*Message sent from a system outside of UConn.* Dear list-members,
The below call for papers for a themed issue of the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society on ‘Critical Geographies of the Circular Economy’, may be of interest to some of you. If you are interested in publishing an article in the themed issue, then please email an Abstract proposal of about 400 words to the CJRES Editorial Office (cjreseditor...@gmail.com<mailto:cjreseditor...@gmail.com>) by 31 January 2023. The themed issue is scheduled for July 2024. Full Papers invited from among those submissions will need to be received by 1 June 2023 for review and possible publication in the themed issue. Details of Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society’s publication process, evaluation criteria and house style are available at https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Facademic.oup.com%2Fcjres%2Fpages%2FGeneral_Instructions&data=05%7C01%7C%7C948f7b0eea4546c1ee1d08dad939961f%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C638061138605562057%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=QgLVzIGNLXQ3Q6IZ2f5tdESgAYQBVG9HP8Ex8sCX5qc%3D&reserved=0. (Apologies for cross-posting) With best wishes! Emil Evenhuis (https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Facademic.oup.com%2Fcjres%2Fpages%2Fcall-for-papers-critical-geographies-of-the-circular-economy&data=05%7C01%7C%7C948f7b0eea4546c1ee1d08dad939961f%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C638061138605562057%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Pd8HeQQ7%2BKfZbiG0FrfIrqZAGLM7mqKuCtYEyo6bohM%3D&reserved=0) Call for Papers for CJRES themed issue Critical Geographies of the Circular Economy Editors: Emma Avoyan, Anna Davies, Emil Evenhuis, Pete Tyler Deadline for submitting abstracts: 31st January, 2023 The core idea of a ‘circular economy’ is to decouple economic activity from the consumption of finite resources. According to influential advocates, such a decoupling requires a transition to an economy in which waste is avoided, the use of products is prolonged and made more economical (through sharing, reuse and repair), existing materials are circulated at the highest value (through recycling), and the resource-use in the production of new goods shifts to renewable (bio-based) resources (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2019[1]). The transition to a circular economy is commonly considered to be a key part of greening the economy, which will also contribute to meeting another great societal challenge: the reduction of carbon emissions. Achieving a truly sustainable circular economy will however have major implications for the ways societies engage in practices of production and consumption, and how those practices are governed at various scales from individual operations to global economies. Critics identify a lack of clarity in the concept. Coverellec et al (2021), are concerned about the diffuse nature of its limits, the lack of a clear theoretical basis, and significant structural barriers to its implementation. Others critique the ecological modernisation framing of much circular economy rhetoric; a framing that focuses on win-wins for the economy and the environment while skirting over the highly political nature of a comprehensive economic transformation (Gregson, 2015; Kirchherr et al., 2017; Siderius & Zink, 2022). The majority of policies and initiatives emerging to date focus on revalorising waste streams of existing processes; rather than radically transforming systems. Efforts to enshrine ‘right to repair’ legislation in Europe and North America do mark a new vocabulary and trajectory for circular economy implementation, not least in relation to the deliberate articulation of ‘rights’ and by implication matters of justice around transitions to a more circular economy. Nonetheless matters of consumption, care and culture remain underplayed in current debates about circularising the global economy (Hobson et al., 2021) and the issue of perpetual growth remains the elephant in the circular economy room. There are, thus, good reasons to apply a critical lens to the debates and current practices about the circular economy. So far, however, such a critical lens has insufficiently been combined with a spatial perspective. There are essential geographical issues to explore, which would considerably add to and deepen the critical interrogation of the conceptualisation of the circular economy, and the ways it is being actualised. And vice versa, the incipient literature on the spatial and territorial dimensions of the circular economy, will benefit from a more critical view of its promises and pitfalls (e.g. Tapia et al, 2019; Bourdin et al., 2022). Furthermore, the geography of knowledge production concerning the study of the circular economy has been highly uneven, with the bulk of research emanating from – and being set in – Europe and North America; so there is space to further explore perspectives beyond the Global North, and what circular economies might mean in other settings (Schroder, 2019). Hence, the debate on the circular economy would benefit from contributions that combine a critical examination of discourses surrounding it and of its materialisation, with the application of a geographical perspective. This themed issue of the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economies and Society journal seeks to address this gap. We invite empirical, conceptual and/or methodological papers that can take the debate forward along these lines. Below we have listed some of the issues that may be taken up: What are spatial aspects of circular economy policies, initiatives and practices as these are materialising (e.g. Williams, 2022)? What are the key differences between places, countries, and parts of the world in how circular economies are taking shape? How are policies, initiatives, and practices at different places and different scales interacting with each other? * How are these policies, initiatives and practices to be assessed in terms of offering a more