scholarly journals Degrowing circular cities: emerging socio-technical experiments for Transition

2021 ◽  
pp. 201-207
Author(s):  
Cristina Visconti
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Continuous Growth ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Economic Interactions ◽  
Transition Towns ◽  
Growth Scenario

The circular economy applied to the urban context is linked to sustainability objectives focused on environmental performances overlooking socio-political implications, in order to achieve a circular balance within the neoliberal paradigm of business-nature-society in a continuous growth scenario. This paper discusses this criticality, articulating a counter perspective based on the debate of degrowth, circularity and technology through the analysis of three cases of socio-technical assemblages: Transition Towns; Repair Cafes; Community Gardens. The research individuates the effectiveness of urban practices in which the circularity is implemented beyond purely economic interactions or eco-efficiency parameters, defining the potentialities of a degrowing circular city based on inclusiveness, social justice and reciprocity.

scholarly journals Narrating technonatures: discourses of biotechnology in a neoliberal era

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 186
Author(s):  
Myles Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Political ◽  
Effective Strategy ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Status ◽  
Political Economic

This article considers the role played by discourses of nature in structuring the cultural politics of anti-GMO activism. It argues that such discourses have been successful rhetorical tools for activists because they mobilize widely resonant nature-culture dualisms that separate the natural and human worlds. However, these discourses hold dubious political implications. In valorizing the natural as a source of essential truth, natural purity discourses fail to challenge how naturalizations have been used to legitimize sexist, racist and colonial systems of injustice and oppression. Rather, they revitalize the discursive purchase of appeals to nature as a justification for the status quo, indirectly reinforcing existing power relations. Moreover, these discourses fail to challenge the critical though contingent reality of GMOs' location within the wider framework of neoliberal social relations. Fortunately, appeals to natural purity have not been the only effective strategy for opposing GMOs. Activist campaigns that directly target the political economic implications of GMOs within the context of neoliberalism have also had successes without resorting to appeals to the purity of nature. The successes of these campaigns suggest that while nature-culture dualisms remain politically effective normative groundings, concerns over equity, farmers' rights, and democracy retain potential as ideological terrains in the struggle for social justice.

scholarly journals Circular Economy in Poland: Profitability Analysis for Two Methods of Waste Processing in Small Municipalities

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 5166
Author(s):  
Przemysław Zaleski ◽  
Yash Chawla
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Solid Waste Management ◽  
District Heating ◽  
Municipal Solid Waste Management ◽  
Waste Processing ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Civic Society ◽  
Profitability Analysis ◽  
Polish Government

The problem of diminishing resources on our plant is now getting due attention from the governments as well as scientists around the world. The transition from a linear economy to a circular economy (CE) is now among the top priorities. This article discusses the implementation of the circular economy paradigm in Poland through the analysis of the existing and planned mechanisms, and actions taken by the Polish government which can be replicated by other young European countries. Further, the article discusses the direction of change and projected measures planned by the Polish government to improve the quality of municipal solid waste management. In this context, profitability analysis is carried out for two methods of waste processing (incineration and torrefaction) intended for small municipalities and settlements in which district heating and trading of generated electricity are not feasible. The results of the analysis shows that torrefaction is clearly a more desirable waste processing option as a step towards the implementation of CE for civic society in the urban context, as well as profitability, in comparison to incineration. The analysis accounts for several scenarios before the lockdown caused due to the COVID-19 pandemic and after it was lifted.

scholarly journals India travels and transitioning Luxembourg Appropriate thresholds and scales of change

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-106
Author(s):  
Katy Fox
Keyword(s):  
Creative Process ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Peak Oil ◽  
Executive Board ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Practical Research ◽  
Broad Objective ◽  
Transition Towns ◽  
Different Parts ◽  
Action Groups

This is a new year’s letter written by the founder of the Centre for Ecological Learning Luxembourg (CELL) to the executive board on the occasion of a journey to India. CELL is an independent, volunteer-led grassroots nonprofit organization founded in 2010 and based in Beckerich. CELL’s scope of action is the Greater Region of Luxembourg, hence its mode of operating through decentralized action groups in order to establish and maintain community gardens, food co-ops, and other social-ecological projects in different parts of Luxembourg. CELL also develops and organizes various courses, provides consultancy services for ecological living, participates in relevant civil society campaigns, and does some practical research on low-impact living. The broad objective of CELL is to provide an experimental space for thinking, researching, disseminating, and practicing lifestyles with a low impact on the environment, and learning the skills for creating resilient post-carbon communities. CELL is inspired by the work of the permaculture and Transition Towns social movements in its aims to relocalize culture and economy and, in that creative process, improve resilience to the consequences of peak oil and climate change.

scholarly journals Smart District and Circular Economy: The Role of ICT Solutions in Promoting Circular Cities

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 11732
Author(s):  
Massimiliano Viglioglia ◽  
Matteo Giovanardi ◽  
Riccardo Pollo ◽  
Pier Paolo Peruccio
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Classification Framework ◽  
The One

