Old Habits Die Hard: How Narratives on Social Aspects of Circular Economy (Re)Produce Global Inequalities

Circular Economy is an alternative to the currently dominant linear production and consumption model. It has been embraced by academics and policymakers alike. However, Circular Economy has also been critiqued for framing complex societal challenges as primarily technical problems, hence failing to consider social and environmental justice implications of the transition to Circular Economy. There are no studies that review the burgeoning Circular Economy literature with a view on how social justice aspects are conceptualized differently in the Global North and South. To fill this gap, we conducted a scoping review of the academic literature to map out how social aspects of Circular Economy are discussed in place-based studies with empirical data. First, existing studies are overwhelmingly conceptual in nature and the dataset of place-based research is relatively small – an indication of an undeveloped empirical research field. Furthermore, when social benefits of Circular Economy are discussed, it is often about green growth, poverty alleviation, and formal employment. Alternative notions of social justice, such as inclusion, participation and recognition, seem far less represented in the literature. Most strikingly, we discovered two diverging narratives on how social aspects of Circular Economy are discussed in the Global North and South. These narratives follow preexisting ideas about what ‘development’ entails and suggest different priorities to be tackled – a line of thought that reproduces existing inequalities and deficits of justice. We present alternative ways of discussing the subject.