On Friday 6 December 2024, the RICE-project on ‘Reimagining Constitutional Ecology’ held its first workshop, focused on Time, where archaeologists, historians, political ecologists, legal scholars reflected on how our perception of time may inform our current and future approaches to circular and sustainable policies.
After the opening of the workshop by Sybe de Vries, professor of public economic law at Utrecht University and one of the initiators of the RICE-project, Guido Furlan, a postdoctoral researcher and archeologist at the University of Padova, kicked off by offering an extremely fascinating and insightful overview of patterns of sustainability in ancient Roman towns. Archaeological research reveals that recycling and reuse of various products, from textiles to glass, was widespread across the Roman empire. ‘Waste nothing’ was the guiding motto, focusing on care, maintenance and repair of goods. The Romans combined a linear economic model with a circular economy.
Irene Bavuso, a historian and assistant professor at Utrecht University then shared her thought-provoking views on economic circularity at the early middle ages, the period just after the fall of the Roman empire. She started off by contesting the assumption that economic circularity in ancient, premodern times should be associated with decay and decline. As was also highlighted by Guido Furlan, recycling and reuse were particularly widespread in flourishing economies. Irene mentions three reasons for economic circularity in the premodern world, which are ideological and symbolic, religious, and personal and family related. But, although we cannot deduce from archaeological sources or historical evidence that there was a general and shared idea of sustainability as a principle of policy, there were, for sure, sustainable practices in premodern societies.
Janna Coomans, a historian and assistant professor at Utrecht University, briefly reflected on the presentations by Guido and Irene, and observed the vast continuity of repair, recycling and reuse practices over the course of centuries until only very recently, when single-use products (quite suddenly) became a dominant choice. In that respect, the experiences from the past are indeed an inspiration for how we could deal with the imminent ecological challenges in our current societies.
Josephine Chambers, a transdisciplinary social scientist and assistant professor at the Urban Futures Studio, Utrecht University, then briefly focused on the future and explained how ‘we tug at threads of particular histories and futures to reduce the making of our present’ (quoting Julio Cortázar). One theme in her research revolves around the visualization of multi-temporal futures.
Concluding remarks presented by Sybe de Vries as to how the sustainable practices in the past, premodern societies can help us to critically reflect on the current EU’s legal approach to sustainability. A number of legislative measures have meanwhile been adopted at EU level with a view to foster circular and sustainable practices and to transition the EU’s economic, like the Ecodesign Regulation, the Right to Repair Directive or the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, or the changing waste (management) policies.
