Analysing and Identifying the Circular Economy’s contribution to a just Transition.
A Transdisciplinary Environmental Justice Approach in the Brussels Capital Region
"AICE-T"
[1 octobre 2024 – 30 septembre 2028]
♦ Coordinateur : Tom Dedeurwaerdere (unité BIOGOV du CPDR)
♦ Promoteurs :
- Brendan Coolsaet (SSH/IACCHOS)
- Tom Dedeurwaerdere (SSH/JURI), Porte-parole coordinateur
- Matthieu de Nanteuil (SSH/IACCHOS)
- Julie Hermans (SSH/LOURIM)
- Julie Hermesse (SSH/IACCHOS)
♦ Résumé/Summary
Shifting to a circular economy is a core policy objective of ecological transition policies in Europe.
Further, official policy discourses clearly underline the importance of a just sustainability transition to reach this goal. However, capacity building for the engagement of the circular economy actors towards improved environmental justice outcomes is rarely considered. Under these conditions, the AICE-T project asks the following two research questions:
1) What are the existing practices used by circular economy initiatives to address the socialenvironmental issues raised in the context of their activities?
2) How to create capacities of engagement of actors in the circular economy initiatives for contributing to improved environmental justice outcomes, in particular through social learning on values conflicts and the formation of shared narratives of change?
To address these research questions, the AICE-T project will use an innovative mixed-methods research design, combining a quantitative assessment of existing practices (using both analysis of existing data and original data collection) with three recent methodological advances in environmental justice research and transdisciplinary sustainability science, which are (1) participatory mapping; (2) learning on ethical dilemmas and (3) collective narrative synthesis. Through the use of this mixed-methods research design, the expected outcome of the project is to contribute to a better understanding of the role of existing practices, capacity building and policy support for social learning in addressing environmental justice issues in circular economy initiatives that are promoted by different societal actors in formal and informal organisations.
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