Sustainability meets innovation: Translating circular economy imaginaries at the urban scale.

Sustainability meets innovation: Translating circular economy imaginaries at the urban scale.

Zora Kovacic, Estudis d’Economia i Empresa, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

Ideas of a circular economy are central to the European Green Deal and have become ubiquitous in policy, both at the European and at the national level. First formulated as an improved waste management strategy, the circular economy became the economic growth strategy of the European Commission in 2015. Following the mainstreaming of the circular economy in EU policy, ideas of a circular economy are applied to all sorts of economic sectors and territorial units. The objective of this paper is to assess how the circular economy imaginary is translated and implemented at the urban scale. I follow the approach used by Volker et al (2024), who argue that the process of “implementation” of broad policy concepts is better understood as a process of “translation”. Concepts are understood as emerging from specific configurations of actors and relationships. Translation is the process through which new actors are identified in a different context, relationships and roles are negotiated, so that imported concepts can be adapted to the local context.

Urban areas are “linear” par excellence, as they often function as logistic nodes and as end-of-line consumption of final goods produced in urban and industrial areas. Moreover, European urban and peri-urban areas have suffered a process of de-industrialisation as economies have shifted towards the service sector. Innovation has become a driver of urban development (Zukin 2020), through the establishment of innovation districts, and a driver of economic growth in urban areas. Hence, importing the concept of “circular economy” requires a process of translation. I study this translation through ethnographic research, based on 20 interviews with key actors from public administration (city councils, provincial and regional governments of Catalunya), consultancies, and non-governmental organisations. The geographic coverage includes the cities of Barcelona, of el Vallès area, and of Maresme. The Barcelona region is of particular interest because it is emblematic of the process of deindustrialisation and shift towards the service sector. Barcelona is a leading example of the innovation complex, being the first city worldwide to establish an “innovation district” in Poblenou in the year 2000.

Results show that ideas about the circular economy are translated to the urban context through the logic of innovation. Circular economy policies materialise through (i) the creation of circular economy districts (such as the Circular Park of Mataró-Maresme), aimed at attracting business to urban and peri-urban areas, (ii) the channeling of public funding towards innovation, by favouring pilot projects, start-ups and digitalisation, and (iii) an autarkic turn that aims at re-territorialising industrial activities and that equates sustainability with improved self-sufficiency.

Bibliography:

Völker, T., Slaattelid, R., & Strand, R. (2024). Translations of Responsibility: Innovation Governance in Three European Regions (p. 243). Taylor & Francis.

Zukin, S. (2020). The innovation complex: Cities, tech, and the new economy. Oxford University Press.