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Session 29

Geographies of Circularity

Organisers: Vasiliki (Vily) Mylona (National Technical University of Athens), Giannis Zgeras (National Technical University of Athens), Evangelia Mpakogianni (Municipality of Aigaleo)

  • Saturday, 28 November 2026 · 09:30–11:00

    Room 7, Harokopio University of Athens (HUA)

About this session
Environmental degradation worldwide has reached critical levels, and the unsustainable ways we extract, process, use, and consume resources are major contributing factors. In this context, the circular economy (CE) has emerged as an influential paradigm across policy, planning, and research. Recent research highlights both the growing debates around circularity and the need to critically investigate its territorial implications, opportunities, and governance dimensions (Davies et al. 2024; Pekdemir et al. 2025; Surekha et al. 2025). However, despite rapid interest in research and policy agendas, the spatial, political and participatory dimensions of circular transition remain unevenly theorised and empirically grounded. The session, Geographies of Circularity, invites contributions that would investigate circularity within a theoretical framework and a situated practice across multiple spatial scales - from regions and metropolitan areas to neighbourhoods, buildings and public spaces. We welcome papers that bridge conceptual reflection and real-world applications, examining how circular initiatives are shaped and challenged across diverse environments, socioeconomic contexts, resource capacities, and governance models. A central focus of the session is participation and co-design. How are communities meaningfully involved in shaping circular transitions? In what ways do participatory planning and bottom-up activation of public spaces foster socially just and place-sensitive circular practices? How could we approach the contradiction of delegating a public responsibility in the neoliberal context? How can "phygital" environments enable peer-to-peer exchange, collective stewardship and new forms of active citizenship? How do materialities of the circular urban transition intersect with immaterial levels of administration? How may informal networks for circularity and materials recycling be affected by the establishment of public programs, and how should those two interact? By foregrounding spatiality, power relations, and collective agency, the session aims to advance critical geographical perspectives on circularity beyond theorised approaches, contributing to a more democratic and territorially embedded understanding of the sustainable transition.

Presentations are currently listed in alphabetical order (by first author). The final order of presentations has not yet been confirmed and will be announced soon.

Presentations3

  1. Circular Economy and Regional Development: Territorial Governance, Strategic Planning, and Spatial Dimensions of Circular Transition

    Eleni Gaki, Charalampos Manousiadis, Nikolaos-Iason Koufodontis

    • University of the Aegean
    Abstract
    Environmental crisis has been growing over the last years, bringing into the spot the need for alternative models for the development of the society and the economy. On this basis, Circular Economy has emerged as a central approach for addressing the environmental challenge. Unlike the traditional model of Linear Economy (take-make-dispose) Circular Economy is aiming to create more sustainable and resilient production and consumption systems. In addition, the scientific dialogue around Circular Economy is moving from environmental and technological aspects to its spatial and governance dimensions. In this context, regions and cities are increasingly at the forefront for the implementation of circular transition since many circular dimensions and practices are connected to local economic structures and capacities. As a result, the principles of Circular Economy need to be integrated into local and regional development strategies, constituting an important objective of national policy. This paper examines the connection between Circular Economy and regional development through the study of strategic planning and governance frameworks developed within the THESEUS Project, a European initiative aimed at establishing Greece’s first Hub for Circularity (H4C). The research focuses on the Region of Attica, the project’s main pilot region, which represents a complex urban and industrial environment facing significant environmental pressures, making it a particularly relevant case study for circular transition policies. The paper studies key regional strategic frameworks, in order to assess the degree of integration of Circular Economy principles within them. Emphasis is given to the role of regional governance and policy coordination in supporting circular transition. By focusing on Attica, the paper contributes to the discussions on the geographies of circularity and highlights the importance of place-based approaches to the transition and implementation of Circular Economy.

  2. Vacancy as Resource: A Framework for Understanding Stakeholder Dynamics in the Circular Reuse of Residential Buildings

    Lamiaa Ghoz

    • TU Dresden; leibniz institute of ecological urban and regional development
    Abstract
    As circular economy agendas gain traction in urban policy and planning, the persistence of high housing vacancy across densely populated cities presents a striking global paradox. The reuse of vacant residential buildings offers a dual opportunity: addressing housing demand while advancing urban circularity by extending the life cycle of existing material stocks. However, such processes are frequently hindered by complex and often conflicting stakeholder interests. This paper conceptualises vacant housing as part of urban material flows and positions its reuse as a key—yet underexplored—circular strategy. It develops an analytical framework to capture the challenges and priorities of stakeholders involved in vacancy reuse. The framework is constructed through empirical research in Cairo, a rapidly growing non-European city with a housing vacancy rate of 33% (2017), and subsequently applied and refined in Athens, Greece, a European context characterised by high vacancy under different regulatory and socio-economic conditions. The analysis draws on semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in both cities, including government representatives, investors, property owners, NGOs and building professionals. Thematic analysis is used to identify core challenges as well as context-specific variations in how these challenges manifest. The findings show that while fundamental stakeholder concerns—particularly economic viability—are consistent across contexts, their relative importance and operationalisation differ significantly. Regulatory environments and socio-cultural perceptions play a decisive role in shaping reuse practices and outcomes. By tracing both recurring patterns and contextual divergences, the proposed framework provides a transferable diagnostic tool for policymakers to identify barriers, navigate competing interests, and design context-sensitive strategies. In doing so, the paper grounds circularity in practice and contributes to a more spatially and institutionally embedded understanding of urban circular transitions.

  3. Rethinking digitally enabled circular and sharing economies

    Cristina Viano1, Cristina Toti1, Irene Domenicale2

    • 1Università di Torino
    • 2Università di Camerino
    Abstract
    Circular economy paradigms are being implemented (and contested) worldwide across economic sectors, policy domains, and geographical scales, including local communities and the everyday practices of individuals, groups, and local authorities. This contribution focuses on local recycling, upcycling, and repair, as well as on sharing and reuse practices that foster community relations as alternatives to individualism and consumerism. Specifically, we address circular and sharing economies that are supported or enabled by digital platforms. We aim to investigate how digital tools can contribute to shaping new forms of governance and of economic exchange that are socially just, place-sensitive, and meaningful for local communities. Our experimental case study is a blockchain-based wallet app through which cryptographic tokens can be created to represent values that are relevant to local communities. Its overall goal is to enable tokenized economies oriented toward the public good and collaborative logics, in contexts such as makerspaces, libraries of things, and community currencies. This research relates to recent geographical studies that critically investigate the potentials and limits of non-corporate digital platforms and civic technologies for local democratic participation and collaborative governance (Chiappini, 2020; Cardullo, Kitchin, 2019, 2025), grassroots urbanism and practices of care (Vadiati, 2025; Cenere, 2025), and solidarity and sharing economies (Lekan, Rogers, 2020; Leontidou, 2020; Santala, McGuirk, 2022)—the latter being particularly relevant for tokenized systems and (circular) economic exchanges. Bridging these literatures with economic sociology accounts on the embeddedness of money (Zelizer, 1994), and reading these economic and digital practices through the lens of diverse economies (Gibson-Graham, 2008; Certomà, 2023), we advance an interdisciplinary method for co-designing tokenized social economies in local communities. Our case study provides an example of how digital geographies matter not only for critically investigating sociotechnical practices, but also for rethinking and remaking them in novel, place- and context-sensitive ways (Lynch, Farrokhi 2022).