Unpacking the territorial roots of barriers to circular bioeconomy transitions in agri-food waste systems: evidence from Réunion Island

Agri-food waste systems (AFWS) play a central role in circular bioeconomy (CBE) transitions, yet remain comparatively understudied in transition studies. Two blind spots persist: the scarcity of empirical work on barriers specific to CBE transitions within AFWS, where existing contributions remain largely sectoral and fail to capture the biophysical and social embeddedness of these systems. And the tendency of geographical approaches to treat space as a pre-given framework, which prevents a full apprehension of the constructed and relational nature of path-dependencies, lock-ins and underlying barriers. Addressing these gaps, this study draws on the territorial transformation framework rooted in French human geography which offers a multidimensional and multi-scalar approach integrating both horizontal stakeholder interactions and vertical dynamics across organizational levels. Applied to the AFWS of Réunion Island through a sample of 32 innovations derived from semi-structured interviews, the study identifies 12 barriers across four dimensions, material, ideal, behavioral, and institutional and three organizational levels, and discusses the broader path-dependencies and lock-ins with which they are associated. Beyond their individual characterization, these barriers reveal that resistance to change emerges from the interplay between historically sedimented structures and distributed agency across multiple dimensions and organizational levels, reflecting the fundamentally political nature of AFWS transitions, where both diffuse and agentive forms of power shape the conditions under which innovations can emerge. While some mechanisms are specific to the case study, the majority reflect structural tendencies likely transferable across territorial contexts, underscoring the analytical value of re-spatializing transition studies within their territorial configuration.