Replaceable Batteries and the Shift Toward Sustainable Product Design

The development of replaceable battery rules in the European Union reflects a wider change in the way modern products are understood. In the past, many electronic products were designed mainly for performance, style, compactness, and market speed. Smartphones, tablets, laptops, wireless devices, and many portable technologies became thinner, lighter, and more integrated. This design direction brought many benefits, including better mobility, stronger water resistance, higher processing power, and more elegant user experience. At the same time, it also created a difficult problem: many products became harder to repair, maintain, or use for a long time.

This article examines replaceable batteries as a case study in sustainable product life-cycle management. It argues that repairability is not the opposite of innovation. Instead, repairability can become part of responsible innovation. The article uses concepts from Bourdieu, world-systems theory, and institutional isomorphism to explain why firms, regulators, consumers, and global supply chains are changing their expectations. Bourdieu helps explain how product design creates symbolic value and status. World-systems theory helps show how electronic products depend on global extraction, manufacturing, consumption, and waste systems. Institutional isomorphism explains how companies may begin to adopt similar sustainability practices because of regulation, competition, professional standards, and public pressure.

The article finds that replaceable battery rules are not only technical requirements. They represent a cultural, economic, and institutional shift. Companies are being encouraged to design products that balance beauty, safety, durability, repairability, and environmental responsibility. For students of business and technology, this topic offers a clear lesson: innovation should not be measured only by what a product can do when it is new. It should also be measured by how responsibly the product can be maintained, repaired, reused, and recycled throughout its life.

Keywords: replaceable batteries, sustainable product design, circular economy, repairability, product life cycle, EU regulation, institutional isomorphism, Bourdieu, world-systems theory, technology management

1. Introduction

Modern electronic devices are among the most important products in everyday life. A smartphone is not only a phone. It is a camera, bank card, classroom tool, business device, entertainment platform, health tracker, and personal archive. A laptop is not only a computer. It is a workplace, learning environment, communication system, and creative tool. Because these products are so important, their design affects not only individual users but also companies, supply chains, repair markets, waste systems, and the environment.

For many years, consumer technology companies focused on making devices thinner, faster, more beautiful, and more powerful. This was understandable. Consumers wanted devices that looked modern, worked smoothly, and felt comfortable in the hand. Companies competed through design quality, screen size, processing speed, camera performance, battery life, and brand identity. A slim sealed smartphone became a symbol of advanced design. It looked clean. It felt strong. It gave the impression of precision.

However, this design model also produced a hidden problem. When batteries were sealed inside devices, users often could not replace them easily. A small battery problem could make the whole device feel old. In many cases, a phone, tablet, or laptop still had a good screen, good processor, and good body, but the battery had become weak. Instead of replacing one part, many consumers replaced the whole product. This increased electronic waste and made product life shorter than it needed to be.

The European Union’s direction on replaceable batteries is important because it changes the meaning of good design. Good design is no longer only about appearance, compactness, or performance. It is also about repairability, safety, transparency, durability, and environmental care. This does not mean that old-style removable plastic covers will simply return. It means that companies must rethink the balance between technical integration and user serviceability.

A simple classroom example can explain the issue. Older mobile phones often had a back cover that could be removed by hand. A user could take out the battery and insert a new one in a few seconds. This was convenient, but many old phones were thicker, less water-resistant, and less technically advanced. Modern smartphones are more powerful and elegant, but they are often sealed with adhesives and special parts. They may survive water better and look more beautiful, but they are harder to repair. The new regulatory direction asks companies to find a better balance between these two models.

This article studies replaceable batteries as an example of sustainable product life-cycle management. It uses a social science perspective rather than a purely engineering perspective. The central question is: what does the move toward replaceable batteries teach students about innovation, regulation, business strategy, and sustainability?

The answer is that technology does not develop in isolation. Product design is shaped by consumer culture, competition, regulation, supply chains, social values, and environmental limits. A company may prefer a sealed product because it is elegant and efficient. A consumer may prefer a device that is thin and attractive. A regulator may prefer a product that can be repaired and recycled. A repair technician may prefer standard parts and accessible design. A sustainability expert may prefer longer product life and less waste. Good product strategy must understand all these interests.

