What is a Circular Transition?

Circular economy is a transitional concept. It is less a constellation of existing policies and regulations or business practices, than it is a strategic vision for a more sustainable economy. Therefore, circular transition speaks for a bold shift in attitudes, norms and institutions towards forms that embrace circularity in use of materials, resources, as well as immaterial capacities. Moreover, circularity entails cross-sectoral synergies and synchronization by diverse agents to get critical traction. Many of the institutional preconditions for a circular transition are not in place yet, concerning the policy outcomes and administrative capacity; the defined economic returns and viability; and social and cultural norms and legitimacy.

Therefore, a Collaborative Governance approach for circular transition acknowledges this indispensable condition, and allows for the mobilization of the necessary parties from all concerned domains. Governance may be seen as a neutral concept, yet dynamic and context-specific. It can take different configurations in different places and different times and it is based on the institutions establishing the relations and interaction among the involved parties.

The focus of the REFLOW project is premised on the potential of cities to adopt circular economic strategies. The impact of the intensifying ecological and social crisis has contributed to an increasing pursuit of viable alternatives to build resilience locally, and simultaneously create the conditions to (re)gear the economic and social drives towards more generative and sustainable practices globally.

This toolkit aims to guide cities on the first steps of this potential transition, providing a dynamic and iterative documentation of this process.