Examining the social dimensions of cleaner production adoption in the Global North and South

Abstract This systematic review explores the social aspects of cleaner production adoption in the Global North and South, addressing the critical gap in understanding how socio-cultural, governance, and behavioural factors influence sustainable production practices. The technological and economic factors of cleaner production have been well researched however’ the social aspect of cleaner production have not been widely explored as has been the case with most studies being conducted with the North–South paradigm where developmental conditions, institutional frameworks and cultural paradigms are taken into consideration. The systematic review was done under the PRISMA 2020 advice by searching across numerous databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, and Taylor and Francis of 2010–2024. The search strategy used Boolean operators of the conjunction of terms referring to cleaner production, social dimensions and regional settings. The criteria used to include studies were that they had to deal with social aspects of cleaner production in peer-reviewed journals and purely technical papers lacking social content were excluded. Data mining was based on governance structures, behavioural change patterns, culture, and policy frameworks, and quality measurement ran through the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. 127 studies were analyzed and five main thematic clusters have been identified: governance and policy frameworks (institutional support is not equally effective across regions), economic and market drivers (subsidy and incentive are not effective in all cases), cultural and social norms (community acceptance mechanisms differ across regions), knowledge and capacity building (educational approaches are not equally effective across regions), and technology acceptance (perceived benefits and barriers are culturally situated). Significant sustainability gaps were observed in law enforcement, trans-sector approaches, and community-based approaches. There are major differences between Global North and South approaches to the social aspects of cleaner production whereby the North has been more focused on compliance regulation and market-based incentives, whereas the South has been more focused on community-based action and international co-operation. The differences generate sustainability gaps that need policy interventions and capacity-building strategies to be context specific. The findings can be used to inform policy formulation by modifying governance structures to fit the region (i.e. make them culturally-competent); they can also be used to formulate practice improvements (i.e. make them culturally-competent implementation strategies); and finally, they can be used as research priorities to narrow the gaps that exist in the North–South sustainability in adopting cleaner production.