The project explored how urban communities in social housing can contribute to the implementation of a circular economy (CE) in cities, and how they can be engaged in envisioning the transition to a CE.
Cities heavily contribute to the current climate crisis due to the growing urbanization combined with our current linear production-consumption system. Cities emit around 70% of carbon emissions, consume over 78% of the world’s energy and 75% of natural resources, and produce over 50% of global waste. Resource efficiency in cities depends on consumption and production patterns that are strongly linked to citizens’ lifestyles and behaviors. Almost one-fourth of the ecological footprint of cities in the UK consists of citizens’ food and drink consumption and that together with three other components - travel, energy, and consumables - constitutes 70% of the total footprint.
The CE offers an approach to rethink and reshape current production and consumption practices to reduce resource use, minimize waste and enable society, the economy, and the environment to prosper sustainably. Until now, the CE has mainly focused on technical innovations in materials, products, business models, and industrial systems with reduced attention to social practices and behavioral change. On the other side, the literature on behavioral change highlights the crucial role played by social innovation (SI) in promoting sustainable living and resource efficiency. SIs are initiatives that encourage alternative social practices through citizens’ engagement, the creation of new roles and relationships, the development of new assets and capabilities, and improved access to power and use of resources. Even if it is acknowledged that these interventions complement top-down initiatives in the implementation of a CE in cities, SIs are not well-known or well-established.
Therefore, the project pointed at exploring the phenomenon of SI for a CE in urban communities and groups of interest through the analysis of collective interventions aimed at promoting circular production and consumption practices among citizens to define the potential contribution of social housing communities to a CE. This study provided the identification of seven types of SI for a CE that can engage social housing communities in a transition to a CE. Based on this typology, the study defined potential opportunities, benefits, and challenges for social housing. Moreover, it showed that SI can hold a complementary role with the industry, government, and institution in the implementation of a CE in cities. Therefore, the project suggested the introduction of emerging SI concepts in the CE approach to overcome current limitations in the CE approach and support the transition to a CE in cities.