2. Background and Theoretical Framework

2.1 Sustainable Product Life-Cycle Management

Sustainable product life-cycle management studies the full life of a product. It does not look only at the moment of sale. It asks where materials come from, how the product is made, how it is used, how long it lasts, how it can be repaired, and what happens after it is no longer useful to the first owner.

In the case of electronic devices, the life cycle begins with raw materials. Batteries may require lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, and other materials. These materials are extracted, processed, transported, and transformed into battery cells. The battery is then integrated into a device, sold to consumers, used for several years, and eventually discarded, repaired, resold, or recycled. Each stage has environmental and social effects.

Traditional product thinking often followed a linear model: take materials, make a product, sell it, use it, and throw it away. Sustainable product design follows a more circular model. In this model, products should remain useful for longer. Parts should be repairable when possible. Materials should be recovered when products reach the end of their life. Waste should be reduced. Value should circulate instead of disappearing.

Replaceable batteries fit clearly into this model. A battery is often one of the first parts of an electronic device to lose performance. If the battery can be replaced safely and affordably, the whole product can remain useful for a longer time. This reduces the pressure to produce a completely new device and reduces unnecessary waste.

2.2 Bourdieu: Design, Status, and Symbolic Value

Pierre Bourdieu’s work helps explain why product design is not only technical. Products also carry symbolic value. People use objects to express taste, status, identity, and belonging. A smartphone, laptop, watch, or headphone brand can signal lifestyle and social position. The design of a product can become part of a person’s public image.

Bourdieu’s idea of cultural capital is useful here. Cultural capital includes knowledge, taste, education, and the ability to recognize what is seen as valuable in a social field. In consumer technology, some users value elegance, minimalism, premium materials, and brand prestige. A sealed, polished device may be seen as more refined than a device with visible screws, removable covers, or modular parts.

This creates a design tension. Repairable products can be practical and sustainable, but they may be wrongly perceived as less premium if repairability is associated with older or cheaper designs. The challenge for modern companies is to change this perception. Repairability must not look like a weakness. It must become part of a new form of symbolic value: responsible design.

In this sense, sustainable design can become a new kind of cultural capital. A consumer may feel proud not only because a device looks modern, but because it is durable, repairable, and environmentally responsible. Companies that understand this shift can create products that are both elegant and sustainable. The social meaning of a “premium product” may gradually change from “sealed and untouchable” to “beautiful, durable, and responsibly maintainable.”

2.3 World-Systems Theory: Batteries and Global Production

World-systems theory, associated with Immanuel Wallerstein, helps explain how electronic devices are connected to global economic structures. Modern products are rarely made in one place. Raw materials may come from one region, components from another, assembly from another, design from another, and sales from many markets.

This global system creates benefits and inequalities. Consumers in wealthy markets often enjoy advanced devices at competitive prices. Firms in powerful economies often control branding, design, software, and intellectual property. Other regions may provide raw materials, labor, or manufacturing capacity. Waste may also move across borders, directly or indirectly.

Batteries are part of this global system. The materials used in batteries are economically valuable and environmentally sensitive. If devices are thrown away too quickly, the demand for new materials increases. If products are difficult to repair or recycle, valuable materials may be lost. A weak battery in one country can therefore be connected to mining pressure, factory production, shipping emissions, and waste management problems in other parts of the world.

From a world-systems perspective, replaceable battery rules are not only about consumer convenience. They are also about reducing pressure on global resource systems. Longer product life can reduce the speed at which new materials must be extracted and processed. It can also support repair economies, reuse markets, and recycling systems.

This is especially important for students of business. A product is not only a finished object on a shop shelf. It is the result of a global chain of decisions. Sustainable business requires managers to understand that design choices made in one headquarters can affect workers, consumers, recyclers, and environments across many countries.

2.4 Institutional Isomorphism: Why Companies Become Similar

Institutional isomorphism is a concept developed by Paul DiMaggio and Walter Powell. It explains why organizations in the same field often become similar over time. They may copy each other, follow professional standards, respond to regulation, or adapt to shared expectations.

There are three main forms. Coercive isomorphism comes from laws, regulations, and formal pressure. Mimetic isomorphism happens when companies copy successful competitors, especially under uncertainty. Normative isomorphism comes from professional education, industry standards, consultants, engineers, auditors, and shared expert communities.

