Circular economy: A new research field?

Action to pursue the circular economy (CE) transition is burgeoning in the government and the private sector. Does this action signal that CE is a distinct field of research with a unique disciplinary identity? This article argues that CE has reached field status, through its own epistemic communities characterized by increasingly shared methodological perspectives and normative ideals, and through institutionalized knowledge development through research journals and authority structures. The recent growth of CE research points toward more contextualized and nuanced operationalizations of the concept, evidence that the field is approaching a threshold state of maturity. Drawing on observations from academic literature and discussions with researchers and experts, we trace the process by which CE has arrived at the status of a field. The article concludes with reflections on research directions.     

The effect of consumption and production policies on circular economy business models: A machine learning approach

The circular economy (CE) is attracting increasing interest, as it can bring environmental, social, and economic benefits. However, policymakers and scholars appear to concentrate more on the production side of CE, while consumption, and particularly policies that affect consumption have received less attention and their effect is ambiguous. This paper investigates the effect of CE consumption policies on circular economy business models (CEBMs) in firms, but also examines the interplay this type of policies have with CE production policies to have a broader picture of the circular economy policy framework and the relevance of each type of policy on firms. While previous studies assume rational and passive consumer behavior, this paper borrows from a natural resource-based view and stakeholder theory, arguing that consumers have a proactive attitude toward the consumption of environmentally friendly products. Moreover, we use institutional theory as an analytical framework for modeling the effects of a particular policy framework on the CEBM. Our analysis combines classical econometric methods with machine learning approaches, employing data from the EU. The results show that CE policies aimed at promoting consumption have a direct and positive effect on CEBMs. This paper also confirms that a wide portfolio of CE policies on production and consumption has a greater effect on the development of CEBMs, due to the complementarity of CE consumption and production policies. Moreover, we show that in interaction with CE production policies, CE policies on consumption have an even greater effect on CEBMs in firms than would have been anticipated.     

Evolution of research on circular economy and related trends and topics. A thirteen-year review

Environmental concern has been on the rise in recent years and a proposal for a circular economy (CE) as a tool for sustainable development has received attention from governments, practitioners, and academics. In this sense, the literature on the topic has grown from 12 scientific articles published in 2008 to 2355 in 2020, which represents an almost two hundredfold increase in around a decade. However, CE is a relatively new subject, and much research remains to be conducted; it is therefore important to gain an adequate understanding of the subject to address more specific, related issues. The purpose of this review is to identify the main trends in CE and their evolution. It presents an advanced bibliometric method consisting of a combination of co-word analysis and social network analysis developed to identify the main topics and trends in this field. The results show the evolution of research, frequency, and relevance of the terms studied, links between them, and their density and network visualisation. Bibliometric tools have further been applied to obtain the research outputs of the main journals, as well as the authors and research topics that have been addressed during this period. New directions for future research lines are also proposed.     

Developing Regenerate: A circular economy engagement tool for the assessment of new and existing buildings

The transition toward a circular economy (CE) is key in decarbonizing the built environment. Despite this, knowledge of—and engagement with—CE philosophies remains limited within the construction industry. Discussion with practitioners reveals this to be contributed to by a lack of clarity regarding CE principles, with numerous organizations recommending implementation of differing and sometimes conflicting principles. In addition, a systematic assessment of how building designs consider CE is made difficult by the multiple design areas required to be considered and the large amount of design data required to do so. The absence of a systematic CE assessment causes a lack of comparability across designs, preventing benchmarking of CE practices in building design at present. This paper details the development of Regenerate, a CE engagement tool for the assessment of new and existing buildings, established in an effort to overcome the aforementioned barriers to the adoption of CE within the construction sector. A CE design workflow for the built environment is proposed, comprising four overarching circularity principles (Design for Adaptability; Design for Deconstructability; Circular Material Selection; Resource Efficiency) and contributing design actions. In addition to engaging stakeholders by enabling the assessment of building designs, the tool retrieves key data for further research. Information on completed design actions as well as recycling and waste metrics is collected to facilitate future CE benchmarking. “Bill of materials” data (i.e., material quantities) is also compiled, with this being key in material stock modeling research and embodied carbon benchmarking.     

