Transforming towards a sustainable circular economy: exploring the social dimension, actor contribution and emerging paradoxes

Pressing global societal challenges highlight organisational vulnerability and the need to transform towards more sustainable production and consumption measures. The circular economy concept is considered an alternative to the prevalent linear economic system. It aims to contribute to sustainable development by slowing and closing resource cycles and facilitating cross-sectoral collaboration of multiple stakeholders. Yet, the desired transformation is lagging behind and the current debate focuses primarily on the environmental and economic sustainability features of a circular economy. For a circular economy to be truly sustainable, social sustainability aspects, paradoxes and unintended consequences need to be considered. This dissertation explores the transition process towards a holistic sustainable circular economy, particularly focusing on the social sustainability dimension, actor contribution and related paradoxes. It employs a multi-level perspective, understanding organisations as embedded in a wider socio-environmental context. The dissertation encompasses four research studies that combined address the following overarching research questions (ORQ): ORQ 1: How can the social sustainability dimension of the circular economy concept be characterised?; ORQ 2: How is the transition to a holistic sustainable circular economy affected by various actors?; ORQ 3: What paradoxes arise at different levels in the transformation to a sustainable circular economy? The dissertation employs a qualitative-explorative research strategy to gain a deeper understanding of complex, underlying processes and relations of multi-dimensional phenomena. Multiple qualitative research methods are used, including a systematic literature review, causal loop modelling, empirical case study research, and qualitative comparative analysis. The research examines the scope and understanding of the social sustainability dimension in the circular economy concept as represented in the academic discourse and analyses multi-level paradoxes emerging in the empirical context of workers’ work experience. It explores configurations of organisational circular economy practice implementation and identifies emerging paradoxes in the context of multi-stakeholder network engagement for a normative transformation towards a sustainable circular economy. The research contributes to the conceptual integration of the social sustainability dimension in the circular economy concept, highlighting the plurality of interrelated social sustainability features in the circular economy context. The research contributes to paradox theory, providing empirical evidence of multi-level paradoxes in the context of working experience and collaborative institutional change. The exploration of the transformation process revealed multiple “pathways” towards circularity, including a trickle-down effect of circular and sustainable practices along the supply chain. Collaboration beyond the supply chain is still limited in practice, despite its relevance for closing material cycles. Multi-stakeholder networks contribute to strengthening the normative anchoring of the circular economy concept. These and further practical and theoretical implications are discussed along with avenues for future research.