Towards a circular degrowth economy: Explaining the material valorization regime of city-regions

Introduction

A transition towards a degrowth economy is necessary to tackle the related challenges of resource scarcity and waste accumulation. Degrowth pursues socio-economic wealth while reducing material flows and reusing waste in socially responsible and ecologically regenerative ways.

Circular Economy

As a concrete approach to realizing these ends, the concept of the circular economy has gathered political momentum. However, this model will have no impact on city-regions' ecological footprint unless it challenges the regulations that dismiss certain materials as waste in the first place.

DECYCLE Framework

DECYCLE lays the groundwork for studying the regulatory frameworks that make it possible to revalue waste materials as a resource for city-regional development. It develops an approach termed 'institutional urban political ecology', which combines city-regions' regulatory, spatial, and ecological dimensions, usually studied separately.

Regulatory Interrogation

It interrogates the legal, spatial, and economic regulations that define waste streams' political responsibilities, geographies, and financial architecture. DECYCLE puts forward a new concept, the material valorization regime, to explain how these regulations govern the valorization of waste across multiple scales.

Methodology

It develops a distinct new method of 'enactment tracing' for critical urban research, which involves mapping actors engaged in defending and contesting regulations.

Comparative Analysis

DECYCLE comparatively analyzes how regulations valorize streams of construction, food, and heat waste in:

1. Hamburg
2. Amsterdam
3. Barcelona
4. Vienna
5. Milan

Transnational Frameworks

It also explains how transnational regulatory frameworks affect waste reduction at the city-regional scale.

Theoretical Contributions

By theorizing the relationship between regulatory change and the urban metabolism in contemporary eco-capitalism, DECYCLE sets out to free urbanization from its dependency on the production of waste and raw materials. In so doing, it lays the foundations for future socio-spatial inquiry into the institutional basis of city-regional metabolisms.