A meta‐analysis of human disturbance impacts on Antarctic wildlife

Evidence‐based assessments are increasingly recognized as the best‐practice approach to determine appropriate conservation interventions, but such assessments of the impact of human disturbance on wildlife are rare. Human disturbance comprises anthropogenic activities that are typically non‐lethal, but may cause short‐ and/or longer‐term stress and fitness responses in wildlife. Expanding human activity in the Antarctic region is of particular concern because it increases the scope and potential for increased human disturbance to wildlife in a region that is often thought of as relatively untouched by anthropogenic influences. Here, we use a meta‐analytical approach to synthesise research on human disturbance to wildlife over the last three decades in the Antarctic and sub‐Antarctic region. We combine data from 62 studies across 21 species on the behavioural, physiological and population responses of wildlife to pedestrian, vehicle and research disturbances. The overall effect size indicated a small, albeit statistically significant negative effect of disturbance (?0.39; 95% CI: ?0.60 to ?0.18). Negative effects were found for both physiological and population responses, but no evidence was found for a significant impact on wildlife behavioural responses. Negative effects were found across pedestrian, vehicle and research disturbances. Significant and high among‐study heterogeneity was found in both disturbance and response sub‐groups. Among species, it remains unclear to what extent different forms of disturbance translate into negative population responses. Most current guidelines to limit wildlife disturbance impacts in Antarctica recommend that approaches be tailored to animal behavioural cues, but our work demonstrates that behavioural changes do not necessarily reflect more cryptic, and more deleterious impacts, such as changes in physiology. In consequence, we recommend that pedestrian approach guidelines in the Antarctic region be revisited. Due to the high heterogeneity in effects, management guidelines for different sites and species will need to be developed on a case‐by‐case basis, ideally in conjunction with carefully designed experiments. Guidelines to reduce the impact of research activities per se require development to reduce the potential impacts of conducting research. We identify research questions that, if answered, will further improve the evidence base for guidelines to manage human disturbance in Antarctica.     

How to monitor environmental pressures of a circular economy: An assessment of indicators

Understanding how a circular economy (CE) can reduce environmental pressures from economic activities is crucial for policy and practice. Science provides a range of indicators to monitor and assess CE activities. However, common CE activities, such as recycling and eco‐design, are contested in terms of their contribution to environmental sustainability. This article assesses whether and to what extent current approaches to assess CE activities sufficiently capture environmental pressures to monitor progress toward environmental sustainability. Based on a material flow perspective, we show that most indicators do not capture environmental pressures related to the CE activities they address. Many focus on a single CE activity or process, which does not necessarily contribute to increased environmental sustainability overall. Based on these results, we suggest complementing CE management indicators with indicators capturing basic environmental pressures related to the respective CE activity. Given the conceptual linkage between CE activities, resource extraction, and waste flows, we suggest that a resource‐based footprint approach accounting for major environmental inputs and outputs is necessary—while not sufficient—to assess the environmental sustainability of CE activities. As footprint approaches can be used across scales, they could aid the challenging process of developing indicators for monitoring progress toward an environmentally sustainable CE at the European, national, and company levels.     

