Sustainability transitions in e-waste management: Insights from field studies in Ghana, Brazil, and China
Sammendrag
This Ph.D. thesis focuses on possible avenues for transitions toward more sustainable e-waste management systems in different countries of the Global South. Based on a transition management approach, the work captures various perspectives of key stakeholders in Ghana, Brazil, and China. These are among the most impacted countries in their respective continents, thus representing significant locations for empirical research. The investigations focus on current practices within the informal and formal sectors and, where applicable, the impact of policies implemented at a national level. The work contributes to the sustainability transition research field by combining various perspectives of critical agents in the studied e-waste management systems. For the first time, a work combines such empirical studies in these three significant countries. The findings suggest that transitions toward more sustainable practices require advancing policies while incorporating critical agents in the systems at all scales, from local to global. The work highlights the need to integrate the informal sector into the initial stages of e-waste management and strengthen capacities within the formal sector for end-processing. Moreover, it shows that accounting for the diversity of service provision is of utmost importance to direct sustainability transitions in the Global South.Artikkelliste
Paper I: Schneider, A.F., 2019. Informal processing of electronic waste in Agbogbloshie, Ghana: A complex adaptive systems perspective, in: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on ICT for Sustainability. Presented at the ICT4S 2019, Lappeenranta, Finland, ISSN 1613-0073.2382, p. 8. The article is included in the thesis. Also available at: https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2382/ICT4S2019_paper_14.pdf |
Paper II: Schneider, A.F., 2019. Managing change in operations: The case of the wire stripping machine in Agbogbloshie, Ghana, in: Proceedings of the 26th International EurOMA Conference: Operations Adding Value to Society. Presented at the EurOMA 2019, Helsinki, Finland, pp. 1479–1488. The paper is not available in DUO due to publisher restrictions. |
Paper III: Schneider, A.F., Aanestad, M., Carvalho, T.C. Exploring barriers in the transition toward an established e-waste management system in Brazil: A multiple-case study of the formal sector. The paper is not available in DUO awaiting publishing. |
Paper IV: Schneider, A.F., Zeng, X., 2022. Investigations into the transition toward an established e-waste management system in China: Empirical evidence from Guangdong and Shaanxi. Current Research in Environmental Sustainability. Vol. 4, No. 100195, pp 1–10. doi: 10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100195. The article is included in the thesis. Also available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100195 |