ABSTRACT
The transition to a more circular economy will include innovation in business models and practices, shifts in individual and group behaviours, and changes in infrastructure. It will involve many diverse groups of people, at different levels, working differently. The individuals, industries, governance structures, and environmental issues involved in the transition to greater circularity can together be described as a complex adaptive system – a tangle of multiple interacting pieces that can be particularly difficult, if not impossible, to control or predict. Managing or steering change towards greater circularity requires a systems approach – one that is sensitive to this complexity. This chapter explores insights from complexity science and the management of complex systems and how these may be exploited to steer change towards the circular economy. Looking at recent examples of innovative systems approaches in the fields of environmental management and resource management, we introduce a range of promising tools and approaches for working with this complexity and discuss the key roles of participation and evaluation in enabling the transition to a circular economy.
