WEconomy (MAN-MOC007) summary of all articles
for 2020 Radboud University
Index
Readings 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 2
Jonker, J. & Faber, N. (2016). Framing the Weconomy. .................................................................... 2
Rifkin, J. (2012) The Third Industrial Revolution: How the Internet, Green Electricity, and 3-D
Printing are Ushering in a Sustainable Era of Distributed Capitalism ................................................ 5
Rockström et al. (2009) Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity .. 6
Raworth, Kate (2013). Doughnut Economics: Creating a safe and just space for humanity.
Retrieved from: https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/ .................................................................. 9
Readings 2 Bio based economy........................................................................................................... 10
Lewandowski, I. (Ed.). (2017). Bioeconomy: shaping the transition to a sustainable, biobased
economy. Springer, chapter 2 and 3, p. 5-38 ..................................................................................... 10
Langeveld, J. W. A., Dixon, J., & Jaworski, J. F. (2010). Development perspectives of the biobased
economy: a review. Crop Science, 50(Supplement_1), S-142 .......................................................... 12
BECOTEPS. (2011). White Paper “The European Bioeconomy in 2030 - Delivering Sustainable
Growth by addressing the Grand Societal Challenges.” Brussel........................................... 14
Readings 3: Circular Economy .......................................................................................................... 17
Jonker, J., Stegeman, H. and Faber, N. (2018). Circular Economy: Developments, concepts, and
research in search for corresponding business models, White Paper Nijmegen School of
Management, Nijmegen: Radboud University .................................................................................. 17
Korhonen, J., Honkasalo, A. and Seppälä (2018). Circular Economy. The concept and its
Limitations. Journal of Ecological Economics, 143 (2018) 37-46. ................................................... 19
Ellen McArthur Foundation (2015). Towards a Circular Economy. Business Rationale for an
accelerated transition. ........................................................................................................................ 21
Readings 4: Functional Economy ...................................................................................................... 24
Stahel, W. R. (1982). The product life factor. An Inquiry into the Nature of Sustainable Societies:
The Role of the Private Sector (Series: 1982 Mitchell Prize Papers) ................................................ 24
Stahel, W.R. (2005). The Functional Economy. International Journal of Performability Engineering
Vol. 1, No. 2, October 2005, pp. 121-130. ........................................................................................ 26
Tukker, A. (2004). Eight Types of Product-Service Systems. Business Strategy and the
Environment, 13, 246–260 ................................................................................................................ 27
Readings 5 Sharing and Collaborative Economy ............................................................................. 31
Dredge, D., & Gyimóthy, S. (2015). The collaborative economy and tourism: Critical perspectives,
questionable claims and silenced voices. Tourism recreation research,40(3), 286-302 .................... 31
Belk, R. (2014). You are what you can access: Sharing and collaborative consumption online.
Journal of business research,67(8), 1595-1600 ................................................................................. 33
0
, Karin Bradley, Daniel Pargman; The sharing economy as the commons of the
21stcentury, Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Volume 10, Issue 2, 1 July
2017, Pages 231–24........................................................................................................................... 34
Kathan, W., Matzler, K., & Veider, V. (2016).The sharing economy: Your business model'sfriend
or foe? Business Horizons, 59(6), 663-672. ............................................................. 38
Martin, C. J. (2016). The sharing economy: A pathway to sustainability or a nightmarish form of
neoliberal capitalism? Ecological Economics,121, 149-159 ............................................................. 39
Schor, J. (2016). Debating the sharing economy. Journal of Self-Governance & Management
Economics, 4(3)................................................................................................................................. 42
Readings 6A Self-Production.............................................................................................................. 46
Gebler, M., Schoot Uiterkamp, A. J. M., & Visser, C. (2014). A global sustainability perspectiveon
3D printing technologies. Energy Policy, 74(6). 158-167 ................................................................. 46
Petrovic, Vojislav, Juan Vicente Haro Gonzalez, Olga Jordá Ferrando, Javier Delgado Gordillo,
Jose Ramón Blasco Puchades & Luis Portolés Griñan (2011) Additive layered manufacturing:
sectors of industrial application shown through case studies. International Journal of
Production Research, 49(4), 1061-1079 ........................................................................................... 47
Ford, S., & Despeisse, M. (2016). Additive manufacturing and sustainability: an exploratory study
of the advantages and challenges. Journal of Cleaner Production,137, 1573-15 ............................. 49
Readings 6b Internet of Things .......................................................................................................... 53
Spring, M., & Araujo, L. (2016). Product biographies in servitization and the circular economy.
