Salvia Giuseppe, Zimmermann Nici, Willan Catherine, Hale Joanna, Gitau Hellen, Muindi Kanyiva, Gichana Evans, Davies Mike
The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, University College London, 14 Upper Woburn Place, WC1H 0NN, London, UK.
UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources. Central House, 14 Upper Woburn Place, WC1H 0NN, London, UK.
J Clean Prod. 2021 Dec 1;326:129200. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129200.
Surging amounts of waste are reported globally and especially in lower-income countries, with negative consequences for health and the environment. Increasing concern has been raised for the limited progress achieved in practice by diverse sets of policies and programmes. Waste management is a wicked problem characterised by multilayered interdependencies, complex social dynamics and webs of stakeholders. Interactions among these generate unpredictable outcomes that can be missed by decision makers through their understanding and framing of their context. This article aims to identify possible sources of persistent problems by focussing on what captures, shapes and limits the attention of stakeholders and decision-makers, drawing on the attention-based view from organisation theory. The theory describes the process through which issues and opportunities are noticed and how these are translated into actions, by focussing on the influencers at the individual, organisational and context scale. Views on issues and opportunities for waste management were collected in a series of fieldwork activities from 60 participants representing seven main types of stakeholders in the typical lower-middle income Kenyan city of Kisumu. Through a thematic analysis guided by the attention-based view, we identified patterns and misalignment of views, especially between government, community-based organisations and residents, which may contribute to persistent waste problems in Kisumu. Some point to detrimental waste handling practices, from separation to collection and treatment, as the main cause of issues. For others, these practices are due to a poor control of such practices and enforcement of the law. This study's major theoretical contribution is extending the application of attention theory to multi-stakeholder problems and to non-formalized organisations, namely residents and to the new field of waste management. This novel lens contributes a greater understanding of waste issues and their management in Africa that is relevant to policy and future research. By revealing the "wickedness" of the waste problem, we point to the need for a holistic and systems-based policy approach to limit further unintended consequences.
据报道，全球范围内，尤其是在低收入国家，垃圾数量激增，对健康和环境造成了负面影响。人们越来越担心各种政策和计划在实际中取得的进展有限。废物管理是一个棘手的问题，其特点是存在多层次的相互依存关系、复杂的社会动态以及众多利益相关者网络。这些因素之间的相互作用会产生不可预测的结果，决策者在理解和界定其背景时可能会忽略这些结果。本文旨在通过借鉴组织理论中基于注意力的观点，关注捕捉、塑造和限制利益相关者及决策者注意力的因素，来确定持续存在问题的可能根源。该理论通过关注个体、组织和背景层面的影响因素，描述了问题和机会被注意到的过程以及它们如何转化为行动。通过一系列实地调查活动，收集了来自肯尼亚典型的中低收入城市基苏木的60名代表七种主要利益相关者类型的参与者对废物管理问题和机会的看法。通过基于注意力观点的主题分析，我们确定了观点的模式和偏差，特别是政府、社区组织和居民之间的偏差，这可能导致基苏木持续存在的垃圾问题。一些人指出，从分类到收集和处理的有害垃圾处理做法是问题的主要原因。对另一些人来说，这些做法是由于对这些做法的控制不力和法律执行不力所致。本研究的主要理论贡献在于将注意力理论的应用扩展到多利益相关者问题以及非正规组织，即居民和废物管理新领域。这个新颖的视角有助于更深入地理解非洲的垃圾问题及其管理，这与政策和未来研究相关。通过揭示垃圾问题的“棘手性”，我们指出需要一种基于整体和系统的政策方法，以限制进一步的意外后果。
