About the toolkit

The REFLOW Collaborative Governance Toolkit (RCGT) is a ‘how to’ resource supporting and sustaining the design and development of collaborative governance approaches for the transition to circular and regenerative cities. The RCGT is developed by the REFLOW project.

Against grand challenges of sustainable urban development, the circular economy appears as a viable alternative to our linear, extractive economic model, as it can contribute to turn cities into restorative and regenerative places by design. Yet, the transition to circular cities requires radical new levels of synergies, collaboration and strategic alliances between all actors that have a stake in the circular economy - policymakers, enterprises, social organizations, universities, citizens, etc. -, as well as new forms of infrastructuring collaboration in ways that can unleash innovation at scale. Inquiring and exploring collaborative governance for the circular economy in cities is therefore a foundational step for any meaningful and long-term oriented transition, and this Toolkit aims to be a practical guide for cities willing to engage in such a transition. At this stage, the Toolkit is presented as a design concept.

First, the document outlines the design framework and overall journey which underpin the development of collaborative governance arrangements in the six pilot cities of the REFLOW project. Furthermore, it describes the core activities that, along the journey, will represent the concrete ground for collaborative governance experimentation and learning, and thereby the terrain for the development of specific tools and supporting resources which will feed the Toolkit over time. Lastly, this document also explains how the Toolkit is meant to be implemented over time in order to crystallize our progress and make it accessible to both the REFLOW partners and other interested cities and stakeholders.

The current outlook of the Toolkit reflects a number of activities implemented in the first year of the project, including exploratory research on collaborative governance, pilot cities’ policy review, mapping of existing tools and guidelines for the circular economy in cities, analysis of the Pilot Cities Action Plans developed by the REFLOW Cities, as well as scoping out of their core challenges and opportunities.

Part of this work is already captured in the REFLOW Handbook which - besides an exploration of collaborative governance approaches in European cities - also provides the initial design framework and principles that form the backbone of the Toolkit.

Cities are very diverse across Europe, and the REFLOW pilot cities are a microcosm of such a diversity. Moreover, in the context of REFLOW, the pilot cities focus on different sectors, with different articulations of partnerships and different sets of expertise, knowledge and skills. Working in diversity and acknowledging its value is the fundamental starting point for any Toolkit, and the reason why - at this stage - the REFLOW Collaborative Governance Toolkit is a ‘loosely designed’ resource. Rather than proposing standardized activities and tools, it instead provides an architecture of activities that each pilot city can creatively combine and personalize according to specific needs, shaping specific journeys that in turn will generate a diversity of tools and resources for collaborative governance in the circular economy. Following this flexible and iterative approach, the Toolkit will be updated and revised over time as we progress throughout the journey, and we discover new and better ways to design for circularity in urban contexts.