Amsterdam’s circular economy at a world-ecological crossroads: postcapitalist degrowth or the next regime of capital accumulation?

Thompson, Matthew, Cator, Charlotte, Beel, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1146-229X, Ian, Rees Jones, Morgan, Kevin and Martin, Jones (2024) Amsterdam’s circular economy at a world-ecological crossroads: postcapitalist degrowth or the next regime of capital accumulation? Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society. rsae022. ISSN 1752-1378

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Abstract

This article conceptualises the circular economy as a space of immaterial as well as material metabolic flows mediated by capitalism and planetary urbanisation. World-ecology provides the critical lens to view the circular economy as part of an emergent regime of accumulation that may supersede neoliberalism. However, if each regime entails new frontier zones for appropriating cheap natures and dumping wastes, then the circular economy – as a strategy for revalorising waste – presents a possible structural limit to capitalism’s further expansion. Moreover, when combined with notions of degrowth and doughnut economics, the circular economy may provide an imaginary and set of prefigurative practices that point towards a postcapitalist society. Through a case study of Amsterdam – a city aiming to be fully circular by 2050 – we examine this contradictory crossroads, by problematising the idea of circularity within capitalism and exploring the potential of postcapitalist alternatives within the circular economy.