Navigating the shift from waste management to circular economy and bioeconomy, between confrontation, arrangement and territorialization

Since the early 2010s, both the OECD and the European Commission have prioritized the circular and bioeconomies in their transition agendas. This special issue examines the concrete changes taking place and, in particular, how this transition agenda is transforming socio-economic models. The articles offer a multidisciplinary analysis of strategies and arrangements between different stakeholders, the socio-political and socio-economic construction of challenges and compromises, and the scope for choice within the specific institutional contexts of change. This introductory article begins by situating our perspective within institutionalist approaches to the diversity of forms and the transformation of capitalism. This allows us to present our own interpretation in terms of socio-economic models and trajectories. The third section focuses on the undeniable emergence of hybrid models through the reconfiguration of territorial governance models and situated socio-technical trajectories. Section four shows how linear models adapt to, and resist, the changes in practice required by the bioeconomy and the circular economy. Section five focuses on the restructuring of waste geography and the resulting new environmental inequalities, while section six explores the resurgence of social and solidarity economy models. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of a research programme that addresses the need to review public policies at a systemic level, and to grasp the profound upheavals in the international geography of waste, as well as the growing economic, political, and environmental disparities engendered by this global phenomenon.