Towards a design architecture for policy-oriented circular economy monitoring systems

Abstract

The circular economy (CE) is an emerging policy domain that requires new forms of information to support well-informed decision making, yet it also risks overwhelming policymakers with data spanning multiple value chains and governance levels. Evidence-informed policymaking assumes that decision procedures can adapt rationally to available information and to policymakers’ cognitive capacities. In practice, however, policymakers increasingly struggle to extract actionable insights from vast and fragmented data sources, while scientists face growing challenges in conveying relevant knowledge to policy actors. Within digital government research, information technologies are often assumed to mitigate these challenges by reducing policymakers’ information-processing burdens and facilitating the uptake of evidence in policymaking. One class of such instruments consists of online monitoring systems or indicator dashboards designed to provide structured information to governmental actors. Despite substantial investment in CE monitoring systems, their influence on policymaking has remained limited. Little research has examined how the functional design of these systems can be aligned with policymakers’ practices and information-processing needs. To address this gap, this ongoing study draws on affordance theory to analyse and operationalize the relationship between online monitoring systems and governmental policymaking. This ongoing research focuses on the design and development echelon of a design science research (DSR) project, embedding design knowledge generated through qualitative interviews in earlier cycles into a revised intermediate artefact. A survey among intended users informs the redesign, which is subsequently evaluated through a stakeholder workshop. We present a blueprint and corresponding prototype that specify the function and form of a revised CE monitoring architecture, detailing how system properties can support agenda setting, policy formulation, and policy evaluation. The primary contribution is the synthesis of empirically grounded design requirements and principles into an abstract architecture that supports collaboration between policymakers and scientists throughout the policy cycle. This blueprint provides actionable design knowledge for monitoring system developers by outlining how material system properties can be communicated through symbolic expressions and instantiated in concrete design features.