Moving Beyond Circular Utopia and Paralysis : Accelerating Business Transformations Towards the Circular Economy
(2025) In Organization and Environment 38(2 Special Issue). p.91-108- Abstract
The circular economy constitutes a paradigm shift which has proven to be both engaging and unrealistic. While scholars and practitioners have started to advocate for a move toward the circular economy, promising a full reconfiguration of underlying practices and processes, many have become disillusioned about the lack of traction and progress. The circular economy transition has fallen between utopia and paralysis. This article discusses circular utopia and paralysis from a social-symbolic perspective, examining discursive, relational, and material inflators and impediments of the circular economy transition, and the business transformations that have been pursued to navigate within the pragmatic in-between state. We develop a Circular... (More)
The circular economy constitutes a paradigm shift which has proven to be both engaging and unrealistic. While scholars and practitioners have started to advocate for a move toward the circular economy, promising a full reconfiguration of underlying practices and processes, many have become disillusioned about the lack of traction and progress. The circular economy transition has fallen between utopia and paralysis. This article discusses circular utopia and paralysis from a social-symbolic perspective, examining discursive, relational, and material inflators and impediments of the circular economy transition, and the business transformations that have been pursued to navigate within the pragmatic in-between state. We develop a Circular Economy Business Transformation Framework, which assesses how organizations can combat utopia or overcome paralysis and subsequently position the special issue papers within it. We conclude with an agenda for future research aimed at finding pragmatic and actionable, yet significant, business transformations toward the circular economy.
(Less)
- author
- Bocken, Nancy LU ; Pinkse, Jonatan ; Ritala, Paavo and Darnall, Nicole
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-06
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- business model, business transformation, circular economy, social-symbolic work
- in
- Organization and Environment
- volume
- 38
- issue
- 2 Special Issue
- pages
- 18 pages
- publisher
- SAGE Publications
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105008060240
- ISSN
- 1086-0266
- DOI
- 10.1177/10860266251346251
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
- id
- 40890bb7-08b4-4745-9408-e497e9c4e53a
- date added to LUP
- 2025-12-19 15:00:57
- date last changed
- 2025-12-19 15:01:37
@article{40890bb7-08b4-4745-9408-e497e9c4e53a,
abstract = {{<p>The circular economy constitutes a paradigm shift which has proven to be both engaging and unrealistic. While scholars and practitioners have started to advocate for a move toward the circular economy, promising a full reconfiguration of underlying practices and processes, many have become disillusioned about the lack of traction and progress. The circular economy transition has fallen between utopia and paralysis. This article discusses circular utopia and paralysis from a social-symbolic perspective, examining discursive, relational, and material inflators and impediments of the circular economy transition, and the business transformations that have been pursued to navigate within the pragmatic in-between state. We develop a Circular Economy Business Transformation Framework, which assesses how organizations can combat utopia or overcome paralysis and subsequently position the special issue papers within it. We conclude with an agenda for future research aimed at finding pragmatic and actionable, yet significant, business transformations toward the circular economy.</p>}},
author = {{Bocken, Nancy and Pinkse, Jonatan and Ritala, Paavo and Darnall, Nicole}},
issn = {{1086-0266}},
keywords = {{business model; business transformation; circular economy; social-symbolic work}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2 Special Issue}},
pages = {{91--108}},
publisher = {{SAGE Publications}},
series = {{Organization and Environment}},
title = {{Moving Beyond Circular Utopia and Paralysis : Accelerating Business Transformations Towards the Circular Economy}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10860266251346251}},
doi = {{10.1177/10860266251346251}},
volume = {{38}},
year = {{2025}},
}