PhD De­fen­ce: An­drea Beye

In order to obtain the PhD degree, Andrea Beye has submitted his thesis entitled:

Circular economies as lived experiences of organizing sustainability

Towards an ethnographic sensibility in Circular Economy research

The thesis engages with the epistemic field of circular economy by examining and discussing lived experiences of circular economy as modes of organizing sustainably. It argues that the conceptual openness of circular economy produces plural and sometimes conflicting ways of knowing it, exposing both the limits and the implications of overarching definitions. Building on a critical review of dominant epistemic approaches, the thesis advances an alternative perspective of knowing circular economy centered on lived experience. Through three empirical studies, it shows that circular economy becomes situationally stabilized through heterogeneous and conflicting modes of organizing (un)sustainably, and that ethnographic sensibility is needed to address the lived experiences of circular economy.

The thesis will be available from research.cbs.dk