Dominko Miha, Primc Kaja, Slabe-Erker Renata, Kalar Barbara
Institute for Economic Research, Kardeljeva ploščad 17, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Environ Dev Sustain. 2023;25(7):5797-5830. doi: 10.1007/s10668-022-02347-x. Epub 2022 Apr 30.
In this paper, we reveal and systemize development trends in the scientific field of the circular economy (CE). Our results imply that academic research on the CE focuses heavily on theoretical conceptualizations and technological solutions. However, these advancements alone are unlikely to help prevent from ecological collapse. With this observation in mind, we explore the potential held by a more relational, action-based approach to support a faster and more efficient transition from the linear economy to the CE. A useful combination of several bibliometric techniques gave us valuable references for re-focusing this area of science to adopt action-oriented research where a group of stakeholders collaborates and co-creates solutions. An analysis of valuable action-oriented CE studies reveals that scholars focus on the techno-economic aspect, where they develop ways to create optimal circular material and energy flows and co-design processes for products/services, as well as the organizational aspect, where they study self-sustainable community networks and participatory governance. We identify three research streams that would benefit from such action-oriented research for a faster practical implementation: sustainable supply chains, waste management, and business model innovation. A practice-based agenda is proposed to stimulate the scientific community to conduct future research on a CE that better supports companies.
在本文中，我们揭示并系统化了循环经济（CE）科学领域的发展趋势。我们的研究结果表明，关于循环经济的学术研究主要集中在理论概念化和技术解决方案上。然而，仅凭这些进展不太可能防止生态崩溃。基于这一观察结果，我们探索了一种更具关联性、基于行动的方法所具有的潜力，以支持从线性经济向循环经济更快、更高效地转型。几种文献计量技术的有效结合为我们重新聚焦这一科学领域提供了有价值的参考，以便采用面向行动的研究方法，让一群利益相关者共同协作并共同创造解决方案。对有价值的面向行动的循环经济研究的分析表明，学者们关注技术经济方面，他们在这方面开发创造最佳循环物质和能量流的方法以及产品/服务的协同设计流程，同时也关注组织方面，他们在这方面研究自我可持续的社区网络和参与式治理。我们确定了三个研究方向，通过这种面向行动的研究能够更快地在实际中得以实施并从中受益：可持续供应链、废物管理和商业模式创新。我们提出了一个基于实践的议程，以激励科学界对循环经济开展未来研究，从而更好地支持企业。