The shift toward replaceable batteries can be understood through all three forms. Regulation creates coercive pressure. Companies that want access to major markets must comply. Competitor behavior creates mimetic pressure. If leading firms redesign products successfully, others may follow. Professional communities create normative pressure. Engineers, sustainability managers, compliance officers, and product designers increasingly learn that repairability and circular design are part of good practice.

This means that replaceable battery design may move from being a special feature to becoming a normal expectation. At first, some companies may see it as a burden. Later, it may become an industry standard. Eventually, consumers may ask why a product is not repairable, just as they now ask why a product does not have basic safety, warranty, or energy-efficiency features.

3. Method

This article uses a qualitative conceptual method. It does not present laboratory testing or statistical survey data. Instead, it studies replaceable batteries as a case example in technology management, regulation, and sustainability.

The method has four steps.

First, the article identifies the main problem: many modern portable electronic devices are difficult to repair because their batteries are sealed or hard to access. Since batteries often lose capacity before the rest of the device becomes useless, this can shorten product life.

Second, the article places this problem within sustainable product life-cycle management. This allows the discussion to move beyond consumer convenience and toward wider questions of resource use, product longevity, waste reduction, and circular economy.

Third, the article applies three theoretical lenses: Bourdieu, world-systems theory, and institutional isomorphism. These theories help explain the cultural, global, and organizational dimensions of the issue.

Fourth, the article develops practical analysis for students of business and technology. It examines how replaceable batteries may affect product design, branding, supply chains, repair markets, regulation, and innovation strategy.

This method is suitable because the topic is not only technical. A replaceable battery is a physical component, but the decision to make it replaceable is social, economic, legal, and strategic. It involves many actors: designers, engineers, regulators, consumers, repair professionals, suppliers, investors, and environmental organizations.

The article therefore treats the battery not as a small hidden part, but as a useful entry point into understanding modern product responsibility.

4. Analysis

4.1 From Sealed Design to Responsible Design

The rise of sealed electronic devices was not accidental. It came from real design goals. Companies wanted to make products thinner, lighter, stronger, and more attractive. Sealed bodies helped reduce dust and water entry. They allowed tighter internal layouts. They also supported premium design language, where the product looked like one smooth object rather than a collection of parts.

From an engineering view, this approach had advantages. A sealed phone can feel solid. A sealed laptop can be thinner. A sealed tablet can have better structural strength. A smartwatch can be more resistant to sweat and water. These features matter to users.

However, every design decision has a trade-off. When a device is tightly sealed, repair may become difficult. If the battery is glued strongly into the body, replacement may require heat, solvents, special tools, or professional skill. If spare parts are expensive or unavailable, repair may not be practical. If the repair process risks damaging the screen or body, users may avoid repair.

Responsible design asks companies to solve this trade-off creatively. It does not simply say that all devices must return to old removable covers. It asks whether companies can design products that are still elegant, safe, compact, and durable while also allowing battery replacement. This is a design challenge, but it is also an innovation opportunity.

A good example for students is the difference between fashion and architecture. A building should look good, but it must also allow maintenance. Pipes, cables, elevators, and safety systems must be serviceable. If a beautiful building cannot be maintained, it becomes a problem. The same logic can apply to electronic devices. A beautiful device should also be maintainable.

4.2 Repairability as a Business Strategy

Many companies once treated repair as an after-sales issue. The main business goal was to sell new products. Repair was often seen as secondary. Today, repairability can become part of business strategy.

A company that offers repairable products may build trust with customers. Users may feel safer buying a device if they know that the battery can be replaced later. A student buying a laptop for study may value long-term use. A small business buying tablets for employees may prefer devices that can remain in service for more years. A parent buying a phone for a child may prefer a product that can be repaired instead of replaced.

Repairability can also support brand reputation. In a market where consumers are more aware of sustainability, companies can show responsibility through design. This must be real, not only marketing language. A product that is advertised as sustainable but cannot be repaired may create disappointment. A product that is genuinely serviceable can support stronger loyalty.

There is also a cost dimension. At first, redesigning products for battery replacement may increase engineering costs. Companies may need to change internal layouts, sealing methods, spare part systems, manuals, safety processes, and warranty models. But over time, repairable design may reduce customer frustration, improve compliance, support resale value, and create service-based revenue.

For example, a company could sell official replacement batteries at fair prices. It could train certified repair partners. It could offer repair manuals and safe tools. It could design software that recognizes battery health without blocking legitimate replacement. This would turn repair from a problem into a managed service ecosystem.

