and my own attempt to answer some of them.

Yesterday the Culture and Organization Journal put online the introduction to its special issue on the contested realities of the Circular Economy (CE). Nine statements in that introduction got my attention. As far as I understand, their common thread is that…

“Standard” Circular Economy is untested, and not radical enough anyway

1: “Despite the nearly revolutionary rhetoric of its advocates, the CE, in its hegemonic variety, is a child of the less than radical neo-classic economic theory and ecological modernization paradigm”.

2: CE thinking “amounts to incremental rather than radical transformations, a “weak” rather than a “strong” form of sustainability”.

3: “CE and circular business model tend to overlook the social dimension of sustainability”

4: “Turning the CE into a pathway for a transition to sustainability would require aligning it with the degrowth agenda, which is quite the contrary to how the European Commission (2018) frames it as a mechanism for economic growth.”

5: “Is a CE more inclusive and just than a linear one?”

My own remarks about Circular Economy

Looking at those critiques and questions, I would say that:

1 and 2: maybe “standard” Circular Economy really is just incremental, and “less than radical”. But whenever I encounter critiques like this, the first thing that comes to my mind is Doc Searls saying, fifteen years ago, “perhaps the moderate position is the most radical of all. That is, if you want to get something done that works for everybody."

3: true. Period. Not always though. As an example, see Comunificadora, a project managed by my Catalan partners of the Free Knowledge Institute.

4: THIS is the real problem: the EU is still too much a traditional economy project, that still frames and redefines too many issues only (or primarily) in terms of GDP growth. For the record, I too wrote about this “meta-issue” years ago, in the conclusions of a report about Digital DIY support and awareness in Europe.

5: “Is a CE more inclusive and just than a linear one?” Not necessarily. As in any other human effort, even if you chose the right tool, you must want to make it work in the right way.