Politicising Circular Economy: what can we learn from Responsible Innovation?

Abstract

The 'Circular Economy' has become a new buzzword in debates about sustainability. Circularity, however, is usually presented in terms of scientific and technological challenges that often neglect the socio-political aspects related to the transition towards more sustainable futures, such as participation, co-creation and social justice. We argue that the Circular Economy agenda might greatly benefit from the field of Responsible Innovation. This argument is at the centre of the EU funded project, 'A Just Transition to Circular Economy' (JUST2CE), which aspires to address the present shortcomings of Circular Economy literature and practices. JUST2CE aims at understanding, in a critical way, under which conditions a responsible, inclusive and socially just transition to a Circular Economy is possible and desirable, what technical, political and social factors can enable or hamper such transformation and how these aspects can contribute to the development of transitional policy measures.

Protein for Scraps: A Study of the European Union “Circular” Raw Materials Trade

“…The second alternative interpretation understands the transition towards a CE as part of a radical, holistic and systemic transformation of human economic activity, shifting from the production of ever-increasing flows of outputs and throughputs to the preservation of physical stocks and the adaptation to natural ecological cycles (Boulding, 1966;Korhonen et al, 2018b). Building a CE would therefore not only require a profound technical and organizational reconfiguration of the economic process but, above all, a radical social, cultural and political transformation (Hobson & Lynch, 2016;Pansera et al, 2021). This perspective also stresses that, due to the planet's ecological limits and the physical impossibility of a completely "circular" economy (Korhonen et al, 2018a), transition strategies should be based mostly on reducing the current dependence of human livelihood on the increasing production and consumption of disposable items.…”

Sustainability and Green Economy Frameworks

“…Third, the green industry has already had consistent positive growth in Europe, which has been accompanied by the appearance of favourable externalities on the social, economic, and environmental fronts. For instance, in all three regions in Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Germany, etc., investments in the transportation industry have generated high returns (Pansera et al, 2021). The green economy has a number of drawbacks despite its many positives (Latinović, 2019;Latinović et al, 2020).…”

La gestión de residuos de plásticos en Marruecos: una reflexión sociológica sobre el sector informal en la economía circular

“…Do mesmo xeito que sucedeu co termo "desenvolvemento sostible", ideado no contexto da Comisión de Medio Ambiente e Desenvolvemento en 1987 co obxectivo de conxugar a preocupación ambiental co crecemento económico e superar as posicións antagónicas entre os ecoloxistas e a industria, ou entre os intereses do norte e o sur globais (Rip e Voß, 2013), a EC corre tamén o risco de converterse nun concepto baleiro de significado e de potencial transformador. Perfilar o seu significado require unha loita política que poña en valor as nocións de xustiza social e ambiental, así como a necesidade de reformular o actual modelo de desenvolvemento económico (Pansera et al, 2021;Genovese e Pansera, 2021). A estas perspectivas críticas súmanse tamén os traballos que, desde a economía feminista, se realizaron desde os anos 70 para poñer en cuestión o modo en que o concepto de "valor" é reducido á dimensión produtiva e monetaria, excluíndo o traballo doméstico e de coidados, realizado maioritariamente por mulleres, e sobre o que se asenta realmente a economía (Martínez e Barca, 2023).…”