Abstract:

The circular economy (CE) has become central to sustainable and responsible business discourse, yet participation in circular practices such as repair remains uneven despite strong regulatory and corporate support. Existing scholarship has focused primarily on technological innovation, business model design, and institutional reform, often assuming that participation can be engineered through incentives and system redesign. This paper argues that circular transitions are also cultural processes structured by narrative meaning-making. Drawing on 25 semi-structured interviews with participants in the Right to Repair (R2R) movement across Europe and North America, we examine how repair is rendered meaningful across heterogeneous actors. We identify four recurring narrative repertoires—consumer autonomy, environmental stewardship, community resilience, and creative curiosity—through which repair is interpreted and justified. We show that actors move fluidly across these repertoires, generating narrative pluralism that sustains engagement and broadens coalitions. We conceptualize narrative pluralism as a cultural infrastructure that enhances the durability and scalability of circular participation. Circular transitions endure not simply when they are technically feasible or economically viable, but when they are narratively inhabitable.

Please choose your submission type: Developmental Paper

Primary Track: Sustainable and Responsible Business

Keywords: responsible business;phenomenology;interviews

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Dr. Julio Conde