PhD defence by Ilaha Abasli

Abasli argues that although developments around material circularity have reshaped governance systems and our perceptions of waste, materials and sustainability, the established instruments that define, fund and enact circularity are primarily technical and apolitical, and are driven by the institutional priorities of the Global North.

In her thesis Abasli aims to show that the current framing of the circular economy fails to take into consideration the socio-material and political aspects of material flows, alongside the grounded realities of the Global South context.

Based on fieldwork carried out in the Netherlands and Kenya from 2022 to 2024 and including ethnography and reflexive positionality analysis, the dissertation aims to understand how knowledge, practice and discourses of diverse actors such as informally, community-based and international actors shape and are shaped by material circularity in both contexts, as well as what implications this has for both contexts.

Doctoral Board

Chair

Professor Ruard Ganzevoort

Doctoral dissertation supervisors

Professor Peter Knorringa, International Institute of Social Studies
Dr Farhad Mukhtarov, International Institute of Social Studies

Full Doctoral Committee

Professor Mario Pansera, University of Vigo
Professor Agni Kalfagianni, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Professor Shuaib Lwasa, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Dr Romanus Otieno Opiyo, Stockholm Environment Institute
Dr Manisha Anantharaman, Sciences Po