This article conceptualises the circular economy as a space of immaterial, as well as material, metabolic flows mediated by capitalism and planetary urbanisation. World-ecology provides us with the critical lens to view the circular economy as part of an emergent regime of accumulation that may supersede neoliberalism. However, if each regime entails new frontier zones for appropriating cheap natures and dumping wastes, then the circular economy—as a strategy for revalorising waste—presents a possible structural limit to capitalism’s further expansion. Moreover, when combined with notions of degrowth and doughnut economics, the circular economy may provide an imaginary and set of prefigurative practices that point towards a postcapitalist economy. Through a case study of Amsterdam—a city aiming to be fully circular by 2050—we examine this contradictory crossroads, problematising the idea of circularity within capitalism and exploring the potential of postcapitalist alternatives within the circular economy.

中文翻译：

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阿姆斯特丹的循环经济处于世界生态十字路口：后资本主义去增长还是下一个资本积累体制？


本文将循环经济概念化为由资本主义和全球城市化介导的非物质和物质代谢流的空间。世界生态学为我们提供了批判的视角，将循环经济视为可能取代新自由主义的新兴积累体制的一部分。然而，如果每个政权都需要开辟新的前沿区域来侵占廉价自然资源和倾倒废物，那么循环经济——作为一种重新评估废物价值的战略——可能会对资本主义的进一步扩张构成结构性限制。此外，当与去增长和甜甜圈经济学的概念相结合时，循环经济可能提供一系列指向后资本主义经济的想象和象征性实践。通过对阿姆斯特丹（一个计划在 2050 年实现完全循环的城市）的案例研究，我们研究了这一矛盾的十字路口，对资本主义中的循环性理念提出了问题，并探索了循环经济中后资本主义替代方案的潜力。