Author(s): Koorosh Behrang, Marie-France Bellemare, Cynthia Poirier, Emmanuel Raufflet, Rafael Ziegler
Subject: Circular economy, social economy, economic democracy
Date of publication: November 2021
Upon invitation of the Fondazione Feltrinelli (Italy), HEC Montréal professors Rafael Ziegler and Emmanuel Raufflet, together with Marie-France Bellemare (TIESS) and students Cynthia Poirier and Koorosh Behrang, explore the role of Québec cooperatives and NGOs for democratizing circular economy in a recently published chapter for the book “Social justice in a global society. Towards new forms of economic democracy for a sustainable development”.
Introduction:
“Both economic democracy and circular economy have received much attention recently (Ferreras et al. 2020; Raworth 2017). However, the relation between the two remains understudied, both conceptually and empirically. While economic democracy primarily refers to justice and participation, circular economy tends to be explored with respect to environmental sustainability. This chapter examines the overlaps between the two. On the one hand, does economic democracy support circular economy? What are the reasons, either way? What can we learn about this connection from practice? On the other hand, does circular economy support economic democracy? And again, what can we learn from theory and practice? These are important yet large questions. This chapter offers an exploratory study departing from this first set of questions, and thus takes economic democracy as a starting point.”
This chapter is part of a new research project on the intersection of circular economy and social economy, led by HEC Montréal professors Martine Vézina, Emmanuel Raufflet and Rafael Ziegler.
Download the chapter on CoopGateway.
Find the Italian version in this new publication by La Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli