A methodological assessment based on a systematic review of circular economy and bioenergy addressed by education and communication

Abstract

The circular economy and bioenergy are essential strategies for combatting climate change. In the last 10 years, there has been an increase in research on this subject by different disciplines. Educational and communication approaches may prompt a change to make citizens agents of change in the environmental struggle. Therefore, evaluating their level of methodological formalisation allows the identification of characteristics of the research carried out, and to ascertain where academic studies in these disciplines are aimed. Through a systematic literature review (SLR) applying the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) model, literature from 2009 to 2019 was identified on the Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar, using Publish or Perish software to obtain it. A qualitative and quantitative synthesis of the results was carried out, using cluster analysis and statistic percentages, and comparing column proportions. The analysis of the articles (n = 74) focused on collection techniques, data typology, characteristics of samples and analysis techniques, and showed that the majority were descriptive, oriented toward presenting proposals on educational intervention, with small samples and basic analytical techniques. Despite consistency in the corpus of the research, it is concluded that the studies had a low level of methodological formalisation, which indicates it they were generally related to exploratory research with limited scope, addressing a limited part of the object of study.