Imagining Nature–Culture Hybridity

Abstract This article takes a historical coproductionist approach to examine the pivotal claim of novelty on which circular economy (CE) discourse is centered. CE proponents argue that it represents a paradigm shift: concepts from nature—most notably the efficiency of biological cycles posited to be “without waste”—can be productively applied to the linear economy, resulting in a novel partnership that will correct human–nature relationality. We bring a historical perspective to critically appraise this claim, providing examples of how concepts of circularity have been transmitted between medical, economic, and engineering texts across the history of modern thought. We show how these ideas have been coproduced with political agendas, acting as legitimizing forces for powerful normative claims while shaping collective imaginations of right moral order in nature and culture.