Industrial Marketing Management. ................................................................................................... 53
GSMA. Understanding the Internet of Things (2014)....................................................................... 56
Lewis, A. (2017). Blockchain: a gentle introduction technology. ..................................................... 57
Extra readings Essay Exam ................................................................................................................ 59
Haan, de, J. & Romans, J. (2010). Patterns in transitions: Understanding complex chains of change.
Technological Forecasting & Social Change ................................................................................... 59
Geels, F. W. & Schot, J. (2007). Typology of sociotechnical transition pathways. Research Policy
36. 399–417 ....................................................................................................................................... 61
1
,Readings 1 Introduction
Jonker, J. & Faber, N. (2016). Framing the Weconomy.
Introduction: realisation is intensifying that the effects of the current economic system cannot
be solved with the prevailing manner of thinking that has developed the last century which
would only lead to sub optimisation. The economic system is approaching its boundaries and
things must radically change. More circular and sustainable economy can be seen in 7 trends
that are central in this paper. The linear economy destructs instead of creating value and new
systems will change the consumer producer relationship look different at sharing resources and
collective value creation. It is the social system disables the transition towards sustainability
not the technological potential. We have to fundamentally change and are no in a new realm
called transition.
A movement to make a difference: quit revolution is underway questioning and shaking up the
world little by little with diverse and scattered bottom-up initiatives that are rapidly emerging
paving the way for more mature concepts that can be scaled up. This movement is broad and
challenging conventional methods of thinking and organising. Not the organisations are central
but the way we organise things important enough to organise reframing the concept of the
commons. In the current system the individual is central, the commons are the opposite; it is
ours. This is inappropriate element in this dominating economic view. Ways to overcome
disconnection with society is for example think globally act locally as citizen driven initiative
(CDI).
Not from scratch: the current societal reality was the way to go until recent. So, these different
ways of organising build on what organisationally speaking already exists. New entrepreneurs
are not just creating profit but collectively creating care, involvement and attention as well as
organising wellbeing not just welfare. However, upscaling is still needed as many initiatives
die in the cradle.
Illustrating new values: sharing is the new having: moving from me to we society. It however
says nothing on the quality of those new relationships.
Taking a closer look on the ground: especially younger generations shows a move from
possession to use and from ownership to access. Many companies shifting to provide use not
ownership.
Not only companies: citizens are not just consumers anymore, challenging producer consumer
relationships. Social problems are to big and complex for companies and governments alone,
they need to entire community. Citizen entrepreneurship are different from social/business
entrepreneurs because they take responsibility without authorisation nor payment. They
develop ideas in the form of crowd thinking in the open and collaboration instead of
competition. Closed system is to slow and costly for creating value because of the hierarchical
focus on creating a single value in solely monetary terms.
The emerging phenomena of HUBs: citizen engagement is the foundation of working in
networks called HUBs. It locates itself between individuals and facilitates the connection and
transaction, a connector in the network with as essence collaborative value-creation.
Taking control: different organisational paradigm by moving from organisational
configurations to thinking in networks.
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,Confronting old and new: current institution will conflict within this emerging new economy.
That is why bottom up initiatives clash with interests of the establishment protected in laws and
protocols. New initiatives like uber and Airbnb are constantly under fire and can difficulty
compete, and governments need to stimulate, facilitate and support these initiatives. It is about
creating new markets with different rules and players.
Six trends and a wild cart: these are brought together as ambition within sustainability.
