Abstract Body

Ongoing urbanisation and current environmental concerns such as global warming, climate change and the required transition towards a more circular and renewable way of living, will have a large impact on the character and functionality of our cities and in particular of local neighbourhoods – the building blocks of our cities. Sustainable solutions for urban resource management are increasingly organised in a decentral way and need to be spatially embedded and supported by local communities. Local and global goals towards a sustainable future are often visionary and ambitious, however the reality of designing and implementing effective measures is not so straightforward due to complex institutional systems, vested interests and local resistance to the proposed change. This transition requires therefore new forms of design and development processes for the (re)development of neighbourhoods.

This particular study aims at getting insight in how participatory processes can enhance the implementation of circular initiatives at the level of the neighbourhood in order to accelerate the transition towards sustainable urban areas. Six recently implemented Dutch circular initiatives are analysed following the ‘value flower field method', which has been specifically developed for this research. This method enables a multi-layered analysis of ambitions, actors, resource cycle(s), spatial interventions and value creation. The data is gathered through interviews with key stakeholders, site observations and a study of the policy documents and plans. The results demonstrate that ambitious (organised) citizens are able to create multiple local value by closing resource cycles at neighbourhood level. Collaboration of the initiators with the local municipality is often not straightforward because the organizational structures of the local municipality often work against the integral approach inherently needed by the nature of the locally initiated interventions. The value flower field map method provided insight in the integrality of the urban metabolism implementation and value creation processes and could therefore be used as a process tool for future initiatives.