Towards holistic governance of China’s E-waste recycling: Evolution of networked policies

Abstract

Electronic products are being updated and replaced much faster and there is therefore an increasing growth in electronic waste (e-waste). In order to promote professional recycling of e-waste, the relevant government departments of China have published a series of policies. This paper aims to unearth the evolution tendency of the networked policies towards holistic governance of China’s e-waste recycling. Content analysis, quantitative text analysis and network analysis are applied to analyze relevant policy documents from 2001 to 2016. This paper illustrates evolution of policy themes, evolution of intergovernmental relationships, and evolution of policy relations. This study reveals policy intentions, maps policy progress, and unearths governance philosophy, providing an overall understanding of the policy ways by which the Chinese government has deployed its guiding strategies on professional recycling of e-waste. This paper illustrates how to approach holistic governance from perspective of networked policies, contributing to answering the central question of holistic governance about how to achieve it.