1. Introduction – Social Dimension of Circular Economy: Step Forward or Step Back?

The circular economy (CE) is one of the most important themes related to sustainability nowadays. This book discusses the social dimension perspective of the CE from the conceptual and empirical perspectives with different researches. The chapters presented in this book include distinct researches, authors, and perspectives from different countries and locations, and they have been written in collaboration with numerous authors per chapter. Another important highlight is that the chapters and researches explore CE practices and also reflect the contribution toward UN SDGs. The contribution of the book is associated with the fact that social aspects are receiving closer attention in recent years, with several studies specifically focusing on the topic. So this can be considered as a hot topic. Therefore, we perform analyses from different perspectives, such as how to make the CE socially sustainable or how CE needs less environmental protection, or if CE needs to be nested, or even, what is the real contribution of the farming processes. By discussing all these perspectives in different chapters, we hope to contribute to this important issue.