The circular economy growth machine: A critical perspective on “post‐growth” and “pro‐growth” circularity approaches

Abstract

This forum article contributes to the prospering debate in the circular economy (CE) community discussing whether—and to what extent—the CE is reconcilable with economic growth. Within this discourse about a functional CE, there exist two contesting perspectives. One argues in favor of pro‐growth circularity, the other in favor of post‐growth circularity. The aim of this article is to develop a line of argumentation that helps in reconciliating the two seemingly antagonistic perspectives. Toward that end, this article applies the method of “practical syllogism” that is well known in moral philosophy, since it can enlighten how normative and positive arguments can be structured to enable the formulation of well‐justified moral conclusions. With the help of this interdisciplinary impulse, the article aims at detecting logical errors in current reasoning and fostering discursive learning processes. The ensuing arguments provide vital implications on the macro level by highlighting four critical elements to facilitate a CE transition, namely an intensive growth trajectory, an internalization of negative externalities through creating (missing) markets, an institutional encouragement of spreading positive externalities, and a diffusion of rents from innovation to society by taking the profit motive into service for enabling sustainability goals. Complementarily, the article provides implications on the micro level by highlighting the necessity to develop supplementary management competencies, namely governance competence to realize argumentative clarification and governance competence to (re‐)configurate institutional structures. This article may serve as an incubator to ease new ways of thinking into academia and practice.

Combining Building Information Model and Life Cycle Assessment for Defining Circular Economy Strategies

“…Wijkman et al [3] demonstrated in their work that for five European countries (i.e., Sweden, Finland, The Netherlands, France, and Spain), a shift towards a CE will contribute to reducing emissions by 66 to 69% and also to significantly boost job creation. CE will require changes at the macro and micro levels, respectively, aiming at creating opportunities to reach net negative CO 2 emissions and re-programming governance to re-balance the profit and improve sustainable performance [8]. Even if CE is subject to multiple interpretations and implementations in the literature, it appears more and more clearly that alliance between consumers, producers, policymakers, and scholars is a key component for enabling CE and that technological innovations will play a major role as drivers of CE [9].…”

The circular economy rebound effect: Reconceptualizing rebound approaches and mitigation opportunities from an ordonomic perspective

“…33Ordonomics suggests using credible commitments (Williamson, 1983) to improve situational incentives for mutual betterments. This ordonomic perspective has already proven functional in the application to corporate social responsibility, corporate sustainability, and CE research (e.g., Beckmann et al., 2014; Pies et al., 2009, 2014, 2021; Pies & Schultz, 2023; Schultz et al., 2021, 2023, Schultz, 2021, 2022; Schultz & Pies, 2023; Schultz & Reinhardt, 2022, 2023; Schultz & Rhein, 2024). …”