4.3 Apple and the Design Balance

Companies such as Apple are often discussed in this context because they have strongly influenced modern product design. Apple’s products are known for integration, visual simplicity, strong hardware-software connection, and premium user experience. This design philosophy has shaped the wider technology market.

The issue is not that sealed design is always bad. Many sealed devices are high quality, durable, and technically advanced. The issue is whether future design can keep these strengths while improving repairability. This is a more balanced question.

For business students, this is important because it avoids simple thinking. It would be too easy to say that old removable batteries were good and modern sealed batteries are bad. The reality is more complex. Old removable designs were easier to service, but they often had limits in water resistance, compactness, and structural strength. Modern sealed designs are advanced, but they can make repair harder. The future challenge is to combine the best parts of both.

This is where innovation becomes meaningful. True innovation is not only adding a better camera, faster chip, or brighter screen. It is also solving contradictions. Can a device be thin and repairable? Can it be water-resistant and serviceable? Can it be beautiful and modular? Can it protect users from unsafe third-party parts while still allowing fair repair?

These questions show that regulation can push firms toward deeper innovation. A rule may look like a constraint, but it can also open new design pathways. Many important innovations happened because companies had to solve new limits in safety, energy use, emissions, accessibility, or quality.

4.4 The Consumer’s Role

Consumers are not passive in this change. Their choices influence the market. If buyers reward products that are repairable and durable, companies will pay attention. If buyers care only about the newest model, companies may continue to focus mainly on replacement cycles.

However, consumer behavior is shaped by information. Many users do not know how battery design affects product life. They may notice only that their phone battery becomes weak after years of use. They may assume the entire phone is old, even when the main problem is only the battery. Better information can change this understanding.

Battery health indicators, repair cost transparency, and clear product labels can help. If users know that a battery can be replaced easily, they may keep the device longer. If they know the environmental cost of early replacement, they may make more responsible decisions. If replacement is affordable and safe, sustainable behavior becomes easier.

This point is important: sustainability should not depend only on moral pressure. Systems must make responsible choices practical. A user may want to repair a phone, but if repair is too expensive, too risky, or too complicated, they may buy a new one. Good policy and good design should reduce this gap between intention and action.

4.5 Repair Markets and Local Economic Value

Replaceable batteries may also support local repair markets. When products are easier to repair, technicians, small businesses, service centers, and refurbishers can create value. This can produce jobs and skills in local economies.

Repair work is not only manual labor. It requires technical knowledge, diagnostic ability, safety awareness, customer service, and sometimes software understanding. As products become more complex, repair skills can become more professional. Training programs, vocational education, and technical certifications may become more important.

For students, this shows that sustainability can create economic opportunities. A circular economy is not only about reducing waste. It can also create new business models: repair services, refurbished devices, certified spare parts, maintenance subscriptions, resale platforms, and recycling partnerships.

A university student studying business could develop a project around battery replacement services for schools, companies, or families. A technology student could design a safer battery access system. A management student could study how repair networks improve customer loyalty. A law student could study consumer rights and product responsibility. The topic is interdisciplinary.

4.6 Safety and Quality Concerns

Battery replacement must be safe. Lithium-ion batteries can be dangerous if damaged, badly made, incorrectly installed, or poorly managed. Companies are right to care about safety. Regulators must also consider safety. A poorly designed replaceable battery system could create risks of overheating, fire, swelling, counterfeit parts, or user injury.

This means that replaceability should not mean careless openness. It should mean controlled accessibility. A battery can be replaceable while still being protected by clear standards. The product can use safe connectors, guided access, battery authentication, thermal protection, and clear instructions. Replacement batteries can meet quality standards. Repair can be possible without making the product unsafe.

This point is important because some debates about repair become too emotional. One side may say companies block repair only for profit. Another side may say repair creates unacceptable safety risks. A better academic view recognizes both concerns. There can be commercial incentives to limit repair, but there can also be real safety issues. Good regulation should address both.

The aim is not to make products fragile or unsafe. The aim is to make them responsibly serviceable.

4.7 Environmental Meaning

The environmental importance of replaceable batteries comes from product longevity. If a device lasts longer, its environmental cost can be spread across more years of use. Manufacturing a new device requires materials, energy, transport, packaging, and distribution. If a battery replacement allows a device to remain useful, the environmental benefit may be significant.

