Lucy J Wishart

My research explores how relationships between knowledge and practice determine the management of waste in sustainable futures, with an emphasis on governing activities occurring within and between organisations.  

I am interested how reuse is seen as part of a systemic transition towards a more circular economy. I explore how organisational practices support and/or undermine reuse within society, both materially (e.g. infrastructure) and symbolically (e.g. stigma). My research reconceptualises reuse beyond individual practice, extending the roles of organisations in addressing waste as a systemic sustainability problem.

I am interested in supervising PhDs on the following topics:

• Reuse (in the Circular Economy)
• Organisation responsibilities for waste
• Zero Waste

Circular Economy; Sustainable Governance; Reuse

2023/24

MN5001: Contemporary Global Issues in Management

MN4100: Contemporary Issues in Management 

Lucy joined the then School of Management in 2011 as a PhD student and was a member of staff from 2016 to 2024. She has been a member of the interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Ethics and a visiting researcher at the Pentland Centre for Sustainable Business at Lancaster University. 

Her PhD in Management  is entitled A Resourceful Application: Understanding the Scottish Zero Waste Project in 2015. She has an MSc in Sustainablity Science and Environmental Studies from the University of Lund in Sweden and an LLB in Law and Politics from the University of Edinburgh.

Lucy has advisory experience working with private enterprise, NGOs and government on sustainability and the circular economy. As well as publishing in interdisciplinary journals and The Conversation, her work has also featured in industry publications including The Circular.

Lucy was a member of the University's Sustainability in the Curriculum group.