Three research priorities for just and sustainable urban systems: Now is the time to refocus

Now is the time to refocus efforts in urban research and design. A changing climate and extreme weather events are presenting unique challenges to urban systems around the world. These challenges illuminate the social barriers that accompany disruptive events such as resource inequities and injustices. In this perspective, we provide three research priorities for just and sustainable urban systems that help to address these matters. The three research priorities are: (1) social equity and justice, (2) circularity, and (3) digital twins. Conceptual context and future research directions are provided for each. For social equity and justice, the future directions are mandatory equity analysis and inclusionary practices, understanding and reconciling historical injustices, and intentional integration with diverse community stakeholders. For circularity applications, they are better metrics for integration, more robust evaluation frameworks, and dynamic modeling at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Future directions for digital twins include developing principles to reduce complexity, integrating model and system components, and reducing barriers to data access. These research priorities are core to meeting several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (i.e., 1—No Poverty, 8—Decent Work and Economic Growth, 10—Reduced Inequalities, and 11—Sustainable Cities and Communities). Useful social and technical matters are discussed throughout, where we highlight the importance of prioritizing localized research efforts, provide guidance for community-engaged research and co-development practices, and explain how these priorities interact to align with the evolving field of industrial ecology.     

Linking Industrial Ecology and Ecological Economics: A Theoretical and Empirical Foundation for the Circular Economy

The circular economy (CE) is a new model for the production and consumption of goods, which has attracted wide political attention as a strategy toward sustainability. However, the theoretical foundation of CE remains poorly structured and insufficiently explored. Recent studies have shown that the CE model draws on different schools of thought and that its origins are mainly rooted in fields such as industrial ecology (IE) and ecological economics (EE). In this article, we investigate the links between CE, IE, and EE and provide an overview of the similarities and differences between these fields. At the same time, we analyze to what extent the linkages between IE and EE can create a coherent body of knowledge for CE, and be used to identify further research opportunities. This paper shows that, until now, research on CE seems to be mainly rooted in the field of IE and based on concepts and tools that already exist in other fields, rather than inventing new ones. The reconciliation of IE and EE could provide a mechanism to extend beyond such a narrow focus, and increase knowledge of the theoretical and practical framework of CE to benefit sustainability.     

Haraway's monsters. Review of simians,cyborgs, and women,the reinvention of nature,by Donna J. Haraway. New York,Routledge, 1991, x + 287 pp., $55.000, cloth, $16.95, paperback

Inhabiting these pages are odd boundary creatures—simians, cyborgs, and women—all of which have had a destabilizing place in the great Western evolutionary, technological, and biological narratives. These boundary creatures are, literally, monsters.     

Visual Revolutions in the Middle East

Five years ago images from the Arab uprisings revealed a renewed investment in political visibility. Despite the brutal outcome of most of these revolts, the centrality of seeing for understanding the dynamics of political vision and struggle in the region remains salient. Images serve as important touchstones around which political narratives emerge and cohere. In this special issue on Visual Revolutions in the Middle East, seven scholars— Diana K. Allan, Zeynep Devrim Gürsel, Alisa Lebow, Peter Limbrick, Anjali Nath, Peter Snowdon and Mark R. Westmoreland—bring interdisciplinary attention to the generative possibilities of image-making in sites of political contestation. Whether through archival remnants, mobile screen technologies or the lens of a camera, the contributors to this collection explore the image as an agent of expression, engagement and critique, operating at the interface between political desires and evidentiary forms of visuality.     

Utilization of Standardized Mental Health Assessments in Anthropological Research: Possibilities and Pitfalls

In the past decade anthropologists working the boundary of culture, medicine, and psychiatry have drawn from ethnographic and epidemiological methods to interdigitate data and provide more depth in understanding critical health problems. But rarely do these studies incorporate psychiatric inventories with ethnographic analysis. This article shows how triangulation of research methods strengthens scholars’ ability (1) to draw conclusions from smaller data sets and facilitate comparisons of what suffering means across contexts; (2) to unpack the complexities of ethnographic and narrative data by way of interdigitating narratives with standardized evaluations of psychological distress; and (3) to enhance the translatability of narrative data to interventionists and to make anthropological research more accessible to policymakers. The crux of this argument is based on two discrete case studies, one community sample of Nicaraguan grandmothers in urban Nicaragua, and another clinic-based study of Mexican immigrant women in urban United States, which represent different populations, methodologies, and instruments. Yet, both authors critically examine narrative data and then use the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale to further unpack meaning of psychological suffering by analyzing symptomatology. Such integrative methodologies illustrate how incorporating results from standardized mental health assessments can corroborate meaning-making in anthropology while advancing anthropological contributions to mental health treatment and policy.     

