Aug 2026· Nature Sustainability· 1 citation· 48 references
Abstract
The circular economy (CE) is widely viewed as a key global lever for sustainable resource use. However, CE conceptualizations have focused mostly on high resource use in the Global North, largely neglecting the drivers, solutions and enablers of circularity in the socio-economic contexts of the Global South. Here, based on a systematic review of 183 peer-reviewed articles, we assess how CE manifests in the Global South. We find circular solutions to be considerably more bottom-up, centring around community-level and often informal practices rather than the top-down, policy and industrially driven activities that dominate the Global North-informed CE literature. CE motivations similarly differ, being primarily rooted in socio-economic needs and cultural practices rather than environmental concerns. Finally, CE enablers are often based on socially and technically adaptive approaches rather than technological innovation. These differences reveal that inclusive circular pathways for sustainable development depend strongly on context, suggesting the need for more flexible and empirically grounded CE concepts.
This paper provides anecdotes and examples on a wide range of topics related to sustainability, circular economy, local governance, and community development in Nepal, and illustrates the disconnect between global concepts like the circular economy and the ground realities of rural Nepal. It discusses the origins of th...
U. Pyakurel· Aadim Journal of Multidiscip...· 0 citations
The Circular Economy (CE) is widely promoted as a regenerative alternative to linear production, yet mainstream CE theories and frameworks are predominantly rooted in Global North and Eurocentric epistemologies and technocentrism. In this paper, I argue that such epistemologies and technocentrism ignores informal econo...
Ambisisi Ambituuni· Journal of Circular Economy· 0 citations
Introduction
Evidence-informed policy making (EIP) has generated substantial scholarship, but its contribution to the practicalities of policy making in international organisations is limited by the focus on a discreet and generally local level of governance. Furthermore, there is an acute bias in existing EIP literatu...
J. Espey, Zhengli Huang, Giada Casarin et al.· Evidence & Policy: A Journal...· 0 citations
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...
Steven Liaros· Journal of Circular Economy· 0 citations
Circular business models (CBMs) are increasingly promoted as a means of balancing industrial growth with resource and environmental constraints, yet their adoption in lower-middle-income economies remains limited. This review synthesizes scholarly and policy literature on the social barriers and legal-policy conditions...
Kazy Mohammad Iqbal Hossain· International journal of sci...· 0 citations
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