1. Circular economy: Current economy is a linear process as transformation of
commodities. It is an incredible inefficient model with an ever-increasing stream of new
raw materials, and it focusses only on costs. The circular economy focusses on raw
materials and the re-use of it. Example is cradle to cradle concept. Products should be
designed that materials keep their intrinsic qualities and can be retrieved for re-use and
recovery is central as an endless loop.
2. Functional economy: creating and leasing a function and material products are assets
not consumables in which you optimize the use of these assets. An important aspect is
the product-service system: you provide the function or service instead of the product
itself. This means the interest of supplier is the highest possible use value for the longest
possible time while consuming as few materials and energy as possible. The circular
economy is about transformation and re use of materials and functional economy is
about the function of a product and can work together
3. Bio-based economy: refers to the set of economic activities relating to the invention,
development production and use of biological products and processes. It is about
transitioning from fossil fuel to biomass as the raw material. Biomimicry is used to
denote principles from nature to resolve problems. This economy has a strong emphasis
on technological aspect while there is fear of endangering the food supply→ dilemma:
arable land used for energy or food?
3
, 4. Collaborative economy: this and sharing economy go hand in hand. This heading
concerns an economic model based on sharing, swapping, trading or renting products
and services enabling access over ownership. The business model is based on horizontal
networks and participation of the community driven by idle inventory (books, cars).
This aspect and sharing economy only focus on distribution, not the making of goods
and services. Often initials between citizens with key words like dis-ownership, value-
in-use and access. Collaboration is based on values like trust, transparency,
empowerment, creative expression, authenticity, community resilience and human
connection. People are considered citizens not consumers, four collaborative forms:
business-to-business, citizen to business, business to citizen and citizen-to-citizen.
These can be considered as game changers. Its sustainability factor is still being
questioned.
5. Sharing economy: unused value perceives as waste and to see it as an opportunity to
create new vale based on the idea that assets are not fully utilities all of the time. Simple
you can borrow from others or more complex networks or platforms to collectively
acquire infrastructure or services. However, regulators are still ill informed and see them
as profit manoeuvring around existing regulation.
6. Self-production economy: rapid progress of 3D printing technology with 3D printer
HUBS. It enables complex shapes and decreases product weight. It is a more sustainable
form of manufacturing, it improves population health and quality of life, and it changes
the conception of labour (consumer becomes active creator). Property of skills is needed
and new experts to provide 3d design and production services in a horizontal manner.
Manufacturing becomes democratized, supply chains diminish and marketing
transforms. Also, larger trend towards collaborative networks is being supported by 3D
printing by sharing work and 3D hubs facilitate the functional economy (access to self-
production but not own a printer) and circular economy (fewer materials).
7. Internet of things (IOT): wild cart which in essence is the accelerating growth of
connections between people and things and things amongst themselves. It can be an
unpredictable but accelerating game changer in propelling the six methods. It also
incites debate regarding privacy and data security. It is still in its infancy but shows a
glimpse of the future.
Reframing sustainability: focus was since Brundtland almost exclusively on the environment.
This environmentalisation of sustainability has led to a narrow description of greening and
resulting in irritation fuelling the need for a modern definition of sustainability and need to
focus on the human element like rich and poor, matters of labour conditions and how things are
organised. We need to look for better organisational arrangements facilitating the organisation
of sustainability as a shared challenge while simultaneously respecting what we have already
developed. The transformation towards WEconomy is an example of support that people need
intrinsic motivation to radically change their behaviour in which the six trends are for everyone.
An emerging economy: WEconomy is applicable to every socio-economic relevant theme. The
market is not going to organise itself sustainable so society itself addresses the problems in new
business models (value creating models that solve social and economic issues and not purely
driven by a one organisation but a group or community). Organisations must become open
networks incorporating their stakeholders. Some of these examples are AirBnB, thuisafgehaald,
floow2, wakawaka, repaircafe
4
,Towards a different society: we are in the midst of an over societal transition in which no one
can manage independently. An attempt was made to structure these processes into six trends.
