Circular Economy & Materials
Circular society
An emerging vision term extending the circular economy beyond materials and business models to whole-of-society transformation, including justice, governance and wellbeing.
Expert review openNo editor-accepted expert review yetDefinition
A societal-level extension of circular-economy thinking in which circularity applies not only to material flows but to social institutions, equity and quality of life. In the circularity-discourse typology developed by Calisto Friant and colleagues, "circular society" visions come in reformist and transformational variants, integrating social justice, democratic participation and human wellbeing with — or against — the technocentric circular-economy mainstream.
References
Reformist vs Transformational Circular Society discourse types; social-justice and governance content.
Circular society as policy concept (Japan); linkage of circular economy, SDGs and societal wellbeing.
Overview
What it means
The term signals a critique: that a circular economy focused on industrial loops and business models can ignore who benefits, who decides, and how much is enough. Reformist circular-society visions add workers' rights, sharing economies and stakeholder voice to high-tech circularity; transformational variants question growth itself, favouring relocalised, democratic, post-capitalist arrangements.
The framing has policy traction beyond academia — Japan, for example, advances "circular society" as an integrated national concept linking resource circulation, the SDGs and wellbeing, presented at the UN Science-Technology-Innovation Forum.
How it is used
Researchers use the term to map and critique circular-economy discourses; governments (Japan, Dutch programmes) use circular-society language for whole-of-society transition strategies; NGOs use it to keep social dimensions inside circular-economy policy.
Why it matters
Circular society marks the point where circular-economy discourse confronts its social blind spots — whether circularity is an engineering project or a societal one.
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