between the political and policy streams.