Think Global, Act Local: Envisioning Circular Futures as Networks of Circular Economy Villages

Abstract

Despite growing policy interest, global circularity is declining — falling to just 6.9% in 2025. This paper argues that a key reason is the absence of a concrete vision of what a circular economy would look like as a physical place. To provide that vision, the argument traces a line across three bodies of work. Bauwens et al.’s (2020) scenarios of bottom-up sufficiency and peer-to-peer circularity offer the greatest potential for community empowerment. When pursued through a systematic application of circular economy principles to food, water, energy, and housing, these scenarios converge on a settlement model: the Circular Economy Village (CEV). Instantiating bottom-up sufficiency, the CEV is a walkable, mixed-use precinct in which resources circulate locally as a self-reinforcing system — eliminating waste, regenerating nature, and providing food, water, energy, and housing through integrated, community-governed infrastructure. Embodying peer-to-peer circularity, a network of CEVs can scale to constitute a global circular economy consistent with Herman Daly’s steady-state economy and the economy in equilibrium anticipated by the Limits to Growth Report (1972). The paper introduces a three-dimensional model of circularity — temporal, spatial, and relational — and proposes that a circular future can look like a network of Circular Economy Villages.