On 19 October 2026, Dr Ilaha Abasli defended her thesis investigating how knowledge, practice and discourses of diverse actors shape and are shaped by material circularity.
Abasli argued 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 showed 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 showed 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.
Rewatch Ilaha's defence introduction
Photos of the defence
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