Not only peasants' issue: Stakeholders' perceptions of failures inhibiting system innovation in nutrient economy

- We conducted a qualitative study of stakeholders´ perceptions of failures in achieving circular nutrient economy in Finland.
- The biggest barriers occur in the interplay of insufficient governance-push and market-pull.
- The policy-governance lacks directionality and coordination,and demand articulation is missing from the enterprise-market.
- The failure of resilience of structures turns out to be potentially more prominent than structures as such.
- Destabilization of selection environment must be legitimized if sustainability transition is to be achieved.

System innovation is often postulated as being able to solve “wicked problems.” However, it is unclear whether system innovation truly fits into the prevailing innovation system. When the Finnish government committed Finland to becoming a role model for nutrient recycling in 2010, it underscored the need for systemic change in the food system. As opposed to the existing linear and open-ended food system, a circular nutrient economy would require both structural and functional changes in both production and consumption, by means of technological, institutional, and social changes across numerous sectors simultaneously. We collected stakeholders' perceptions of the barriers to the transition towards a more sustainable nutrient economy. The results were mapped into a failure framework that indicated that the policy-governance interface lacks directionality and coordination, while the enterprise-market interface creates inadequate demand articulation. Furthermore, the resilience of deep-rooted structures was found to be critical and deserves more attention.