Imagine a world where our economic systems are no longer perceived as rigid machines but as living ecosystems. Here, actors at the micro, meso, and macro levels do not compete in isolation but learn, adapt, and evolve together. Collective action, through collaboration, coordination, and even coopetition, becomes the beating heart of circularity.

This vision of the future is guided by the principles of complex adaptive systems. Boundaries are not walls but membranes, flexible enough to allow new ideas to flow in, strong enough to provide identity. Hierarchies exist, but they are dynamic and shifting, shaped by emergence and feedback loops rather than imposed by static rules. Path dependence, once a barrier, becomes a source of resilience when reimagined as adaptive memory.

In this speculative future, circular business models are not fixed frameworks but evolving strategies of resource use, value creation, and delivery. They are embedded within networks of trust and shared norms, where values shape structures, and structures in turn reinforce values. Coordination flows top-down and bottom-up simultaneously, while horizontal interactions weave the fabric of relational networks.

The outcome is not just efficiency or sustainability, but true circularity: an economy capable of learning, adapting, and thriving in ways that regenerate the systems it depends on. Circular ecosystems are no longer a possibility: They are a necessity, and perhaps, the blueprint for the economic worldview of tomorrow.