Circular Economy in the context of "development"

Since the new Circular Economy Action Plan of the European Union 2020, the concept of Circular Economy (CE) has become increasingly relevant in the European-African “development” apparatus. Building on critical literature concerning both, CE and the “development” apparatus, this thesis examines the current CE policy discourse between Africa and the EU. Additionally, a case study explores a CE “development” project and its possible implications. The results show that the discourse is largely in-line with the previously characterized “development” discourse, being a-political, technological-focused and standardising/homogenising. The case study results in three themes: (i) the dumping narrative; (ii) multi-level governance and (iii) cherry-picking as problem construction. Integrating the results and existing literature, this paper demonstrates possible social justice implications, such as enhancing distributional injustice through disregarding certain risks/costs. Overall, the results show the importance, multiplicity and interconnectedness of social justice dimensions for CE within the “development” apparatus.