Rethinking Circular Economy from Below: Informality, Material Flows, and Hybrid Institutions in Maun, Botswana

Abstract

This paper examines how informal entrepreneurs in Maun, Botswana, practise circular economy under conditions of material scarcity, institutional hybridity and livelihood constraint. Addressing the dominance of technocentric and design-led models in circular economy research, it develops a grounded alternative based on the concept of livelihood-oriented circularity. The study draws on eleven semi-structured interviews, field observations and photographic documentation, analysed through a triangulated framework combining circular practice typology, material flow analysis and institutional perspectives. The findings identify three main forms of circular practice-reuse, functional upcycling and symbolic upcycling

and show how these are sustained through hybrid institutional arrangements and translocal material networks. Circularity in this context emerges as a socially embedded system organised through frugality, improvisation and community knowledge rather than formal policy design. The paper contributes theoretically by advancing livelihood-oriented circularity as a Global South model of socially embedded and learning driven innovation. It repositions informality as a site of systemic creativity and adaptive capacity, extending circular economy theory beyond Global North assumptions. Policy implications include the need for transitional licensing mechanisms, shared workshop spaces and the recognition of peer-based coordination to foster inclusive and transformative innovation systems.