Structural theory

Abstract

A technology matrix can be said to be a compilation of process data, a database. One must keep in mind, however, that the processes are linked to each other. It is not a database of processes, but a database of linked processes. The linkage of the processes is expressed in terms of economic flows, produced by one process, absorbed by a different process. A technology matrix therefore contains more than process data: it also contains information on the structure of the interindustry dependence of processes. This is also true for input-output analysis (see Chapter 5): Leontief’s grand work bears the title The structure of American economy. This chapter will discuss approaches towards exploring the structure of a life cycle or product system. The background of such explorations is provided by something that we will call structural theory. It is a topic that has hardly been addressed in the context of LCA. Huele & Van den Berg (1998) and Le Téno (1999) probably present the only approaches in which the analysis of the structure of an LCA-database is addressed. Structural theory can be said to be the least-developed topic. This chapter can therefore not provide a state-of-the-art review. We can do no better than discuss a number of approaches that have been described, that can be borrowed from related fields of study (like input-output analysis), or that we believe to be promising.