Recycling old ideals? A utopian reading of ‘circular’ food imaginaries

This chapter uses the concept of utopia to investigate how mainstream and bottom-up imaginaries of circular urban food systems envision a future beyond growth. I develop a framework for analysing the ways in which different functions of utopia – exposing, differentiating, reassuring, imagining and criticising – are conveyed in circular economy (CE) narratives. Conceptualising the CE as a social imaginary, the analysis shows the tension in CE narratives between integration and subversion, contestation and confirmation. First, the chapter interrogates a major corporate advocate of CE: the Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation. Despite restating some utopian ideals, such as the urban–rural synthesis, the corporate’s narrative appears framed within the current growth paradigm. Bottom-up food initiatives in the city of Brussels (Belgium) are studied to detect whether they adopt more radical imaginaries. This comparison suggests that CE projects do use a degrowth imaginary when they explore utopian attributes of solidarity, community and reciprocity. In conclusion, it seems that only in an alignment with a degrowth imaginary can a CE construct a counter-narrative and broaden the utopian dimension of the current economic and social imaginary.