Low-income informal sector contexts are rife in practices that retain value of materials and goods, but in the academic literature and policy debates these practices are seldom considered as part of the circular economy (CE). This is a major omission in CE discourse, as over 60 percent of the world’s employed population is in the informal sector and many of them make their living from circularity practices. Hence, our paper advances a globally covering understanding of CE by focusing on local practices constituting CE in the overlooked contexts of low-income informal markets of emerging economies, and on the motives behind the practices. To that end we introduce the notion of Necessity-Driven Circular Economy, defined as a set of locally embedded and interlinked formal and informal practices aimed at restoring and retaining the value of goods and materials for as long as possible, based on economic necessity and opportunities for income generation. We substantiate this conceptual work with our empirical findings from low-income urban communities in Brazil, India, and Tanzania. This allows us to capture the essential characteristics of necessity-driven circular economy. These characteristics draw attention to the social and cultural embeddedness and the interweaving of consumption and production in necessity-driven circular economy, as opposed to the dominant techno-economic and industry-focused circular economy conceptualizations that are typical in academic discourse and portray developed country contexts. Finally, we discuss conceptual and practical relevance of necessity-driven circular economy and point out its system-level implications for policymakers and businesses.

低收入的非正规部门普遍存在保留材料和商品价值的做法，但在学术文献和政策辩论中，这些做法很少被视为循环经济 (CE) 的一部分。这是 CE 论述中的一个重大遗漏，因为世界上超过 60% 的就业人口在非正规部门，其中许多人以循环实践为生。因此，我们的论文通过关注在新兴经济体的低收入非正规市场被忽视的背景下构成 CE 的地方实践，以及这些实践背后的动机，推进了对 CE 的全球覆盖理解。为此，我们引入了需求驱动的循环经济的概念，定义为基于经济必要性和创收机会，旨在尽可能长时间地恢复和保留商品和材料价值的一套本地嵌入和相互关联的正式和非正式做法。我们用我们在巴西、印度和坦桑尼亚的低收入城市社区的实证研究结果证实了这一概念性工作。这使我们能够捕捉到必要性驱动的循环经济的基本特征。这些特征引起人们关注社会和文化嵌入以及消费和生产在必要性驱动的循环经济中的交织，而不是学术话语中典型的以技术经济和以工业为中心的循环经济概念化并描绘发达国家背景. 最后，