SS01 & SS02 III. Circular Economy:
Space
Wednesday, 16 June 16:00 – 18:00 CEST Zoom
Chair: Karel Van den Berghe Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
This open-paper session is part of a series of sessions focussing on the Circular Economy (CE). The CE poses an increasing challenge for spatial researchers, from analysing (what, where), monitoring (performance) to pro-actively policy-making (cf. EU Green Deal and many national policy programs). This session invites papers that focus in particular on the role of space in the transition towards the CE. It is presumed that in the CE locations and geography will play a more crucial role. Already today we see that in many research papers and policy documents the focus is shifting away from global flows to regional and local flows of materials and products, in order to extend the life-cycle of products and reduce waste generation and consumption of resources. Regions and cities play a key role in this transition towards CE, and already today we see that at those scales the majority of circular innovations emerge. It also in regions and cities that action can best be taken to explore the flows of materials and propose new policies and strategies to close material loops and connect the relevant industrial, institutional and social stakeholders. Nevertheless, the vast majority of CE innovations focusses on Recycling, and fail to have higher impact that deal with Repair, Reuse, Reduce and Rethink. An explanation that circular innovations have difficulties to achieve higher impact, is that the technical aspects dominate innovation, without connecting these to socioeconomic, spatial and institutional aspects, which are especially relevant for higher R-level innovations. In particular, it is not fully understood what constrains or enables the type and impact of innovations to develop in and beyond particular places. Therefore, this session invites contributions that use space as a lens to study CE and contribute to debates on circularity.
All the related sessions:
On 16-17 June we will have 4 sessions, co-organised with colleagues from our Faculty’s Management in the Built Environment department, on circular economy as part of the Regional Studies Association’s Regions in Recovery e-Festival. The sessions will include range of exciting new research presented, focusing on governance, spatial and social dimensions, as well post-COVID recovery. The online event is open and free to attend. Please see here for more details.