What is the maturity level of circular economy and bioenergy research addressed from education and communication? A systematic literature review and epistemological perspectives

Abstract

The role of education and communication is crucial to achieving the transition toward a circular economy (CE). Achieving cognitive, attitude and behavioural changes in the consumer and general population is a very complex process which requires mature scientific knowledge created by specialists. The current study aims to evaluate the degree of maturity of research on CE and bioenergy carried out from the areas of education and communication which are published in scientific literature between 2009 and 2019. The object of study have been scarcely approached from epistemological and methodological point of view, which is the novelty value of this study. To achieve the goal a systematic literature review (SLR) has been carried out on 74 peer reviewed scientific articles and conference papers. The records have been subjected to a clustering process (qualitative analysis) and a subsequent univariable (frequencies and vertical percentages) and multivariable quantitative analysis (comparison of column proportions). The studies’ theoretical approaches were identified and the levels of formalisation, the predominant objectives and the hypothesis were analysed. In addition, the analysis of the research areas of studies reveals the epistemological process and outcomes of the literature. Several conclusions are drawn such as the scientific literature in this field is limited in scope. Moreover, from an epistemological perspective, descriptive studies are predominant, mainly addressed from the field of engineering, as well as analytical studies, which are mainly undertaken from Social and Legal Sciences. There are two main groups of articles based on their purpose: those which seek to describe, detail or define; and those which are more innovative, which analyse, establish or deconstruct the phenomenon. The results also show that the level of methodological and theoretical formalisation is limited, which indicates that research is in an initial stage. The foregoing results lead authors to conclude that the object of study has a low level of maturity.