The Circular Economy as a good life A new way to address climate change or an eco-modernist political project?

• In Event: A Good Life, In Theory: Thinking and Living with Climate Change - I

Abstract

The notion of Circular Economy (CE) has recently gained traction, replacing sustainable development and acting as an umbrella term to assemble policy proposals addressing climate change but drawing from different socio-technical imaginaries such as eco-innovation, green growth or the new green deal. The CE is often defined as an economic system of closed loops in which raw materials, components and products lose their value as little as possible, renewable energy sources are used and systems thinking is at the core (Kohronen, et al. 2018). Reconciling economic growth with the goal of reverting climate change, the CE promises to be the long awaited solution to the current capitalist crisis. Drawing from works done on the bioeconomy (Goven and Pavone 2015), we argue that the CE should rather be understood as an eco-modernist political project stimulating the self-regulation of industry and transferring responsibilities from the state to the market (Mol & Spaargaren, 2000). Through market-based instruments, such as environmental taxes, and technological changes, the CE promotes a process of ‘economizing ecology’, attributing economic value to environmental resources and burdens, promoting techno-fixes and justifying institutional changes to facilitate them (Lewidow and Rahman 2020). As a result of an analysis of several EU and national policy documents, this paper argues that the CE aims at projecting the illusion of radical change while concealing that the envisioned technological developments strive to maintain the status quo, endorsing a specific vision of good life and displacing alternatives such as eco-localization or conviviality (Genovese & Pansera, 2020).

Authors

• Vincenzo Pavone, Consejo Superior Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC)

• Mario Pansera, Bristol University