Thesis defense: Jacopo N. Bergamo Towards a Non-Alienated Circular Economy: Examining Social Relations of Production through an Ecological Marxist Perspective

This dissertation develops an eco-Marxist critique of the circular economy (CE) within the context of the contemporary socio-ecological crisis. While CE is widely promoted as a pathway to sustainability, it often remains embedded in capitalist social relations of production that subordinate circular practices to accumulation and growth. Using historical materialism and immanent critique, the study locates ecological breakdown in the structural contradictions of capitalism, particularly the alienated metabolism between society and nature. CE practices—repair, reuse, recycling, sharing, and eco-design—are analysed as productive forces whose meaning and effects depend on the social relations in which they are embedded. Under capitalism, they assume alienated and sometimes destructive functions, intensifying rebound effects, commodification, and imperialism. The thesis integrates ecological science, Marxist political economy, and complex systems theory, and engages debates within ecological Marxism, defending the Metabolic Rift perspective. Through the case of China’s path to build an Ecological Civilization, it explores how planning capacity, public control over strategic sectors, and long-term social priorities can re-functionalise circularity. A non-alienated CE thus emerges as a historically situated possibility, contingent on transforming social relations of production toward democratic planning, social need, and ecological limits.