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2025 AOM Annual Meeting

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DIG Highlight

12273: By Default or by Design? A Dialogue Between Western and Indigenous Worldviews in Sustainability

Tuesday, July 29, 2025
12:00 - 13:30 CEST (GMT+2)
Location: Bella Center: Hall B- B3-m8
Session Type: Symposium (panel)
Orientation: Practice,International,Research,Diversity
Highlight: DIG Highlight
Shareable link: https://cdmcd.co/JQ9Pvg
The concept of the Circular Economy (CE) has gained significant attention in recent decades as a response to the environmental and social crises driven by linear, growth-focused economic systems. While contemporary efforts largely focus on re-designing systems through technological innovation and market mechanisms, these approaches often overlook the deep, value-based knowledge embedded in indigenous worldviews. This panel symposium juxtaposes Western "by design" approaches with the "by default" perspective of Indigenous systems, such as the Maori one, which have inherently practiced circularity for over 50,000 years. By exploring the relational, intergenerational, and community-driven dimensions of Indigenous scholarship, the symposium challenges dominant paradigms of system redesign and offers a novel lens for advancing sustainability and entrepreneurship research. The panel brings together diverse scholars to examine how entrepreneurial innovation can integrate technocratic Western models with Indigenous practices. Discussions will address key questions, including how to develop inclusive CE systems that balance scalability with relational sustainability. By integrating Indigenous knowledge and Western approaches, the symposium aims to expand CE paradigms, challenge current assumptions, and propose new directions for theory and practice to foster equitable and effective sustainability solutions.