An economy with two paradigms: we have ended organising everything in a rational-functional
way looking at efficiency and effectiveness. The critics are growing but we have organised our
society entirely based on this industrial paradigm. We need to balance two paradigms: familiar
trusted vertical and burgeoning the horizontal way. In between organisations must emegre
somewhere. This is the challenge we are facing if we desire to give sustainability a place in our
socio-economic behaviour. No money in saving the environment but it does concern us, we
need to incorporate sustainable ways of organizing in the value of money.
Reinventing the past: we have only just begun to discover the requirements of it or the
organisational transformation it will incite. The core of the clashes to come is to seek a balance
between the private and public interests. We are reinventing the past on our way to the future
with perhaps as core WEconomy.
Rifkin, J. (2012) The Third Industrial Revolution: How the Internet, Green Electricity,
and 3-D Printing are Ushering in a Sustainable Era of Distributed Capitalism
The industrial civilisation is at a crossroads in which the infrastructure is aging and in disrepair
with rising unemployment, declining living standards and rising debts. Since the great recession
of 2008 the debate has been rising on how to restart the global economy. We need bold new
economic narratives that can take us into a sustainable post-carbon future.
A new economic Narrative: the great economic revolution occurred when new communication
technologies (manage new complex commercial activities of new energy flows) converge with
new energy systems (more expansive and integrated trade). This will lead to the third industrial
revolution and will change the distribution of power as green energy is produced by all kinds
of people and shared via energy internet. There are five pillars to this revolution and must be
laid down simultaneously for the revolution to hold. These together will be an indivisible
technological platform and become a new economic paradigm. These are:
1. Shifting to renewable energy
2. Transforming the building stock of every continent into micro power plants to collect
renewable energies on site.
3. Deploying hydrogen and other storage technologies in the infrastructure to store
intermittent energies
4. Using internet technology to transform the power grid of every continent into an energy
internet
5. Transitioning the transport fleet to electric plug-in and fuel cell vehicles that can buy/sell
green electricity on the power grid.
Shift to lateral power: the traditional hierarchical organisation of economic and political power
will give way to lateral power. Lateral power in the form that the democratization of
communications and green energy combined makes every human their own source of power.
Distributed capitalism: energy regimes shape the nature of civilizations. So, it might be helpful
to first look at how the fossil fuel-based first and second industrial revolutions reordered power
relations over the last two centuries. Fossil fuels require top down command and control
5
,systems and massive concentrations of capital to move them to users. Critical to the effective
performance of the system is the ability to centralize production and distribution. These set
condition for the rest of the economy encouraging similar business models across every sector
to organise in a central fashion and achieve economies of scale. In contrast the third revolution
is organised around distributed renewable energies that are found everywhere and mostly free.
This necessitates collaborative command and control leading to copying behaviour in
dependent industries. The extraordinary capital costs are making way for distributed capitalism
with low entry costs in lateral networks sharing resources and information and energy in open
commons. Lowering transactions costs in music and publishing is already wreaking havoc on
traditional industries.
Democratizing manufacturing: what if millions of people could manufacture single itmes or
small batches in their own homes or small businesses cheaper and quicker with the same quality
as state-of-the-art industrial factories? This will become possible with the growing 3-D printing
opportunities. It uses as little as 10% of raw material for traditional manufacturing and uses less
energy, greatly reducing costs. Especially SME’s can outcompete the large companies. And
will have great impact on productivity and energy efficiency.
Near zero cost marketing and logistics: the centralised nature of communication technologies
of the earlier revolutions like newspapers and tv led to high marketing costs and favoured giant
firms. The internet has tumbled costs of marketing, giving opportunities to SME’s. Connecting
multitudes of sellers and buyers in virtual space is almost free by replacing middlemen with
distributed virtual networks of sellers and buyers. It also brings the personalization for the
relationships between seller and buyer.
