Abstract
The combined pressure of economic, environmental, and social crises, including bushfires, waste management, and COVID created conditions for a turn to the circular economy in Australia. In addition to a dominant circular discourse of ecological modernization in state and federal policy and business and public consultations, other more socially inclusive and ecologically sensitive discourses are circulating. The two main competing discourses are a techcentric circular economy and a reformist circular society, the latter reflected in ‘growth agnostic’ doughnut economics. In the context of unambitious federal and state policies, the circular transition is being supported by a range of intermediary organizations whose key representatives envision or ‘figure’ the sustainability transition in hybrid discursive combinations. Few studies of the circular economy transition in Australia exist and none focus on competing discourses and intermediation for sustainability transition. Since intermediary organizations both discursively reflect and lead the circular change, fuller understanding of how circularity is interpreted or ‘figured’ by key actors is crucial. This study identifies how twenty representatives from intermediating organizations actively ‘figure’ the process of the circular transition for Australia, including while managing the tension between personal positions and organizational missions. Employing the concept of figured worlds this qualitative thematic discourse interview study analyses how, drawing on available circular discourses, key actors and their organisations actively ‘figure’ the present and future circular transition. The study contributes to debates on circular discourses, nature, and the limitations of the circular economy in Australia, the relational space of intermediation, and the nature of MLP transitions for a sustainable circular transition economy in Australia.
Highlights
Circular EconomiesPublished: 24 September 2021Since the original formulation of sustainable circularity for spaceship earth [1], an ecological modernisation (EM) narrative of global green growth has become the dominant global circular discourse [2,3,4,5]
Narrative reduction to themes means that some detailed nuances of figured worlds here cannot be adequately addressed
Current evidence suggests that interpretations of circularity have already developed into separate discourses of greater or lesser holism and potential for socioeconomic reform [47]
Summary
Since the original formulation of sustainable circularity for spaceship earth [1], an ecological modernisation (EM) narrative of global green growth has become the dominant global circular discourse [2,3,4,5]. EM is an ideal home for circular green growth as it promises sustained growth and consumption through technological advances without radical transformation of the existing economic system [6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. The dominant discourse promoted by organisations, such as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation [21], the World Economic Forum [22], the OECD [23] and the European Union [24] is optimistic about decoupling growth from environmental externalities of production and creating increased green consumption. Referred to as a radical paradigm shift [8], Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
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