Degrowth scholarship debates the efficacy of the circular economy (CE) and questions why the paradigm is successful in capturing the imagination despite its contradictions. My chapter considers this question from a new perspective by looking at the CE through the lens of myth. Myths are prevalent across human cultures, and mythology - the study of myth - has adopted different theoretical angles since the nineteenth century. Barthes’s semiotic model treats myth as a mode of communication which exerts a powerful force in normalising and sustaining ideologies. In this paper, I treat the CE as a myth, and deconstruct how it speaks, focusing on images, associated assumptions, and motivations in historic cultural context. My paper shows how degrowth can use “myth” as an analytical tool to de-normalise and deconstruct Capitalist agendas. Further, I consider how and why degrowth should construct its own myths, and what is at stake in this process.
Greaves, Sofia Rafaella. "Analysing the Circular Economy as a Myth." In Dialogues for Degrowth, edited by Ksenija Hanaček, Marula Tsagkari, and Brototi Roy, 73-84. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025