Circularity for Whom? Selective Social Sustainability in the Just Circular Economy

Circularity is often framed as a bridge paradigm supporting sustainability transitions — but a bridge to where, and for whom? Drawing on qualitative analysis of twelve circular bioeconomy business models in Argentina, this Perspective examines their social practices against the five justice dimensions of the just circular economy (JCE). The analysis shows that social sustainability was neither completely absent nor comprehensively incorporated. Concrete achievements in employment, livelihoods, and formal protection coexisted with weaker integration of shared decision-making, territorial knowledge, long-term organisational autonomy, and the distribution of burdens within circular systems. We conceptualise this recurrent but non-uniform pattern as selective social sustainability. The concept explains how organisational, evaluative, and governance arrangements make certain social concerns more visible, actionable, and enduring than others, without presuming deliberate exclusion or a single organisational cause. Its central contribution is to complement the JCE’s normative benchmark with a diagnostic lens for identifying why genuine social advances do not necessarily develop into integrated just circular transitions.