Deconstructing and Reconstructing the Circular Economy through Practice-Based Approaches

Dear Colleagues,

The evidence base indicating that human activity is generating a global climate emergency and ecological breakdown is growing inexorably. Therefore, policy-makers, their advisers and commercial actors are being increasingly forced to confront these challenges and to adopt approaches which offer pathways to a more sustainable future. The Circular Economy (CE) concept has rapidly emerged as a favoured prescription, offering a seemingly bounded overarching concept providing clear pathways for action. CE has become a form of proxy brand promoted by multi-lateral organisations, governments and individual firms, who seek to adhere to the imperative to adopt behaviours based on an ever-increasing number of Rs (reduce, recycle, re-use etc.). Products can even be certified and labelled to indicate their compliance with CE principles. Such efforts to normalise “closing the loop” are to be applauded, and CE is viewed in some quarters as a radical concept. Yet, there are concerns about the boundaries within which CE operates. As Corvellac et al. (2020, p.97) point out, “CE, in its hegemonic variety, is a child of the less than radical neo-classic economic theory and ecological modernisation paradigm”. In practice this means, inter alia, that the environment is still viewed first and foremost as a resource and that socio-economic dimensions of sustainability are relegated or even neglected.

This Special Issue seeks to contribute to the expanding literature on circular economy by inviting contributions which not only deconstruct CE but which also seek to reconstruct it by offering progressive visions of policy and practice. Practice-based research offering constructive critiques, especially in terms of ways that CE can be meaningfully integrated as a “strong” form of sustainability, will be especially welcome. Furthermore, reflections upon the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic upon the implementation and uptake of CE practices are also sought, as is work that considers how, and indeed if, CE can be a meaningful contributor to more sustainable futures within the peripheries of the mainstream capitalist economy.

Dr. David Bek
Prof. Benny Tjahjono
Dr. Jennifer Ferriera
Guest Editors

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• circular economy
• closed loop
• strong sustainability
• supply chain
• SDGs
• green economy
• COVID-19
• practice-based
• certification