sustainable alternative to business as usual? How could the transition towards a circular and sustainable economy be understood in geographical terms? * How can the dynamics and spatiality of the circular economy be theorised? How do these relate/compare to existing theorisations of the dynamics of the spatial economy (neoclassical, Marxist, degrowth, diverse economies)? What might social theories —focussed on the relationship between life as lived and the materials, cultures, and discourses these lives are embedded in— bring to the analysis of the geographies of circularity (Holmes, 2018)? * How can the circular economy fit in with various visions of local and regional development? Does the circular economy offer opportunities for new path development in some regions? What is the scope for creating new social enterprises in cities that enable the sharing, reuse, and repair required within a circular economy framework? How does the transition to a circular economy relate to visions of development where empowerment and social justice are prioritised rather than economic growth, such as the foundational economy, community wealth building / Preston model, or the well-being economy? * What kinds of business models and systems of value creation and exchange are required, and what new ‘ecosystems’ of businesses and organisations might appear as part of a circular economy? * What are the geopolitical and geo-economic aspects that may emerge as we move to a circular economy? There will be consequences for international supply chains and for the extraction of resources across the globe. Perhaps old dependencies and vulnerabilities may lessen, but as likely new dependencies and vulnerabilities will emerge. How can this affect how value is distributed across the global economy? How will relations develop between actors in different parts of the world, given existing inequalities in wealth and power? (e.g., land grabbing and impacts on food supply, as bio-based alternatives will more and more replace finite resources as part of the circular economy). Submissions Authors interested in publishing in the Themed Issue should email an Abstract proposal of about 400 words to the CJRES Editorial Office (cjreseditor...@gmail.com) by 31 January 2023, and full Papers invited from among those submissions will need to be received by 1 June 2023 for review and possible publication in the July 2024 issue. Submissions will be subject to the journal’s normal peer review process. Details of Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society’s publication process, evaluation criteria and house style are available at https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Facademic.oup.com%2Fcjres%2Fpages%2FGeneral_Instructions&data=05%7C01%7C%7C948f7b0eea4546c1ee1d08dad939961f%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C638061138605562057%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=QgLVzIGNLXQ3Q6IZ2f5tdESgAYQBVG9HP8Ex8sCX5qc%3D&reserved=0. References Bourdin, S., Galliano, D., and Gonçalves, A. (2022) ‘Circularities in territories: Opportunities & challenges’, European Planning Studies, 30,(7): 1183-1191. Corvellec, H., Stowell, A.F., and Johansson, N. (2021) ‘Critiques of the circular economy’. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 26, (2): 421-432. Gregson, N., Crang, M., Fuller, S., and Holmes, H. (2015) ‘Interrogating the circular economy: the moral economy of resource recovery in the EU’. Economy and Society, 44,(2): 218-243 Hobson, K., Holmes, H., Welch, D., Wheeler, K., and Wieser, H. (2021) ‘Consumption Work in the circular economy: A research agenda’. Journal of Cleaner Production,321: 128969 Holmes, H. (2018) ‘New spaces, ordinary practices: circulating and sharing in diverse economies of provisioning’. Geoforum, 88: 138-147 Kirchherr, J., Reike, D. and Hekkert, M. (2017), ‘Conceptualising the circular economy: An analysis of 114 definitions’, Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 127: 221-232. Schröder, P., Anantharaman, M., Anggraeni, K., and Foxon, T.J. (2019) The Circular Economy and the Global South: Sustainable Lifestyles and Green Industrial Development. Routledge, London. Siderius, T., and Zink, T. (2022) ‘Markets and the future of the Circular Economy’. Circular Economy and Sustainability, https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1007%2Fs43615-022-00196-4&data=05%7C01%7C%7C948f7b0eea4546c1ee1d08dad939961f%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C638061138605718299%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=mHNX3wrObGW%2FwcMEHX%2B%2BxMQXS%2FpbJV2xqc9xRE5w2EE%3D&reserved=0 Tapia, C., Bianchi, M., Zaldua, M., Courtois, M, Naudet, P.M., Bassi, A., Pallaske, G., Kramer, J.-P., Birnstengel, B., Buck, M., Simpson, R., Cruz, A., Zhechkov, R., Doranova, A., Kably, N., Wilts, H., Steger, S., O’Brien, M., Koop, C., and Wischott, V. (2019) CIRCTER – Circular Economy and Territorial Consequences. ESPON EGTC: Luxembourg. https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.espon.eu%2Fcircular-economy&data=05%7C01%7C%7C948f7b0eea4546c1ee1d08dad939961f%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C638061138605718299%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=JCBRyrvSQOOKraULRZeizNs5xO8zQWjQ4X4BrP2l3GY%3D&reserved=0 Willams, J. (2022) ‘Circular cities: Planning for circular development in European cities’, European Planning Studies, Latest articles, https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1080%2F09654313.2022.2060707&data=05%7C01%7C%7C948f7b0eea4546c1ee1d08dad939961f%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C638061138605718299%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ZdJvN%2BQWmiKiYXQyAFgj5IXJM238WsrI8LUUVHhApP4%3D&reserved=0 [1] https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fellenmacarthurfoundation.org%2Fcircular-economy-diagram&data=05%7C01%7C%7C948f7b0eea4546c1ee1d08dad939961f%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C638061138605718299%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=CyiK5YKdf61vIGpWCF1IjjIfgyAWyTMUXZFTQtOaEnY%3D&reserved=0
