Bringing the circular economy home – Insights from socio-technical perspectives on everyday consumption

Abstract

Transitions toward a circular economy require a nuanced understanding of how change plays out in households in relation to the role of consumers and daily consumption practices. However, little policy and research attention has been paid to the complexities of achieving necessary transformations in everyday cultures of consumption and the possible challenges faced by citizens and householders in achieving a circular economy. As a result, we know little about how circular consumption practices are already emerging in everyday life and can be scaled up across society. Additionally, critical gaps in understanding exist concerning how rebound and spillover effects occur in daily practices and the role of social and material contexts in configuring possibilities for circular consumption. Addressing these gaps, we develop an agenda for attending to the social embeddedness and complexity of participating in the circular economy. This agenda includes several critical elements, including the examination of routine and habitual aspects of social life, dynamics of rebound and spillover effects within interconnected practices, and the impact of institutional-material arrangements and provisioning systems on how consumers use services and products in the performance of social practices. In discussing these elements we outline research gaps and recommendations for future CE policy and research that better appreciates the social and material dynamics of everyday life, with the aim of addressing critical scientific and societal knowledge gaps concerning circular consumption transformations.

Keywords

• Circular economy
• Circular consumption
• Social practice theory
• Sociology of sustainable consumption
• Research agenda