Interpreting Circularity. Circular City Representations Concealing Transition Drivers

Abstract

Embodying circular economy transition as a sustainable city concept, circularity in cities is increasingly the subject of policy innovations, urban strategies, and research & development agendas. It seems evident that a circular city should include more than the sum or multiplication of urban circular economies. Nevertheless, prevailing discourses remain till today business focused, and how circular economy creates economic, social, and environmental resilience in cities has yet to be explored. This paper conceptualizes the notion of urban circularity. It introduces an analytical framework sorting existing circularity concepts that are based on design and planning characteristics. Adopting comparative case study research on four contemporary forward-looking spatial representations of 'circular' places, this paper articulates their circularity interpretation. Demonstrating how diverging sustainability framings and political positions are embedded within the studied spatial representations, this paper aims to bring clarity in contemporary circular city approaches for policymakers as well as for spatial practitioners. The paper concludes with an agenda for multi-perspective and multi-dimensional circular city design, which is anchored in place specific and multi-scalar transition relations. It suggests urban landscape design as a disciplinary field to act as a pivot in transdisciplinary circularity design and research.

Indicator development as a site of collective imagination? The case of European Commission policies on the circular economy

“…The current policy context in the EU is one in which economic growth is one of the main priorities, as formulated by the Europe 2020 strategy for 'smart, inclusive and sustainable growth'. Our analysis thus confirms previous findings, which argue that specific radical environmental measures might be possible, any policy for sustainability and protection of the environment has to be seen as compatible with the general goal of economic growth and thus what comes to be collectively imagined as circular future is mediated by particular ideas of economic and sustainability goals (Marin and De Meulder 2018). This is nothing new.…”

“…This ambiguity of the concept is usually mediated in its practical application by concepts such as sustainability. Marin and De Meulder (2018) identify different sustainability frameworks and political positions that are guiding the implementation of circular economy initiatives: they argue that what they call objectivist framings tend to foreground a 'technology and entrepreneurial "applied" circular economy' (Marin and De Meulder 2018, 13) while constructivist framings focus on the social organization of consumption, thus directing attention to practices of sharing, re-using and collaborating. These different frames relate to technocratic or emancipatory political positions respectively.…”

Towards a territorial definition of a circular economy: exploring the role of territorial factors in closed-loop systems

“…Even though the theoretical and practical elements underpinning the circular economy and its materialization are rooted on long-standing concepts and epistemic, the literature agrees on the fact that the basic assumptions concerning the economic and social structures, cultures, norms and everyday habits surrounding the development of closed-loop systems still remain largely unexplored (Hobson 2019;Korhonen, Honkasalo, and Seppälä 2018;Marin and Meulder 2018;Merli, Preziosi, and Acampora 2018). An aspect that remains under-researched is the spatial and territorial dimension of closed-loop systems, in particular the relational logic of geographical norms and scales as factors for adequate management of resources (Barles 2009).…”

A Systematic Literature Network Analysis of Existing Themes and Emerging Research Trends in Circular Economy

“…Interestingly the Main Path concludes by ramifying into two distinguished directions ( Figure 3). Indeed, the latest emerging topics address CE in cities by [73] from Architecture, and the institutions and governance structures role in linked value chains by [74] from Agricultural Engineering. In parallel, the tendency of scholars to review and conceptualize CE still holds through [70] from Sustainability, addressing the inhibitors of CE development in Europe, and [69] from Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Resource Recovery, who explore tools for CE implementation.…”