BüroX: How Political Narratives Shape Administrative Overload and Enablement in the Circular Bioeconomy

Public debate often frames bureaucracy as the antagonist of innovation: slow, rigid, and hopelessly overburdened. Yet regulatory governance for the circular bioeconomy tells a more complex story. BüroX examines how political narratives surrounding the reform of the European Union’s (EU) main regulatory chemicals framework, REACH, and the new EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) shape bureaucratic practices – and how these narratives can amplify or mitigate administrative overload. Based on comparative case studies in Germany’s chemicals, wood, and textiles sectors, we identify three interacting dynamics: 1. Organizational overcommitment, where expanding mandates outpace resources – a condition often legitimized by political narratives of “zero-risk” regulation or “world-leading standards,” which shape prioritization and internal triage; • Soft–hard accountability gaps: Legal rules promise strict compliance, yet overloaded agencies lean on partnership-oriented, “educational” enforcement. • Ambiguous standards as co-learning spaces: Uncertain requirements create “wiggle room” but also force regulators and companies into iterative interpretation, mutual sensemaking, and shared problem-solving. 2. Street-level bricolage, where administrators interpret, sequence, and quietly adapt rules; here, narratives of precaution or competitiveness influence whether discretion becomes a pragmatic enabler or a source of uneven implementation; 3. Businesses’ coping strategies range from disengagement to investing in compliance capabilities or experimenting with circular models. These strategies are shaped by dominant narratives, such as “bureaucracy stifles innovation” versus “bureaucracy ensures quality”. These narrative-infused dynamics generate potentials and dangers. Narratives of protection and quality can foster administrative craftsmanship. Narratives of burden and inefficiency can entrench defensive practices, slow down sustainable materials, and create backlash among overstrained businesses. Through interviews, guideline analysis, quantitative assessments of administrative burden, and co-creation workshops with authorities, companies, and NGOs, BüroX identifies administrative innovations such as cross-agency learning and adaptive reporting templates. It also creates joint problem-solving spaces that make narratives visible and negotiable. BüroX contributes to research on administrative overload by showing how narrative dynamics structure bureaucratic responses. It highlights how, in a moment of REACH revision and EUDR implementation, transformation can succeed through administration rather than in spite of it.