Toward a just circular economy : conceptualizing environmental labor and gender justice in circularity studies
Pansera, Mario (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Barca, Stefania (University of Santiago de Compostela)
Martinez Alvarez, Bibiana (University of Santiago de Compostela)
Leonardi, Emanuele (University of Bologna)
D'Alisa, Giacomo (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Meira, Teresa (University of Coimbra)
Guillibert, Paul (University of Coimbra)

Data:	2024
Resum:	Over the past decade, the concept of circular economy (CE) has gained political traction as a potential solution to economy-environment tradeoffs. However, critical social scientists have raised concerns that CE may not address the root causes or consequences of environmental degradation, thus remaining ineffective. Concurring with this critique, this article highlights three constituent elements of the linear economy that remain unaddressed in CE frameworks: environmental, labor, and gender inequalities. Building upon scholarship from environmental justice, environmental labor studies, and feminist ecological economics, we elaborate a conceptual framework to interrogate the existing literature. Our analysis shows that current CE models 1) are mainly concerned with return on capital investment and sustained growth of gross domestic product (GDP) rather than with redressing the North/South inequalities embedded in the linear economy model; 2) present a limited perspective on labor, with a primary focus on the number of jobs to be created, rather than their quality, or workers' leadership; and 3) overlook gender inequalities and the sexual division of labor, thus reproducing the devaluation of care that lays at the roots of socioecological crises. We conclude by suggesting avenues for elaborating a "just circular economy" framework.
Ajuts:	European Commission 101003491 European Commission 947713
Nota:	Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Matèria:	Circular economy ; Environmental justice ; Gender justice ; Just transition ; Labor
Publicat a:	Sustainability: science, practice, & policy, Vol. 20, Issue 1 (April 2024) , art. 2338592, ISSN 1548-7733

DOI: 10.1080/15487733.2024.2338592

18 p, 3.0 MB

El registre apareix a les col·leccions:
Documents de recerca > Documents dels grups de recerca de la UAB > Centres i grups de recerca (producció científica) > Ciències > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Articles > Articles de recerca
Articles > Articles publicats