Towards radical circular economy futures: Addressing social relations of production

Abstract

The mainstream narrative associated with the transition to a circular economy is one linked to eco-modernism: paradigmatic change is depicted as an apolitical and technical matter that is fully compatible with growth-led and market-based capitalist logic. As a result of the dominance of this viewpoint, the socio-political foundations of the transition to the circular economy have largely gone unquestioned. This is particularly pronounced regarding how variations in the social relations of production could shape the transition to alternative and more radical futures. This paper aims to address this knowledge gap by incorporating social relations of production into the analysis of circular economy futures. In doing so, a set of nine future circular scenarios is developed by drawing on a typology of five conceptual dimensions that include ownership of the means of production and access to the resulting goods. The typology and the circular scenarios are then validated by a three-part Delphi-like approach. It is argued that the proposed set of scenarios allows a more nuanced understanding of circular economy futures than previous contributions as they provide further insights about key actors and forces of change that could drive the transition to a sustainable society beyond neoliberal capitalism.