Addressing the Social Aspects of a Circular Economy: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Circular Economy (CE) is a growing topic among scholars, industries, and governments, and is aimed at decoupling economic growth and development from the consumption of finite resources. CE incorporates different meanings, from reduce, reuse, and recycle activities, to environmental degradation or resource scarcity, and is supported by specific indicators to attain sustainable development. However, so far, there has been no agreement to measure how effective an industry/product is in making the transition from linear to circular approaches, particularly those that affect society. This research work aims to perform a systematic literature review (n = 60) to analyze and discuss how social aspects have been considered and integrated in CE research so far. Moreover, this review provides an overview of the literature on social impact within the CE, which results in three main outputs: a knowledge map of the CE, an analysis of social aspects within CE, and the theories/frameworks used to evaluate social impact of CE. Finally, this study brings to light how CE implementation can affect society and highlights the importance of social dimension in the domains of CE and a policy-making community, which could help move CE towards a sustainable development.

Towards Circular Social Housing: An Exploration of Practices, Barriers, and Enablers

“…Early applications of Delphi concern forecasting in the military context; later, it became a popular method, both in academia and the corporate world, for reaching consensus, decision-making, or policymaking [67,68]. This technique is considered convenient for several scientific domains as many scholars applied it in social sciences [67,69,70], housing studies [71][72][73][74], and also in CE-related inquiries [54,[75][76][77][78][79]. Furthermore, some researchers used Delphi technique, similar to this study, to determine barriers and enablers for implementing successful CE-based food supply chains [79] and for the application of sustainable purchasing and supply management [80].…”

Eco-Innovation Diversity in a Circular Economy: Towards Circular Innovation Studies

“…In the CE field, systematic reviews have been increasingly used to address con-ceptual questions related to definitional matters [9,51], sectoral specificities [53] and business setups [54][55][56], social aspects [57], as well as indicators and assessment techniques [58][59][60]. However, from an innovation perspective, contributions have been rather limited [11].…”

Circular Economy Performance Measurement in Manufacturing Firms: A Systematic Literature Review with Insights for Small and Medium Enterprises and New Adopters

“…CE and social aspects are related in many ways, as concerns labor practices and decent work, human rights, society, and product responsibility. As employment, health and safety, and participation are most commonly included in CE [13,66], an additional step should be taken to include aspects other than internal ones [62]. Padilla-Rivera et al [141] focus their attention on social indicators for CE, providing a valuable perspective that nonetheless needs integration with environmental and economic aspects.…”

“…In many cases, the environmental assessment is the only aspect monitored in the frameworks proposed, as in [98,105]. Although contributions typically stress the link between the economic and the environmental pillars in the CE paradigm, the social aspect should not be left behind [66]. The majority of contributions, nonetheless, do not include social indicators, and in general, their inclusion is not explicit, as in [15].…”