Electronic waste is also a serious concern. Devices contain valuable materials, but recycling them is not always easy. Some materials are lost during disposal. Some waste is exported or handled under poor conditions. Even when recycling works, reuse and repair are often better than immediate material recovery because they preserve more of the product’s value.

A phone that is repaired keeps its screen, casing, chips, camera, and many other components in use. Recycling breaks the product down into materials. Recycling is necessary at the end of life, but repair can delay that end. In the waste hierarchy, longer use and repair often come before recycling.

This is why battery replacement is so powerful. It targets one of the main reasons why devices are discarded. The battery is a consumable part inside a durable product. If the consumable part cannot be replaced, the durable product becomes artificially short-lived.

4.8 Institutional Change in the Technology Sector

The EU battery rules may influence companies beyond Europe. Large technology firms often prefer to avoid making too many different versions of the same product for different markets. If one large market requires repairability, companies may redesign products more broadly. This is sometimes called a regulatory spillover effect.

Institutional isomorphism helps explain this process. Once repairability becomes a recognized requirement in one major region, companies may adjust globally. Competitors may copy each other. Suppliers may create new standard parts. Engineers may develop common design methods. Repairability may become a normal part of product development checklists.

This does not happen overnight. Firms may resist, negotiate, adapt slowly, or seek exceptions. But over time, institutional pressure can change what is considered normal. In the past, energy-efficiency labels, safety standards, recycling rules, and accessibility requirements also changed markets. Today, many of these standards are accepted as normal parts of business.

The same may happen with battery replacement. What looks difficult in the beginning may become a routine design requirement.

5. Findings

Finding 1: Replaceable Batteries Redefine Innovation

The first finding is that replaceable battery rules change the meaning of innovation. Innovation is often presented as speed, power, beauty, or novelty. But sustainable innovation also includes longevity, repairability, and responsible material use.

A company that designs a repairable product is not moving backward. It may be solving a more complex problem than before. It must combine engineering, safety, design, environmental responsibility, and customer experience. This is a high-level innovation challenge.

For students, the lesson is clear. Innovation is not only about making a product impressive on the first day. It is also about making the product useful over time.

Finding 2: Repairability Can Become Symbolic Value

Using Bourdieu’s theory, the article finds that repairability can become part of symbolic value. In older consumer culture, premium design was often linked to sealed bodies, smooth surfaces, and limited user access. In a more sustainability-focused culture, premium design may also include durability, responsible materials, and repair rights.

This does not mean consumers will stop caring about beauty. It means beauty may be redefined. A beautiful product can also be honest, durable, and maintainable. Responsible design can become a mark of status.

Finding 3: Battery Design Is Connected to Global Inequality and Resource Pressure

World-systems theory shows that battery design is connected to global systems of extraction, labor, manufacturing, consumption, and waste. A short product life in one market can increase pressure on raw material supply chains elsewhere. Difficult repair can increase replacement demand. Poor recycling can waste valuable resources.

Replaceable batteries cannot solve all global inequalities, but they can reduce some unnecessary pressure. They support longer use, repair markets, and circular economy practices.

Finding 4: Regulation Can Encourage Industry-Wide Change

Institutional isomorphism shows that regulation can reshape whole industries. When major markets create new requirements, companies often adapt. Once some firms adapt successfully, others may follow. Professional standards and consumer expectations then reinforce the change.

This suggests that replaceable battery rules may influence not only individual products but also design culture across the technology sector.

Finding 5: The Main Challenge Is Balance

The article finds that the central challenge is balance. Companies must balance repairability with safety, water resistance, compactness, durability, cost, and design elegance. A product that is easy to repair but unsafe is not good. A product that is beautiful but impossible to maintain is also not ideal.

The future of product design lies in balanced responsibility.

Finding 6: Repairability Creates Educational and Business Opportunities

Replaceable batteries can support new learning areas and business models. Students can study repair networks, circular economy strategy, product law, sustainable branding, technical design, and consumer behavior. Companies can develop services around replacement parts, certified repair, refurbished products, and long-term customer support.

This makes the topic valuable for business schools, technology programs, and sustainability education.

