Industrial ecology and circular economy: a bibliometric analysis of the family ties

The concept of Circular Economy (CE) appeared for the first time in scientific literature in 2004. Twenty years later it has reached a level of diffusion and relevance - even in non scientific contexts - such as to be considered a new paradigm. Numerous approaches, methodologies and tools are currently associated with it; they prove to be useful for the analysis, representation, measurement and re-design of products, processes and production systems for the purpose of achieving greater sustainability. There are many efforts that governments, institutions and businesses are making to suggest concrete actions for practical implementation of the CE; in the academic world, instead, the phenomenon is starting to raise discussion about the possibility that CE can be considered a field of research in its own right. From this point of view, it is recognized that many of the principles underlying CE were shared and partly borrowed from a research field that was born about forty years earlier, that of Industrial Ecology (IE). The debate is still ongoing and some scholars believe that the evolution of CE would not be possible without the existence of IE concepts and tools. The present article, through a cross bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature on IE and CE from 1963 to 2023, seeks to highlight the interrelationships, differences, and potential prospective synergies between the two thematic areas, helping to clarify whether and to what extent it is possible talk about a sort of 'kinship', or a possible scientific inheritance from the former to the latter.