Circular Economy and Vulnerability: Tensions and Trade-Offs in Circular Organisations

Our research aims to identify organizational models, modes of governance and institutional configurations that are more conducive to integrating vulnerability into circular approaches and the systemic limitations to a truly inclusive and sustainable transition. Circular economy is rarely understood from a social perspective. There is a paradox between CE practices that favor technicality and economic gains and the development of CE itself, which is often based on social and solidarity economy organisations. Vulnerability is often associated with people experiencing social, medical, or economic difficulties; with the universal human condition; or as a consequence of structural and social systems that produce and maintain it. Literature highlights how difficult it is for organisations to integrate the most fragile individuals. Based on a qualitative study of organizational initiatives that explicitly combine these ecological, social and economic dimensions, we document how founders conceive and prioritize the three dimensions of their model.