Mapping the Landscape of Digitally Mediated Circular Economy Practices

This paper investigates the method of landscape mapping in relation to digital platforms supporting Circular Economy (CE) practices in Ireland, with a particular focus on mobile applications. Through a systematic landscape mapping approach, we analyse how digital technologies mediate and enable circular practices at the community level. The research combines both academic and industry perspectives, stemming from the development of The Toy Library, a social enterprise project aimed at enabling toy sharing in local communities. Our methodology employs both bottom-up and top-down approaches to identify and analyse relevant mobile applications in the Irish market and completes the picture of the reuse sector in Ireland. A toolkit for the application of the method is also proposed. The work reveals insights about the usefulness of this approach to bridge academic and social enterprise research on the role of technology in promoting sustainable behaviours. This research contributes to the growing body of work on Sustainable Human Computer Interaction (SHCI) by providing specific insights into how digital platforms can support CE practices at the community level, while also offering practical implications for the discovery, design and implementation of future CE-focused digital initiatives.