Agency in Circular City Ecosystems—A Rationalities Perspective

Antero Hirvensalo,Helka Kalliomäki,Satu Teerikangas,Raine Mäntysalo,Noelia-Sarah Reynolds,Kaisa Granqvist,Hanna Mattila

doi:10.3390/su13052544

Antero Hirvensalo, Helka Kalliomäki + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052544

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Abstract

The concept of agency is increasingly used in the literature on sustainability transitions. In this paper, we add to that discussion by arguing that the concept of rationality opens new avenues to theorizing relational agency in transitions toward a circular economy. To this end, we compare rationality conceptions from management (e.g., collaboration and competition) with critical theory perspectives on rationality (e.g., instrumental and communicative rationality). This leads us to develop a typology matrix for describing plural rationalities underpinning relational agency. We illustrate this typology using excerpts from an in-depth case study of an ongoing city-coordinated ecosystem that develops a smart technology-enabled urban area based on the principles of circularity. The first contribution of this interdisciplinary paper is to offer a rational perspective on theorizing the antecedents of relational agency in circular economy transitions, where communicatively rational action enables agency and change. Secondly, our paper contributes to the literature on circular cities through conceptualizing circular transition as simultaneous collaboration and competition. Thirdly, our paper introduces a dyadic perspective on rationality to the literature on coopetition and provides an operating space from which professionals can navigate, depending on the type of coopetitive situation.

Highlights

The past 20 years have witnessed a rise in academic interest across the social sciences in exploring the transition dynamics required for societal systems to shift toward greater degrees of sustainability
We argue that the concept of rationality opens new avenues to theorizing relational forms of sustainability agency
While coopetition has far been studied in the domain of strategic management [25], we explore coopetition in the broader context of sustainability transitions

Summary

Introduction

The past 20 years have witnessed a rise in academic interest across the social sciences in exploring the transition dynamics required for societal systems to shift toward greater degrees of sustainability. This body of work is labeled as the sustainability transitions literature [1,2]. The field encompasses a variety of theoretical frameworks spanning the social sciences, including but not limited to political science, sociology, sustainability science, psychology and management [1,3,4,5] Despite these developments, the study of sustainability transitions is critiqued for lacking thorough analyses of agency, in regard to individual levels of analysis [6,7,8,9,10]. A recent review posited that, while often referred to, the concept of a circular economy is defined in 114 different ways in the academic literature [11]

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