Theoretical and methodological aspects of the eco-industrial space development

Abstract

Contemporary society is challenged by the issue of meeting seemingly contradictory needs: achieving economic well-being and ensuring environmental security. On the one hand, rising levels of environmental pollution increasingly threaten systems of life support. On the other hand, economic difficulties cause the growing financial instability. Accordingly, there is a need to move towards a more sustainable environmental and economic system, which requires additional research in this field. The paper focuses on the circular economy as a tool for creating the eco-industrial space to attain sustainable development goals based on the principles of market organisation and long-standing social and economic relations. Methodologically, the research relies on the theory of circular economy and the theory of social space. Research methods include deduction and induction, analysis and synthesis, statistical, comparative, causal, and factor analysis, historical method, which allows taking in account historical, social and cultural peculiarities of the economy, as well as other general theoretical methods. As a result of the research, the authors (1) identify eco-industrial subspace within the social space, which enables clarifying the specifics of the interaction between actors of the social space interested in meeting the needs of both economic development and ecosystem sustainability; (2) develop a system for assessing the circular economy from the viewpoint of eco-industrial interaction. The scientific value of the research findings consists in elaborating on the ecological aspect of industrial regions’ functioning. The circular economy can potentially contribute to the energy efficiency, reduce environmental pollution, and create efficient ways of producing and consuming. The suggested system for assessing the circular economy allows detecting the dynamics of the negative pressure on the ecosystem, which enables the government authorities to purposefully green the industrial development.