University Departments as Change Agents in the Organic Waste Management Sector: Lessons from Action Research Initiatives in Thailand and Taiwan

Due to the concentration of people and industries, cities are the main human habitats where residents can create opportunities for flourishing economic, political and social lives. However, these diverse anthropogenic activities also create flows of material and energy within cities that are inevitably produced and wasted. In order to investigate how cities can better reduce and repurpose the flows of material and energy, this paper adopts the urban metabolism approach to frame cities as a complex socio-ecological system where natural and human systems co-produce the environment the urban population depends on. To illustrate urban metabolism at work, we have selected Thaklong municipality in Thailand and Pingtung county in Taiwan as case studies to compare different innovative measures taken by university departments to reduce organic waste through action research oriented repurposing experiments. Although the size of the cities, the type of targeted organic waste varies and local culture differs, the case studies of Thaklong and Pingtung show that the university departments as change agents and the stakeholders as recipients of proposed change face similar opportunities and challenges.