Literature
Videos
Corvellec, Hervé, Alison F. Stowell, and Nils Johansson. 2021. ‘Critiques of the Circular Economy’. Journal of Industrial Ecology jiec.13187. doi: 10.1111/jiec.13187.
Fratini, Chiara Farné, Susse Georg, and Michael Søgaard Jørgensen (2019). Exploring Circular Economy Imaginaries in European Cities: A Research Agenda for the Governance of Urban Sustainability Transitions. Journal of Cleaner Production 228: 974–89. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.193.
Kębłowski, W., Lambert, D. & Bassens, D. (2020) Circular economy and the city: an urban political economy agenda, Culture and Organization, 26:2, 142-158, DOI: 10.1080/14759551.2020.1718148.
Description: Wojciech Kębłowski, who is a 4CITIES alumnus and opens the 2022 Spring School on Friday, and colleagues, provide a critical urban political economy perspective on the state of the circular economy in Brussels to unpack a series of key contradictions, tensions, and limitations of ‘circular’ policies and practices in contemporary cities. They explore how the anticipated transition to a ‘circular city’ chimes with long-standing urban development agendas in Brussels. The article concludes with suggesting to further analyze what power relations underpin both ‘circular’ practices and policies, and to address the fundamental question of who ultimately is set to benefit or lose from the anticipated transition towards the CE. Analyzing it through the urban scale is essential to explore the tensions between its capacity to facilitate a radical societal change on the one hand, and the deepening exigencies of capital accumulation on the other.
Munaro, M.R., Tavares, S. F. & Bragança, L. (2020). Towards circular and more sustainable buildings: A systematic literature review on the circular economy in the built environment, Journal of Cleaner Production 260, 121134. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121134.
Prendeville, S., Cherim, E., & Bocken, N. (2018). Circular Cities: Mapping Six Cities in Transition. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 26, 171–194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2017.03.002
Rios, F.C., Panic, S., Grau, D., Khanna, V., Zapitelli, J. & Bilec, M. (2022). Exploring circular economies in the built environment from a complex systems perspective: A systematic review and conceptual model at the city scale, Sustainable Cities and Society 80, 103411. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.103411
Description: Fernanda Cruz Rios et al. (2020) conduct a systemic literature review to present a state of research on the circular economy as it is currently being applied to the built environment. More specifically, by analyzing the requirements for a more circular built environment through a systems lens, they highlight the various interdependent spheres, including governmental, economic, environmental, technological, and societal, which must collaborate to ensure a more holistic CE implementation. Subsequently, this article will help you prepare for the Friday afternoon session on methods and tools for transdisciplinary research, were you will co-create challenges of circularity in the built environment with urban practitioners from Vienna.
Williams, J. (2021). Moving from a circular economy to a circular city, in: Williams, J. (2021). Circular Cities: A Revolution in Urban Sustainability (1st ed.). Routledge, 8–18. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429490613.
Description: This chapter by Jo Williams presents the current conceptualization of a circular city and suggests that a new conceptualization is needed. Thus, it advocates a shift in focus from circular business models and industrial production processes in cities (an economic focus) to circular urban systems (a socio-ecological focus), integrating sustainability concepts such as ecological footprint, sufficiency and adaptive capacity. Accordingly, it provides a sound overview of the development of the circular city concept and how it can be adapted and applied to construct resource-efficient, ecologically regenerative, and resilient cities.
Video Resources
Kate Raworth: Downscaling the Doughnut to the City:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCqGf7T9ABo
Description: In this short video, economist Kate Raworth, builds on her (circular) economic model of the ‘doughnut economics’, which connects planetary boundaries with social boundaries to create a safe and just space between the two in which humanity can thrive. She presents how this model can be scaled down to the city to become a tool for transformative action while addressing the complex and interlinked societal and environmental challenges of the 21st century. She introduces the idea of the city portrait and illustrates it with the example of the housing sector of the City of Amsterdam. This video offers some concrete insights into the application of a complex circular economy concept at city level. You will encounter the concept of the doughnut economics again in the ‘Amsterdam Circular Strategy’ and in the Viennese ‘Climate Roadmap’.
Kate Raworth: A healthy economy should be designed to thrive, not grow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhcrbcg8HBw
Metabolic's Eva Gladek: Circular cities in practice: From the Netherlands to North Carolina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eudGXvllOt8
Audio Resources
Podcast series “Advancing Sustainable Solutions” by the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University. Episode: “The Circular Economy and You” (8.11.2018) https://open.spotify.com/episode/5VB4dvobVZLG5EhoKfW78O?si=KrBzs_L4TLGdonoV1VpaiQ
Podcasts series “The EY Sustainability Matters podcast” by Chris Hagler. Episode: “How redefining the circular economy could reshape a sustainable planet” (29.11.2021) https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Ab9Jb4mKmwNGa5ZTQ3IaS?si=ernU9DjgRW2h7azBmkPOIQ
Podcasts series “Getting In the Loop” by Katie Whalen https://open.spotify.com/show/5lKLRRVssyVnjJWj0TSJGn?si=22m0qYt8TR63qNNrb6b_2QPodcasts