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Accepted Contribution:
Contribution short abstract:
Europe's enthusiastic narrative of a recycling-focused and technology-driven circular economy (CE) risks silencing both scholars striving to address current CE limits and the knowledge hoarded by already existing circular initiatives. What can these dissident voices teach us about circularity?
Contribution long abstract:
Over the last ten years, the circular economy (CE) has grown exponentially in Europe, gaining enough traction in the public sphere to establish itself as not just one theory among others, but the alternative for a sustainable future.
Parallel to the surging enthusiasm with which many EU member states have embraced the CE, researchers have highlighted theoretical and practical gaps in the current paradigm. The spread of the CE concepts combined with blind-optimism rhetoric seems to conceal some fundamental issues related to social justice (Berry 2021), research analysis (Schultz 2019) and entropic impossibilities (Lehmann 2023). The EU CE paradigm, with its focus on efficiency and recycling, seems more like a conceptual continuation of the linear production system rather than a break with it (Appelgren 2020).
This is not only a theoretical concern as collective efforts toward a unique CE are affecting the already existing circular economies. What can these smaller realities teach us about circularity? From which dangers those dissident voices are warning us? How can we resist the oversimplification narrative this paradigm is undergoing?
The case of the Italian voluntary association ReSo is an interesting starting point for answering these questions. Based in a country that's leading the way in the realm of circular initiatives, especially in recycling, ReSo combines the distribution of package-damaged food with a powerful community-grounded network. The story of its decline from a perceived paragon of European zero-waste praxis to near dissolution illustrates both the advantages and disadvantages of putting people first in circular initiatives.
Sabotaging the toxic narrative infrastructure: guerrilla narrative in theory and practice
Session 2 Friday 23 August, 2024, -