6. Discussion

The shift toward replaceable batteries should not be understood as a small technical rule. It is part of a wider change in modern capitalism. For much of the twentieth and early twenty-first century, economic growth was strongly connected to selling more new products. In consumer electronics, frequent upgrades became normal. A new model appeared, the old model lost status, and consumers were encouraged to replace rather than maintain.

This model produced strong innovation, but it also produced waste. It made sense in a period when environmental limits were less visible to many consumers. Today, the situation is different. Climate concerns, resource pressure, supply chain risks, and electronic waste have become central issues. A product that cannot be repaired now raises social and ethical questions.

The replaceable battery debate also shows that regulation and innovation are not enemies. Many companies prefer flexible markets, and excessive regulation can sometimes slow creativity. However, well-designed regulation can also correct market failures. If the market rewards short replacement cycles but society pays the environmental cost, regulation can push firms toward better design.

This is important for students because it shows the role of public policy in shaping business. Firms do not operate in an empty space. They operate within legal, cultural, and institutional environments. A good manager must understand these environments and prepare for change.

The topic also shows that sustainability is not only a department inside a company. It must be part of design, procurement, marketing, law, finance, logistics, and after-sales service. A sustainability report is not enough if the product itself is hard to repair. Real sustainability must be built into the object.

There is also a consumer education issue. Many users still think of sustainability mainly as recycling. Recycling is important, but it is only one part of the product life cycle. Repair and longer use are often more powerful. If students understand this, they can become better consumers and better future managers.

The classroom example of old removable phones and modern sealed smartphones is useful because it is simple. It shows that progress often creates new problems. Old phones were easier to open but less advanced. New phones are more advanced but harder to repair. The task is not to romanticize the past. The task is to design a better future.

7. Conclusion

Replaceable batteries represent more than a technical design change. They show a wider movement toward sustainable product life-cycle management. The European regulatory direction encourages companies to think beyond the first sale and consider the full life of the product. This includes repair, maintenance, reuse, recycling, safety, and user rights.

The case is especially important for smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other portable devices because batteries are often the first major component to weaken. If users can replace batteries safely and affordably, products can remain useful for longer. This reduces waste, supports repair markets, and encourages more responsible use of resources.

The theoretical lenses used in this article help deepen the analysis. Bourdieu shows that design carries symbolic meaning and that repairability may become part of modern status. World-systems theory shows that battery design is connected to global supply chains, raw materials, and waste systems. Institutional isomorphism shows how regulation and professional norms can push companies toward similar sustainable practices.

The main lesson for students is that innovation must be understood responsibly. A product is not truly advanced only because it is thin, fast, or beautiful. It is advanced when it serves users well, lasts longer, can be maintained, and respects wider social and environmental needs.

Future business leaders, engineers, designers, and policymakers should therefore see replaceable batteries as part of a larger question: how can modern products be designed for both performance and responsibility? The answer will shape not only the next generation of devices, but also the next generation of business thinking.

Hashtags

#SustainableDesign #ReplaceableBatteries #CircularEconomy #ProductLifeCycle #Repairability #TechnologyManagement #ResponsibleInnovation #BusinessEducation #SustainabilityStudies #STULIB

References

Bocken, N. M. P., Short, S. W., Rana, P., & Evans, S. “A Literature and Practice Review to Develop Sustainable Business Model Archetypes.” Journal of Cleaner Production, 2014.

Blomsma, F., & Brennan, G. “The Emergence of Circular Economy: A New Framing Around Prolonging Resource Productivity.” Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2017.

Bourdieu, P. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Harvard University Press, 1984.

Cooper, T. “Slower Consumption: Reflections on Product Life Spans and the Throwaway Society.” Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2005.

DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields.” American Sociological Review, 1983.

Geissdoerfer, M., Savaget, P., Bocken, N. M. P., & Hultink, E. J. “The Circular Economy: A New Sustainability Paradigm?” Journal of Cleaner Production, 2017.

Guiltinan, J. “Creative Destruction and Destructive Creations: Environmental Ethics and Planned Obsolescence.” Journal of Business Ethics, 2009.

Papanek, V. Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change. Pantheon Books, 1971.

Stahel, W. R. The Circular Economy: A User’s Guide. Routledge, 2019.

Tukker, A. “Product Services for a Resource-Efficient and Circular Economy.” Journal of Cleaner Production, 2015.

Wallerstein, I. The Modern World-System. Academic Press, 1974.