Multilevel governance and strategic planning: supralocal governments influencing local circular economy adoption

Purpose Local governments often use strategic planning (SP) to address grand challenges like climate change. Increasingly, they adopt the circular economy (CE) as a means for addressing climate change. However, local governments need support from supralocal governments to address these challenges. Despite this, the SP literature has overlooked the role of supralocal governments and the multilevel governance (MLG) context in which SP takes place. Therefore, the aim is to study the influence of supralocal governments on the adoption of the CE in local strategic plans, as well as how the MLG context shapes SP more generally. Design/methodology/approach The adoption of the CE was examined in the strategic climate action plans of 262 Flemish local governments to assess the influence of the supralocal governments. Secondly, interviews with these supralocal governments were conducted to explore the MLG context and their role in shaping local SP. Findings Supralocal governments influenced not only the adoption of the CE in the local strategic plans but also the SP process and implementation. Practical implications Supralocal governments can have an important role in the local SP, helping to overcome the local lack of capacity, and can potentially stimulate the adoption of new policies, such as for the CE. Originality/value This study is the first to introduce the MLG framework as an analytical lens in the SP literature, thereby advancing theory on how MLG shapes SP. For CE researchers, it highlights the crucial role of supralocal actors in enabling local governments to adopt and implement ambitious CE policies.