Title |
Suggested use? On evidence-based decision-making in industrial ecology and beyond |
ID_Doc |
68324 |
Authors |
Zhu, JM |
Title |
Suggested use? On evidence-based decision-making in industrial ecology and beyond |
Year |
2020 |
Published |
Journal Of Industrial Ecology, 24, 5 |
DOI |
10.1111/jiec.13009 |
Abstract |
Industrial ecology (IE) research has well established expertise in accounting for the material stocks, flows, and associated impacts of industrial and consumer activities in a variety of scales and manifestations. As with many other science and social science fields, however, the pathways from IE research findings to policy and business decision-making are often unclear and unsatisfactory. This issue creates a challenge for the application of industrial ecology to sustainable development. By reviewing several strands of literature, this article investigates alternative ways to generate and use research findings to support decision-making and social change. It argues that advances in both the core and the emerging methods in IE complement each other to improve transparency and reliability of research evidence; extension and contextualization of current findings corresponding to different stages in policy-making and organizational decision processes make research evidence more informative; a learning perspective makes research evidence valuable and used in more flexible ways. To better assist decision-making for societal change, more dialogues between researchers of different methodological cultures and between researchers and other stakeholders and a paradigm shift in social systems for which industrial ecologists should be conscious and proactive are required. |
Author Keywords |
industrial ecology; life cycle assessment (LCA); policy evaluation; policy process; social learning |
Index Keywords |
Index Keywords |
Document Type |
Other |
Open Access |
Open Access |
Source |
Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED); Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) |
EID |
WOS:000525981400001 |
WoS Category |
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology; Engineering, Environmental; Environmental Sciences |
Research Area |
Science & Technology - Other Topics; Engineering; Environmental Sciences & Ecology |
PDF |
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