There is no sustainable circular economy without a circular society

An astonishingly diverse range of actors from business, politics and environmental associations seem to agree on one thing about the future: The economy must be circular.

A Circular Economy (CE) aims to keep non-renewable resources in permanent use through the establishment of technical and economic cycles, minimizing energy loss and de-materializing production and consumption. A major goal of associated political strategies, such as the European Green Deal and the European Circular Economy Action Plan is to decouple resource use from economic growth to generate sustainable systems of consumption and production (SCP). Recent critical reflections on the CE debate, however, highlight the missing concern for social sustainability and social transformation. It is critiqued that CE has been conceptualized as an ecological modernization project that builds on capitalist economic growth narratives (Hobson and Lynch, 2016).

The term Circular Society (CS) has been introduced to provide an alternative framing that is going beyond growth, technology and market-based solutions. A common denominator of CS concepts is that CE transitions are not possible without the commitment and participation of all societal actors. CS frames transitions to circularity as a profound social-ecological transformation.

However, approaches to CS differ in relation to in how far and in which way they consider social reorganization as necessary to reach a CS (see also Friant et al., 2020). In the following, we will briefly discuss our interpretation of these differences.

1. “CE+” approaches to CS set out to supplement current CE strategies with social policy measures (e.g., increasing the transparency of production processes and accessibility of products) to enable citizens to use circular products and services.

2. “New Prosperity Narratives” approaches to CS combine the idea of circular transformations with narratives about the “Good Life” and post-growth debates. They go beyond the objective of decoupling resource use from economic growth to also decoupling images of the good life and societal prosperity from material and monetary wealth.

3. “Economic Reorganization” approaches to CS transfer the

principle of circularity to the distribution of power and (im)material resources, emphasizing that wealth, knowledge, technologies and means of production have to be distributed or circulated more fairly.

4. “Transformative CS” approaches to CS aim to establish SCP patterns that builds on participation, commonality and solidarity. This view highlights the importance of bottom-up social innovation and emancipatory consumer movements in the reconfiguration of production and consumption systems in the direction of more regional and participatory value creation networks.

The CS debate is still young, dynamic and in many parts more visionary than practical. In our opinion, further work on the conceptual foundations as well as on the practical implementation should be a transdisciplinary undertaking that requires cooperation between all areas and levels of society.

In the following, we formulate some central topics for a “roadmap towards a Circular Society”.

current SCP patterns. It is supported by the dominance of capitalist constructs of value that are concentrated on the monetary exchange value of products and added value (Mazzucato, 2018). This predominant view is not truly challenged by current CE debates. In contrast, CS seeks to view social and ecological value creation as essential orientations. It champions economic thinking, where economics — in the Aristotelian sense — run society's household in such a way that all household members are equally sustained, while available resources are well managed. Multi-dimensional concepts of value creation are needed that define qualitative and quantitative indicators for social and ecological value creation and which take into account the many forms of work (care work, informal work, community work, do-it-yourself) that contribute to societal well-being. These normative CS indicators need to be constantly re-evaluated and challenged, through the exchange and negotiation of multiple perceptions, belief systems and needs from different sectors, social groups, disciplines and cultures. It entails dialogues between North and South, young and old, materialists and minimalists, feminists and conservationists, Wall Street and the Degrowth movement.

competences and practices, and champions the idea of people as 'embedded' in complex systems rather than as passive recipients. People need to be capable of (and invited to) participating in circular SCP — for example, in co-creation and co-design of products and services activities and social innovation processes linked to 'do-it-yourself', repair and care. They should be enabled to form communities of peer production and collaborative consumption. CS research should investigate strategies that can foster these engagements, for example, by exploring the interplay between practices and infrastructures enabling particular systems of SCP.

The future developments of CS concepts have the potential to significantly challenge prevalent capitalist principles and meanings of economic practices with alternative narratives that are rooted in environmental and social sustainability, social justice, solidarity and commonality. Accordingly, economic action should not first and foremost create material prosperity but should enable quality of life for all members of society. By paying particular attention to social justice, equity and inclusion, circular futures need to build on the voices of the many. We wish to continue to develop this critical perspective and provide insights and actions towards CS transformations.

None.