| Abstract |
New paradigms on systems thinking, natural resources and manufacturing futures provide opportunities to re-examine the relationship between humans, the things we buy and use, and the interconnected world that supplies them from primary resources. The role geography plays within industrial strategy can be strengthened, we argue, through the opportunities provided by a 'circular economy', i.e. one that is restorative by intent. Here, we consider some of the founding stimuli that underpin this reappraisal of our relationship with the things we buy and how circular economy thinking might play out in practice. As we demonstrate, there is a central role for geography here, and systems thinking, the trans-disciplinary analysis of trends and flows, temporal-spatial factors and the human condition are all central to this reappraisal. |