Sub-sampling data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey for application to the Bird Community Index,an indicator of ecological condition

We examined the use of data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) for assessments of ecological condition using an avian community-based indicator, the Bird Community Index (BCI). In previous research, the BCI was developed and applied to a random sample of sites in the Mid-Atlantic Highlands. The goal of providing national scale assessments with bird community indicators hinges on a demonstration that existing monitoring programs, like the BBS, can be tapped as source data for the indicators. Our goal was to compare a BBS-based assessment of the Mid-Atlantic Highlands to our original assessment based on random sampling locations. We subsampled three iterations of BBS route data from the study area to account for spatial and temporal scale differences between 40 km BBS routes and the original 1 km transects sampled to develop the BCI. All three iterations of BBS subsamples provided lower overall assessments of ecological condition for the Mid-Atlantic Highlands relative to our original research. Land cover analysis, however, revealed that BBS routes sampled land cover types in proportion to their actual prevalence in the region. Thus, we conclude that BBS data are appropriate as source data for broad scale ecological assessments with indicators such as the BCI. For numerous analytical and logistical reasons, we recommend 10-stop subsamples of BBS data as the preferred scale at which to apply bird community indicators of ecological condition.     

High-priority research directions in genetics and the breeding of the sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) in the 21st century

High-priority research directions for the genetics and breeding of the sugar beet in the 21st century were developed with consideration of the available scientific achievements of domestic and foreign scholars. These directions unite the classical and molecular approaches to solving the problems of increasing the effectiveness of sugar beet breeding carried out on a genetic basis, and they correspond to the contemporary level of scientific research. Seven such directions are proposed.     

Cinnamon extract reduces symptoms,inflammatory mediators and mast cell markers in murine IL-10−/− colitis

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) shows an increasing prevalence and harm in western countries. Conventional therapies are associated with bad compliance and adverse side effects. Natural substances like cinnamon extract (CE) could be an additional therapy. We found recently that CE acts anti-inflammatory on mast cells — discussed of being relevant in IBD. Here, we analysed the effects of CE on murine IL-10^−/− colitis as model for IBD. Mice were treated 12 weeks with or without CE in drinking water. Clinical scores and disease activity index were assessed. Colonic tissue samples were analysed for infiltration, tissue damage, bowel wall thickness, expression of pro-inflammatory mediators, mast cell proteases, tight junction proteins, and NF-κB signaling. Following treatment with CE, symptoms of murine colitis as well as increased infiltration of immune cells, tissue damage and bowel wall thickness in colon tissue of IL-10^−/− mice were diminished significantly. MIP-2, TNF, IFNγ, CCL2, CCL3, CCL4 and IL-1β as well as MC-CPA, MCP-1 and MCP-4 were strongly upregulated in IL-10^−/− mice compared to WT, but noteworthy not in CE group. Expression of tight junction proteins was not influenced by CE. Phosphorylation of IκB was slightly down-regulated in CE treated IL-10^−/− mice compared to IL-10^−/− controls. In summary, CE decreases inflammatory symptoms and expression of inflammatory markers in murine IL-10^−/− colitis. CE has no influence on tight junction proteins, but seems acting via reducing pro-inflammatory mediators and recruitment of neutrophil granulocytes probably by inhibiting NF-κB signaling.     

Comparative effectiveness research: an empirical study of trials registered in ClinicalTrials.gov

Background

The $1.1 billion investment in comparative effectiveness research will reshape the evidence-base supporting decisions about treatment effectiveness, safety, and cost. Defining the current prevalence and characteristics of comparative effectiveness (CE) research will enable future assessments of the impact of this program.

