‘Mattering’ the circular economy: tackling the Achilles’ heel of sustainable places via adopting a critical-relational perspective

Abstract

The transition towards a circular economy (CE) is seen as vital for developing sustainable places. CE is used as a new buzzword, as well as an inducement to innovate and change socio-economic practices, by a diverse set of actors to meet sustainability and other goals. Genuine transformation, we argue here, requires those practices to seriously alter discourses and metrics. We adopt a material critical-relational perspective, drawing on the assemblage notion of (counter)actualisation. Our contribution is both conceptual and empirical. Conceptually, we develop an assemblage-based framework featuring practices, discourses and metrics. Empirically, we apply this to national CE policy and local initiatives in the Netherlands. Our results point out both passions and challenges to come to a genuinely transformative discourse and use of metrics.