The Bioeconomy Transformation in the German Rheinische Revier: Stakeholders and Discourses in Media Coverage

Abstract

As part of Germany’s strategy to phase out coal power, the so-called Coal Commission enlisted by the government proposed the bioeconomy as a more sustainable concept for managing natural resources and directing structural change in the Rheinische Revier in their final report from January 2019. The Rheinische Revier is well equipped for a transformation towards a sustainable bioeconomy due to already existing structures in directly related fields such as agriculture, chemical and energy industry, as well as education and research. However, realizing a sustainable bioeconomy requires major changes to the socio-political structures, especially in terms of a shared and supportive bioeconomy vision among the numerous and diverse stakeholders affected. The initiated transformation in the Rheinische Revier offers a unique opportunity to analyze such stakeholder dynamics and how they shape possible transformation pathways towards a sustainable bioeconomy. In order to generate an understanding of which stakeholders and visions are publically considered in the debate on the bioeconomy transformation, a mixed-method, computer-assisted discourse analysis of German-language media texts between 2010 and 2019 was conducted. The analysis revealed that research and government stakeholders strongly dominated, who promoted visions of the bioeconomy as a growth concept for supporting the use of biomass and biotechnologies against the background of global challenges of resource depletion. Stakeholders from the general public were often called upon, but seldom expressed their own visions, which were characterized by more diverse themes and arguments.