The Anatomy of the Circular Economy: Goals, Strategies, Values and Scales

Despite its political and public importance, there is no a single definition of the circular economy (Kirchherr J., Reike D., Hekkert M., (2017) Conceptualizing the circular economy: an analysis of 114 definitions, Resources, Conservation & Recycling.; Rizos V., Tuokko K., Behrens A., (2017) The Circular Economy: A review of definitions, processes and impacts, CEPS Research Report, No. 2017/08/April 2017. https://www.ceps.eu/ceps-publications/circular-economy-review-definitions-processes-and-impacts/ ). The purpose of this chapter is to undertake a critical investigation of the concept of circular economy as a “boundary object” (Star, S.L. e Griesemer, J.R., (1989) Institutional Ecology, «Translations» and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, in Social Studies of Science, n. 3, pp. 387 – 420.), analytically opaque with performative valences. This configures the circular economy as a stake-in-game whose meaning is subject to negotiations among actors, at cognitive, normative and practical levels (Barbera, F., (2020) L’innovazione sociale: aspetti concettuali, problematiche metodologiche e implicazioni per l’agenda della ricerca, Polis (ISSN 1120–9488) Fascicolo 1, aprile 2020, Bologna, Il Mulino.). In this regard, the scientific reflection around the concept of circular economy should be studied in relation to how it creates interests, projects, meaning and social reality (Haraway D., (2007), Situated Knowledges. The Science Question in Feminism and The Privilege of Partial Perspective, in Asdal K., et al., 2007, Technoscience The Politics of Interventions, (eds.) Unipub.). Besides, scientific thinking around the concept of circular economy should also be studied in relation to how the plasticity of the concept is able to connect different organizational fields generating new value metrics and quality conventions. We will see how the concept of the circular economy, read through the lens of socio-ecological (Young et al. 2006) and socio-technical (Callon M., Latour B., (1981) Unscrewing the big Leviathan: How actors macrostructure reality and how sociologists help them to do so, in Knorr Cetina K., Cicourel A.V. (Eds.), Advances in social theory and methodology: Toward an integration of micro and macro sociologies (pp. 277–303), London, Routledge & Kegan Paul.) studies, allows economic issues to be connected with environmental issues and again with issues related to social equity.