Imaginaries of Circular Economy Ecosystems: A Case Study of Textile Industry

Abstract

Modern textile industry experiences increased pressure for transition to a circular economy (CE) across the countries due to its high environmental impact and social sustainability concerns. The transition requires, besides technological innovations, the development of social structures and the engagement of various actors to develop and legitimize a common vision of the textile CE ecosystem (CEE) supporting a desirable sustainable future. This case study adopts socio-technical imaginaries and CEE conceptual lenses, and empirically explores textile CEEs from Finland and Lithuania aiming at sustainability. The study results represent the collective imaginaries of the textile CEEs business and institutional actors and their vision of technological advancement, markets and industrial development, regulatory changes, and actors` interaction at the ecosystem level. The findings reveal three major inconsistencies in the imaginaries: expectations of technological progress are higher than technologies real capabilities to close a loop of textile circulation; while economic feasibility of CE processes depends on a scale of business operations, scaled production can rise sustainability concerns; and transition to a CE can increase as well as decrease competition in the textile markets. Our findings on the socio-technical imaginaries are captured into a conceptual framework which contributes to the management literature on circular ecosystems and aims to support textile industry executives and policy makers in transitioning to the CE.