ABSTRACT
Interest in design for the Circular Economy (CE) is on the rise. This growth appears set to continue, with many leading design schools and businesses across a range of sectors taking-up the challenge to develop more resource-efficient practices and processes. Despite this positive growth in academic and commercial engagement, much of this research happens in isolation from one another. Partnerships are critical in transitioning to a CE. However, partnerships are often messy, frustrating encounters characterised by ongoing negotiation and reluctant cultural appropriation. This chapter reflects upon a research collaboration between the authors and The Body Shop that covered aspects of CE. Deep cultural and structural incompatibilities were discovered, on both sides, which have positive and negative implications for the research. In particular, the authors describe ‘dislocated temporalities’, wherein each partner fails to value the pace and depth of work carried out by the other. For partnerships to establish and endure fruitfully a deeper appreciation of each other’s temporal culture is needed, and ideally, a ‘hybrid temporality’ should be established as a site for circular and/or broader sustainable innovation.
