The circular economy futures in the making: Transformativity and object ontologies in food waste practices in Finnish households, supermarkets and biogas plants

Abstract

This article examines how food waste practices in households, supermarkets and biogas plants contribute to enacting potential circular economy (CE) futures. The article is based on a multi-sited ethnography conducted in Finland during 2019–2021. The analysis focuses on the transformativity of practices, exploring how the CE as a societal transformation is made in hands-on practices at different sites. With the transformativity of practices, I refer to the future-in-the-making aspect of practices—that is, the capability of practices to change both the practices themselves and the materials entangled with and within the practices. I conceptualise three different dimensions of transformativity of practices (habitual, planned and experimental) that simultaneously enact both the ontologies of food waste and potential CE futures differently. The article argues that present practices are not projected towards only one potential CE future—but rather multiple potential CE futures—and that these futures are based partly on contradictory rationalities. I suggest that a focus on the different dimensions of the transformativity of practices and their rationalities enables practice-based research to better articulate how the changing goals of practices can shape different societal transformations and futures, such as the CE.