New business Models and Jobs in the 21ste century: the transition will require a wholesale
reconfiguration of the entire economic infrastructure of each country. Millions of building need
converting and storage technology investments are needed plus green internet and transform
the automobile. It also requires a massive retraining of workers with a new high-tech workforce
skilled in all the technologies needed for this revolution. Entrepreneurs and managers will need
to be educated to take advantage of cutting-edge business models with different managerial
styles. The lateral scaling shifts the power to distributed SME networks. Rapid decline in
transaction costs will lead to the democratization of information. The question is whether we
recognize the comic possibilities that lie ahead and muster the will to get there in time.
Rockström et al. (2009) Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for
Humanity
New challenges quire new thinking on global sustainability: human activities increasing
influence the earth climate and ecosystems within the era of the Anthropocene destabilizing
critical biophysical systems and possibly triggering catastrophic changes. Here a novel concept
is presented called planetary boundaries. It should be used for calculating safe operating space
for humanity with respect to the functioning of the Earth System. We try to identify key
processes and their boundaries. We take the Holocene (since the last ice age) as reference point
for desirable planetary state. Until now we have stayed in this stability domain. Since the
industrial revolution humans are effectively pushing to planet outside Holocene range of
variability. Erosion of resilience manifests itself when long period of seemingly stale conditions
6
, are followed by periods of abrupt non-linear change, from one domain to another. Central
question is: “What are the non-negotiable planetary preconditions that humanity needs to
respect in order to avoid the risk of deleterious or even catastrophic environmental change at
continental to global scales?”
Introducing the concept of planetary boundaries: thresholds are defined as non-linear
transitions in the functioning of coupled human– environmental systems. They have more
control variables. The boundaries are a determined value of a control value on a safe distance
from the dangerous level. And involves normative judgements of how we deal with uncertainty
and risks. The uncertainty is caused by a lack of knowledge about the nature of biophysical
thresholds themselves. Uncertainty is about the complex behaviour of a system and how long
can we overshoot before the threshold is crossed. The boundaries rest on the scale of human
action in relation to earth capacity, the essential Earth System processes and the framework of
resilience. Together they are the dynamical biophysical space in which humans have evolved
and thrived.
Categorizing planetary boundaries: Nine planetary boundaries cover the global
biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon and water, the major physical
circulation systems of the planet, biophysical features of earth contributing to resilience and
two critical features associated with anthropocentric global change. Only been able to quantify
7 of 9, other two called aerosol loading and chemical pollution still need quantitative boundary
levels. There are direct and slow indirect boundaries. And a distinction is made between global
scale processes and local and regional scales, need for more global threshold research.
Quantifying planetary boundaries:
1. Climate change: a lot of international discussion with the 2dregees above preindustrial
level threshold. The approach proposed is using both atmospheric CO2 concentration
and radiative forcing as global control variables. Climate Sensitivity currently only
includes fast feedbacks, slow feedback would have a higher sensitivity and therefore the
current system underestimates its effect. The current climate shows a massive retreat of
ice and increased sea level rise rates.
2. Ocean Acidification: this poses a challenge to marine biodiversity and the ability of
oceans to continue to function as a sink of CO2. Ocean cans absorb anthropogenic CO2
in marine organisms and dissolution into seawater. CO2 into the oceans increases the
acidity (lowers pH) of the surface sea water. And many marine organisms are sensitive
to these changes. Shells will dissolute because of changing chemistry. Globally the
surface ocean aragonite saturation state is declining with rising ocean acidity.
Undersaturation means that these waters will become corrosive to the aragonite and high
magnesium calcite shells secreted by a wide variety of marine organisms. Depletion of
organisms would be a major disturbance in marine ecosystems with uncertain
consequences. Acidification have serious impacts on coral reefs and associated
ecosystems. Although the threshold for aragonite saturation is easy to define and
quantify, significant questions remain as to how far from this threshold the boundary
value should be set. Boundary should be 80% or higher of average preindustrial global
surface water. The major rationale behind this subjective value is twofold: to keep high
latitude surface waters above aragonite undersaturation and to ensure adequate
conditions for most coral systems.
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