Futures Studies & the Circular Economy: an Interdisciplinary Approach to Sustainable Development

Weigend Rodríguez, Ricardo; Pomponi, Francesco; D’Amico, Bernardino

Abstract

While the Circular Economy (CE) is gaining traction as a new economic paradigm to overcome the linear economy, it has not yet developed an understanding on how to transition from the present into the future. What if the future is different from what the CE expects? We argue that the CE cannot answer this question adequately and therefore is not capable of developing this understanding alone. To address this shortcoming, we propose Futures Studies (FS) as a complementary discipline because it offers exactly what CE lacks: methods to explore alternative futures. Whilst both communities are working towards the same goal —a sustainable tomorrow—until now they show little to no interaction. This research represents a first step towards embedding realistic considerations of futures into the CE debate: it reviews literature in both fields and their theoretical background to highlight potential synergies, and lay a path on where and how to start.

Citation

Weigend Rodríguez, R., Pomponi, F., & D’Amico, B. (2019). Futures Studies & the Circular Economy: an Interdisciplinary Approach to Sustainable Development. Economia Creativa, 11, 38-60. https://doi.org/10.46840/ec.2019.11.03

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 23, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Aug 19, 2019
• Publication Date: Aug 19, 2019
• Deposit Date: May 30, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 13, 2019
• Journal: Economía Creativa
• Print ISSN: 2594-1631
• Electronic ISSN: 2395-8200
• Publisher: Centro de Diseño, Cine y Television
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Pages: 38-60
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.46840/ec.2019.11.03
• Keywords: Circular Economy, Futures Studies, Sustainable Development
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1838568
• Publisher URL: http://ciecpress.centro.edu.mx/ojs/index.php/CentroTI/article/view/381
• Contract Date: May 30, 2019