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Going circular: Unlocking the potential of regions and cities to drive the circular economy transition – RSA Expo
This research is a joint collaboration between TU delft and UCL . It aims to understand how a circular transition will impact on regions and cities. It seeks to determine the spatial, geopolitical and social implications of circular transitions in regions and cities. It investigates the governance and policy challenges created by a circular transition. It seeks to develop a more regenerative understanding of circularity to understand how circular city-regions might emerge. It also assesses how progress towards such a transition might be measured. Contact: joanna.williams@ucl.ac.uk publicationS- Williams, J. van Buren, E., van den Berghe, K and Dabrowski, M. (2023) Going circular: unlocking the potential of regions and cities to drive the circular economy transition, RSA Book (Forthcoming)
Watch the workshop |
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The Dynamic and Evolving Linkages and Processes that Characterise the Governance and Planning of Urban Circularity in Shrinking Cities With the abundance of vacant land, shrinking cities provide a fertile ground for the development of urban circularity. Meanwhile, urban circular activities can be an important, yet unexplored asset in tackling shrinkage. However, in shrinking cities, a wide spectrum of coalitions and the actual interplay of power, normative settings, and different actors’ interests generate specific traditions and cultures which lead to a hegemony of certain narratives about the nature of urban problems, their causes, and possible solutions. The central issue of transitioning to urban circularity in shrinking contexts, therefore, concerns the efforts to involve a huge variety of stakeholders and to align their expectations and ambitions. Consequently, the question of how different actors come together and work to deliver the transformation of an urban ecosystem of a shrinking city needs to be put under further scrutiny. On that account, this research aims to examine the dynamic and evolving linkages and processes that characterise the governance and planning of urban circularity in shrinking cities. Contact: marjan.marjanovic@ucl.ac.uk |
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Going Circular – Addressing the climate change emergency
The research aims to determine the reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from transitioning to a circular development pathway in cities . The circular development pathway integrates resource looping (e.g. grey-water and infrastructure recycling, energy recovery); urban adaptation (flexible infrastructure, spaces, self-organising communities); and ecological regeneration (the restoration of urban ecosystem services), to enable the city-region to co-evolve with societal needs, whilst reducing its ecological footprint and GHG emissions (through sequestration, energy recovery, localising resource flows, reducing waste going to landfill, etc). It will produce methodologies and tools which can be used by cities to calculate the emissions savings they can make from adopting this approach. Contact: joanna.williams@ucl.ac.uk |
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Building Back Better: Towards Circular Development Post-COVID
This research explores two questions: - How the impacts of COVID-19 on our cities might be addressed by adopting a circular development pathway.
- How the Circular Experiments have survived or failed during the pandemic and why.
Contact: joanna.williams@ucl.ac.uk and rendy.aditya.21@ucl.ac.uk PUBLICATIONS
- Williams, J (2023) After COVID: a circular recovery in European cities, in The Future of Liveable Cities, Springer. (Forthcoming)
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A Comparison of Circular Strategies Across European Cities
This research examines the different strategies for delivering circular development, drawing on examples from four European cities: Amsterdam, London, Paris and Stockholm. It explores these different development pathways and levers for transformation. Finally, it focuses on the challenges to implementation faced by urban actors. Contact: joanna.williams@ucl.ac.uk Publications- Williams, J (2021) Circular Cities: a revolution in urban sustainability, Routledge: London. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429490613
- Williams, J (2019) The Circular Regeneration of a Seaport. Sustainability, 11(12), 3424; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11123424
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Circular Transitions: London Circular Experiments
This study sought to: - Map a range of circular experiments across London.
- Identify the mechanisms and levers for scaling-up these experiments.
- Explore the circular transformation in a placed-based circular living lab in London.
Contact: joanna.williams@ucl.ac.uk and m.josefine.hintz@gmail.com PublicationsWilliams, J and Hintz, M (2023) Catalysing a circular transition in Brixton, Transitions in Circular Economy, Routledge Handbook. (Forthcoming) |
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Circular cities: strategies, challenges and knowledge gaps
This project seeks to define a circular city. It investigates the strategies for delivery and how these complement or conflict with one another. It identifies the challenges – cultural, economic, political, regulatory, institutional, physical and informational – facing the implementation of circular strategies. Finally it explores the knowledge gaps and begins to develop a future research agenda.Contact: joanna.williams@ucl.ac.uk Publications
- Williams, J (2019) Circular cities. Urban Studies, 56(13), pp.2746-2762. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098018806133
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