Addressing the Social Aspects of a Circular Economy: A Systematic Literature Review

Alejandro Padilla-Rivera, Sara Russo-Garrido and Nicolas Merveille
Additional contact information
Alejandro Padilla-Rivera: CIRAIG, Department of Mathematical and Industrial Engineering, Polytechnique Montréal, Montreal, QC H3T 1J4, Canada
Sara Russo-Garrido: CIRAIG, Department of Strategy and Corporate Social Responsibility, ESG, UQAM, Montreal, QC H3C 3P8, Canada
Nicolas Merveille: CIRAIG, Department of Strategy and Corporate Social Responsibility, ESG, UQAM, Montreal, QC H3C 3P8, Canada

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 19, 1-17

Abstract: Circular Economy (CE) is a growing topic among scholars, industries, and governments, and is aimed at decoupling economic growth and development from the consumption of finite resources. CE incorporates different meanings, from reduce, reuse, and recycle activities, to environmental degradation or resource scarcity, and is supported by specific indicators to attain sustainable development. However, so far, there has been no agreement to measure how effective an industry/product is in making the transition from linear to circular approaches, particularly those that affect society. This research work aims to perform a systematic literature review (n = 60) to analyze and discuss how social aspects have been considered and integrated in CE research so far. Moreover, this review provides an overview of the literature on social impact within the CE, which results in three main outputs: a knowledge map of the CE, an analysis of social aspects within CE, and the theories/frameworks used to evaluate social impact of CE. Finally, this study brings to light how CE implementation can affect society and highlights the importance of social dimension in the domains of CE and a policy-making community, which could help move CE towards a sustainable development.

Keywords: circular economy; social aspects; systematic review; sustainable development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (66)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/19/7912/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/19/7912/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:19:p:7912-:d:418777

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().