Methods

We conducted an observational study of clinical trials addressing priority research topics defined by the Institute of Medicine and conducted in the US between 2007 and 2010. Trials were identified in ClinicalTrials.gov. Main outcome measures were the prevalence of comparative effectiveness research, nature of comparators selected, funding sources, and impact of these factors on results.

Results

231 (22.3%; 95% CI 19.8%–24.9%) studies were CE studies and 804 (77.7%; 95% CI, 75.1%–80.2%) were non-CE studies, with 379 (36.6%; 95% CI, 33.7%–39.6%) employing a placebo control and 425 (41.1%; 95% CI, 38.1%–44.1%) no control. The most common treatments examined in CE studies were drug interventions (37.2%), behavioral interventions (28.6%), and procedures (15.6%). Study findings were favorable for the experimental treatment in 34.8% of CE studies and greater than twice as many (78.6%) non-CE studies (P<0.001). CE studies were more likely to receive government funding (P = 0.003) and less likely to receive industry funding (P = 0.01), with 71.8% of CE studies primarily funded by a noncommercial source. The types of interventions studied differed based on funding source, with 95.4% of industry trials studying a drug or device. In addition, industry-funded CE studies were associated with the fewest pediatric subjects (P<0.001), the largest anticipated sample size (P<0.001), and the shortest study duration (P<0.001).

Conclusions

In this sample of studies examining high priority areas for CE research, less than a quarter are CE studies and the majority is supported by government and nonprofits. The low prevalence of CE research exists across CE studies with a broad array of interventions and characteristics.     

Studying the effects of virtual biodiversity research infrastructures

The research environment of scholars is increasingly web-based. This makes it urgent to study the effects of moving to the Web on research practices, scholarly output and innovation. We propose a theoretical framework and a methodology to study these effects. In a pilot study, we apply theory and method on an online community in biodiversity research, to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach. We also indicate the practical relevance of this kind of analysis for improving the quality of virtual research environments. In the last section, directions for further research are suggested.     

Active Memory

Collective memory is a phenomenon that receives a different interpretation depending on the discipline within which it is examined. In my research, I will employ ideas and concepts developed within the framework of a sociocultural approach (Wertsch, 2002; Cole, 1996). In particular, I will proceed from the definition of collective memory developed by James Wertsch (2002), who treats collective memory as textually mediated memory, conditioned by various—mainly historical—narratives. Historical narratives (annals, chronicles, history textbooks, etc.) are considered to be cultural instruments promoting collective remembrance. A category I borrow from Wertsch's work (2002) is the concept of the "schematic narrative template," which I will apply as analytic tool in my investigation of the phenomenon of collective memory phenomenon.     

Adapting Stand‐Alone Renewable Energy Technologies for the Circular Economy through Eco‐Design and Recycling

Renewable energy (RE) technologies are looked upon favorably to provide for future energy demands and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, the installation of these technologies requires large quantities of finite material resources. We apply life cycle assessment to 100 years of electricity generation from three stand‐alone RE technologies—solar photovoltaics, run‐of‐river hydro, and wind—to evaluate environmental burden profiles against baseline electricity generation from fossil fuels. We then devised scenarios to incorporate circular economy (CE) improvements targeting hotspots in systems’ life cycle, specifically (1) improved recycling rates for raw materials and (ii) the application of eco‐design. Hydro presented the lowest environmental burdens per kilowatt‐hour of electricity generation compared with other RE technologies, owing to its higher efficiency and longer life spans for main components. Distinct results were observed in the environmental performance of each system based on the consideration of improved recycling rates and eco‐design. CE measures produced similar modest savings in already low GHG emissions burdens for each technology, while eco‐design specifically had the potential to provide significant savings in abiotic resource depletion. Further research to explore the full potential of CE measures for RE technologies will curtail the resource intensity of RE technologies required to mitigate climate change.