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Growing in popularity, the circular city framework is at the leading-edge of a larger and older transitional dialogue which envisions regenerative, circular, and symbiotic systems as the future of urban sustainability. The need for more research supporting the implementation of such concepts has been often noted in literature. To help address this gap, this holistic review assesses a range of pertinent sustainability frameworks as a platform to identify actionable strategies which can be leveraged to support and implement circular city goals. This assessment is grounded in a holistic overview of related frameworks across interdisciplinary and scalar domains including circular city, the food-water-energy nexus, circular economy, bioeconomy, industrial symbiosis, regenerative design, and others. Building on these interrelationships, the applied strategies espoused within these publications are synthesized and assessed in the context of circular city implementation. From an initial 250 strategies identified in literature, thirty-four general implementation strategies across six thematic areas are distinguished and discussed, finding strong overlaps in implementation strategies between frameworks, and opportunities to further develop and harness these synergies to advance circular city toward sustainable urban futures.
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How Do Local Officials Conceptualize Sustainability as Practiced in Their Communities?: An Examination of U.S. Cities
Although they play a key role in shaping local efforts, there is limited research on how city officials define sustainability as it is practiced in their communities. To address this limitation and contribute to planning research, we leveraged a unique nationwide data set of sustainability definitions provided by the sustainability lead in more than 400 U.S city governments. Our study’s qualitative analysis of these statements complements existing research by exploring emerging themes on how sustainability is perceived and practiced at the local level. Results indicated that practitioners’ conceptualizations reflected five general orientation categories: action, aspiration, emotion, process and organization, and progress. We evaluated the association of these general orientation categories with cities’ administrative arrangements, political environments, resources, and capacities. Findings suggested that supportive contexts were associated with city sustainability staff defining sustainability in aspirational terms, as opposed to emphasizing progress or discrete actions.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2021044
- PAR ID:
- 10497645
- Publisher / Repository:
- Taylor & Francis Online
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of the American Planning Association
- ISSN:
- 0194-4363
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 13
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2024.2312941
