Multi-stakeholder social economy organizations and the circular economy

Purpose This article examines how multi-stakeholder social economy organizations (SEOs), particularly cooperatives and social enterprises, translate circular economy objectives into decision programmes as decision premises within autopoietic, self-referential decision-making systems and how participatory governance supports the stabilization of sustainability-oriented organizational structures. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on Luhmann's social systems theory, especially Ecological Communication (1989) and Organization and Decision (2018), the paper develops a conceptual framework linking ecological irritations, decision premises, stakeholder participation, adaptive governance and the formation of conditional and purposive circular economy programmes in multi-stakeholder organizations. Findings Circular economy objectives become organizationally relevant only when translated into internal decision premises, including governance rules, routines, reporting systems and sustainability-oriented programmes. Multi-stakeholder governance increases communicative density, enabling heterogeneous stakeholder expectations to be stabilized as operative premises. Democratic tensions stimulate the emergence of second-order programmes, such as environmental committees, sustainability accounting, arbitration proceduresand conflict-resolution mechanisms, enhancing organizational resilience and adaptive capacity. Practical implications Managers should embed circular economy criteria,—such as the use of artificial intelligence to implement waste reduction and recycling, into governance architectures and decision premises. Policymakers should support legal frameworks, sustainability reporting systems and capacity-building initiatives that facilitate the institutionalization of sustainability-oriented decision programmes. Originality/value The paper provides a first systematic application of Luhmann's decision programme framework to circular economy governance in SEOs, reframing sustainability transitions as communicative, complexity-processing and adaptive organizational processes. It further explains why multi-stakeholder cooperatives and social enterprises may possess structural advantages in internalizing ecological complexity.