Cities will have a decisive role in reducing the consumption of resources and greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Various experiences of urban regeneration have exploited Information and Communication Technology (ICT) potentialities to optimize the management of complex systems and to encourage sustainable development models. This paper investigates the role of ICT technologies in favouring emerging design for Circular Economy (CE) in the urban context. The paper starts by defining the theoretical background and subsequently presents the goal and methodology of investigation. Through a scoping review, the authors identify case studies and analyse them within the Ellen MacArthur Foundation classification framework that splits the urban context into three urban systems: buildings, mobility and products. The research focuses on nine case studies where the ICT solutions were able to promote the principles of CE. The results show, on the one hand, how data management appears to be a central issue in the optimization of urban processes and, on the other hand, how the district scale is the most appropriate to test innovative solutions. This paper identifies physical and virtual infrastructures, stakeholders and tools for user engagement as key elements for the pursuit of CE adoption in the urban context.

Circular Economy and Sustainability

2020 ◽  
pp. 31-56
Author(s):  
Berta José Costa ◽  
Susana Rodrigues ◽  
Pilar Moreno
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Economic Model ◽  
Conceptual Development ◽  
Current Trend ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Continuous Growth ◽  
Unlimited Supply ◽  
A Current

In the last decades, the concern over natural resources, sustainability, and the current linear economic model based on continuous growth is one of the great challenges of our time. The assumption that there is an unlimited supply of natural resources and that the environment has an unlimited capacity to absorb waste and pollution is no longer a current trend, and growing attention has been paid to it worldwide. This chapter represents a contribution to the continuous conceptual development of circular economy and sustainability, and it also reviews how these two concepts have evolved over the past decades. An extensive literature review was conducted, employing bibliometric analysis to scrutinise the state of the art, the perspectives, the agreements and disagreements among these concepts and their correlation.

Integrated Approaches for Peri-Urban Wastescapes

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-58
Author(s):  
Francesca Garzilli ◽  
Chiara Mazzarella ◽  
Valentina Vittiglio
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Crisis ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Innovative Strategies ◽  
Technological Tools ◽  
Urban Territories ◽  
Landscape System ◽  
Integrated Approaches

This article analyses the effectiveness of circular economy principles applied to the peri-urban territories of Naples, carrying out three integrated “eco-innovative strategies” developed within the H2020 REPAiR project (REsource Management in Peri-urban AReas). The main purpose of the research is to combine the rationalization of waste flows and land recovery. Waste, from scattered materials, turns into new resources for the peri-urban areas. The authors intend to describe how it is possible to create a synergy between urban crisis and technological tools working to improve the metabolism of the peri-urban context. Through the agency of mappings, as holders of knowledge and tools, strategies and scenarios are proposed. Such a process allows the research to create a synergy between two disciplines, one belonging to metabolic rationalization of flows and the other related to urban planning and regeneration of ecologically compromised territories. Thus, the peri-urban space, re-using its waste materials, is re-read and re-designed as a complex and compelling landscape system.

Nationalism, Justice and Taxation in an Ottoman Urban Context during the Tanzimat: The Gazino-Club in Manastır

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-223
Author(s):  
Anna Vakali
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Tanzimat Reforms ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Negotiation ◽  
Christian Population

This article elaborates on the history of a Greek club, the gazino, founded in Manastır during the 1850s. It dwells upon the gazino’s interaction with the city’s Christian population regarding the Tanzimat reforms and the expectations these raised among ordinary people for social justice. Such expectations contributed to the emergence of new forms of political negotiation with the Ottoman authorities, in which the gazinists played a decisive role. Furthermore, this article follows the trial of the gazinists in the Tanzimat courts, after being charged with fesat (sedition) and inciting their coreligionists. Based on the trial’s interrogation protocols (istintakname), it is argued that before the Ottoman authorities the gazinists also negotiated and even camouflaged their ideas – pertaining to nationalism, but also to education and morality – by wrapping them up in discourses of progress and modernization favoured by the Tanzimat bureaucracy.

Expanding Multicultural Competence through Social Justice Leadership

2003 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 282-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Arredondo ◽  
Patricia Perez
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Multicultural Competence ◽  
Counseling Psychology ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Multicultural Competency ◽  
Case Conceptualization ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Standards And Guidelines ◽  
Advocacy Strategies ◽  
Martin Luther King

Social justice and multicultural competence have been inextricably linked for nearly four decades, influencing the development of multicultural competency standards and guidelines and organizational change in psychology. This response provides a historical perspective on the evolution of competencies and offers clarifications regarding their scope, actual counselor behavior, relationship to case conceptualization, and political implications. Advocacy strategies of social justice leaders such as César Chávez, Martin Luther King Jr., and Rosa Parks are highlighted and recommended for incorporation in a counseling psychology social justice agenda.

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