Abstract
Research as well as policies on circular economy (CE) are recently gaining ground to address the existing environmental, economic and social issues deriving from resource scarcity and depletion (Geissdoerfer et al., 2017). Existing literature focuses especially on theoretical approaches and estimations on the future impacts of circular economy on job creation, increase in revenues for enterprises and reduced impact on the environment, mainly concentrating on the urban context (Kalymkova et al., in press, D´Amato et al., 2017). However, what is currently lacking in literature is the design of an applicable model that could pave the way to the transition of rural regions to circular economy.
Analysing & modelling Circular Economy in primary sector is a research project submitted to the Euregio Science Fund call and it is intended to last 3 years, starting in 2019. The project wants to increase the understanding of how a rural region can successfully transit from a linear to a circular economy model. The central idea of the project is to design and apply a circular economy (CE) model at regional level, by framing circular economy at regional level considering three subcomponents: a. resource flows among production chains, industries and transformation processes, b. business models and stakeholders’ interaction, and c. framework conditions, such as policies, subsidies, supporting programmes, social attitudes, consumer behaviours. The research focuses on primary sector (i.e. agriculture, farming, grazing, forestry & logging) in the European rural areas, among which South Tyrol region (Italy) is identified as a case study region.
The presentation aims at conducting an overview on the theoretical grounds and hypothesis on which the research project is based, which is that legal, political, economic, social, cultural and technological conditions influence circularity (Lewandowsky, 2016). The presentation aims also at presenting the case study region in terms of context, stakeholders and production systems that will be inquired in the research. During the presentation, a preliminary analysis on the enabling and hindering factors of the transition to a circular economy model at regional level will be conducted. Finally, the presentation will include a preliminary introduction on the methodology and approach that the research project will apply and discussing its feasibility and possible improvements.
The expected outcomes are a comprehensive literature review on the specific topic of the research project, a presentation of the assumptions and the approaches on which the research bases and finally an increase in the attention to the research topic.