Abstract
The literature on the circular economy is dominated by visions that either disregard the role of civil society in (transitions to) a circular economy or depict civil society actors merely as passive consumers. However, there are organized citizen initiatives that align with circular economy thinking and that envision a much more active role for civil society in (transitions to) the circular economy. This paper explores Repair Cafés and Precious Plastic as two examples of such initiatives based on exploratory questionnaire surveys conducted among the associated communities, supplemented with evidence from documents from the initiatives. Repair Cafés and Precious Plastic can be understood as translocal communities that strive toward creating a circular economy through, for example, local repairing and recycling of plastic waste. This article is the first to study translocal communities in the context of a circular economy. In theory, such communities can develop transformative potential to challenge, alter and/or replace dominant institutions. This requires them to develop a critical mass, a shared identity and a political voice. The study shows that networking (and thus the development of critical mass) occurs primarily in specific countries (in the case of Repair Cafés) and not necessarily community-wide (in the case of Precious Plastic). Evidence for a shared identity does exist in both communities, although more clearly in the case of Repair Cafés. The study does not provide evidence for an explicit political voice developing in either community, although in the case of Repair Cafés, the Repair Café International Foundation does take up lobbying activities. Thus, the ingredients for transformative potential in these communities are present only to a limited extent. This study contributes to the circular economy literature by showing how civil society actors can engage with (transitions to) the circular economy through organized citizen initiatives, a phenomenon that has thus far been largely neglected in the literature on circular economies. The study also adds to the limited pool of empirical knowledge on two rapidly growing citizen initiatives toward circular economies.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 135125 |
| Journal | Journal of Cleaner Production |
| Volume | 380 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 20 Dec 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study identifies and further explores the goals, coordination, and structure of the RC and PP initiatives. For both initiatives, we conducted an exploratory questionnaire survey, which served as our main source of data. The questionnaire survey did not aim for statistical elaborations, as it is uncertain to what degree the samples represent their overall populations. That said, there is some level of consistency with two previously completed questionnaire surveys of RCs (see Charter and Keiller, 2014, 2016). The study was supported, supplemented, and informed by multiple informal conversations with members of the Repair Café International Foundation (RCIF) and the PP team that had formed around the initiator of PP. These informants helped to make sure that the survey questions were relevant to the community and formulated in a way that is appropriate and understandable for the target populations. This includes making suggestions for the adaptation, addition or removal of questions (e.g., removal of a question was suggested when that question was deemed irrelevant to the community by the informant in the sense that the question would not generate useful information about the community). The study was also informed and supplemented by documents and videos produced by the initiatives. Representatives of both intermediaries also provided input for and critical reflection on different versions of the questionnaire surveys. Finally, the study was informed by the third author's experience of leading the first two international RC questionnaire surveys and his field experience of being involved in RCs since 2014. This includes the establishment of a Repair Café that has organized 70 sessions at the time of writing this paper.Funding: This work was supported by the Sustainable Consumption Institute of the University of Manchester. We would also like to thank the Repair Café International Foundation and the Precious Plastic team for providing support in the preparation and distribution of the questionnaire surveys. We thank the trustees of the Farnham Repair Café, the board of the Repair Café Delft and various users of the forums of the Precious Plastic website for providing feedback on pilot questionnaire surveys. Finally, we thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this paper, which helped us to improve our work.
Funding Information:
Funding: This work was supported by the Sustainable Consumption Institute of the University of Manchester . We would also like to thank the Repair Café International Foundation and the Precious Plastic team for providing support in the preparation and distribution of the questionnaire surveys. We thank the trustees of the Farnham Repair Café, the board of the Repair Café Delft and various users of the forums of the Precious Plastic website for providing feedback on pilot questionnaire surveys. Finally, we thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this paper, which helped us to improve our work.
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