Padilla-Rivera, A.; Russo-Garrido, S.; Merveille, N. Addressing the Social Aspects of a Circular Economy: A Systematic Literature Review. Sustainability2020, 12, 7912.
Padilla-Rivera, A.; Russo-Garrido, S.; Merveille, N. Addressing the Social Aspects of a Circular Economy: A Systematic Literature Review. Sustainability 2020, 12, 7912.
Padilla-Rivera, A.; Russo-Garrido, S.; Merveille, N. Addressing the Social Aspects of a Circular Economy: A Systematic Literature Review. Sustainability2020, 12, 7912.
Padilla-Rivera, A.; Russo-Garrido, S.; Merveille, N. Addressing the Social Aspects of a Circular Economy: A Systematic Literature Review. Sustainability 2020, 12, 7912.
Abstract
Circular Economy (CE) is a growing topic among scholars, industry and government aiming 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 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 affected the 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 the CE research so far. Moreover, this review provides and overview of the literature on social impact within CE, that resulted 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 policy-making community, which could help moving CE towards a sustainable development.
Keywords
Circular Economy; Social Aspects; Systematic Review; Sustainable Development
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Environmental Science
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
