Circular grassroots innovations for sustainable and inclusive urban transitions

Amsterdam is facing an increasingly severe housing crisis, the result of liberalising social housing provisioning and promoting mortgaged homeownership (Wijburg, 2021). In recent years, the municipality of Amsterdam has been more active in combatting these tendencies and has in this context launched the so-called "Action Plan Housing Cooperatives", which seeks to realise 15 to 20 housing cooperatives within 4 years, with the ultimate goal of realising 10% of the housing stock being cooperatively-owned by 2050. 

A housing cooperative (Dutch: wooncoöperatie) is a form of collective housing, whereby a cooperative (of residents) either owns or manages the building, taking decisions democratically, while the amount of shared spaces and the closeness of the community may vary (timetoaccess.com).

Our project explores and works with one of the first of many grassroots initiatives that has emerged following this call: De Nieuwe Meent, a housing cooperative in the East of Amsterdam. This initiative is on the verge of being completed after a 6-year participatory planning process with radical architects from Time to Access. It builds specifically on values of diversity, sustainability, the commons and care. Indeed, the Dutch word ‘meent’ is an old world for the commons.

Examining this pilot cooperative is an excellent way of examining the potential of such initiatives in enabling circular and shared ways of housing and living. It also allows to consider the extent to which these initiatives manage to build durable and affordable alternatives to the capitalist housing market, therefore providing a way to escape the housing crisis from the grassroots. We explore these questions in the context of post-growth and/or post-capitalist ideals.

We explore these questions by focusing on:

1. Infrastructures (both material and immaterial) that underpin the functioning of the cooperative, and whose elaboration we view as being subject to both outside pressures (e.g. finances) and internal processes of continuous adaptations.
2. Cultural politics and issues of attachment and detachment in particular, that we deem crucial to understanding the ways in which ideals of circularity, sharing and commoning are practiced in the organisation of and daily life in the cooperative. 

The project is led by two researchers:

• Federico Savini, Associate Professor in Environmental Planning, Institutions and Politics and PI of the project
• Elisa Schramm, Postdoctoral Researcher in Urban Planning, dedicated full-time to this project.

Collaboration partner

The project is developed in close cooperation with the radical architect collective Time to Access.

Barcelona's density and richness of grassroots and community experiences can be explained by the city's historical background, linked to experiences of self-management and social movements, and by the recent municipalist politics emerging from 15M. However, despite this fertile socio-economic hummus, there are also tensions between privatisation/consumerism and progressive policies on cooperativism and sustainability. In the context of the complex urban dynamics of a city strained by its touristification, community-based repair and reuse initiatives have emerged (e.g. BCN ReCircula) to engage residents in the circularity of their goods and in everyday sustainable and eco-social care practices.

This project focuses on two repair and reuse grassroot initiatives, Libraries of Things and Restarters BCN, exploring their features, challenges and opportunities in order to explore the possibilities of scale up and establish more extended and strong repair and reuse networks.

The Libraries of Things 

This initiative offers a sustainable model for sharing resources within the community, by lending services where members can borrow various tools and objects promoting reuse and reducing the need for new purchases. This way, they enhance community networks by providing access to tools and resources that might otherwise be unaffordable or inaccessible.

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Restarters BCN 

Restart Parties are free, public and community events, organized by the Restarters BCN collective, where participants are pedagogically guided by volunteer repairers in order to fix their own electronic devices. This collective promotes the repair culture in order to reduce electronic waste by extending the life of devices and it promotes ecological and economic benefits through repair rather than replacement and purchase. This way, “we don’t only repair electronics, but our relationship with them”.

Objectives

The objectives of our project are to examine the challenges and opportunities that arise in the creation of these community recirculation spaces and the possible collaboration and synergies between the formal and informal waste management and prevention sectors.

This project is led by a team of two researchers: 

• Blanca Callen Moreu, Lecturer in Social Psychology, with a focus on material cultures, design and collective action in the face of the ecosocial crisis.
• Anastasia Zisakou, postdoctoral in Social Psychology with a focus on urban citizenship, migration studies, inequalities and social movements.

Collaboration partners

The project is being developed in close collaboration with:

• BIT-Habitat, Urban Innovation Agency BCN
  A foundation that drives urban innovation to address the social, economic, technological, and environmental challenges in the city, aiming to foment healthier, more sustainable, competitive, and equitable strategies and actions while also improving the quality of life for its residents.
• Barcelona Activa, Local Economic Development Agency 
  A public trading company integrated in the area of Economy and Economic Promotion of Barcelona City Council whose mission is to promote quality employment, entrepreneurship, business competitiveness and the diversification of the productive fabric, in order to achieve a sustainable, inclusive and fair economic model.
• Rezero, Foundation for Waste Prevention and Responsible Consumption
  A private, independent, non-profit organisation, founded in 2005, that seeks new solutions to extend the life of products and materials by facilitating their reuse and to eliminate the generation of household waste.
• Restarters BCN
  A non-for-profit collective formed in 2015 and constituted of 100% voluntary people dedicated to the promotion of the repair (in opposition to discard) of electric or electronic equipment to confront planned obsolescence and consumerism.
• Environment Unit, Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB) 
  The metropolitan area of Barcelona, with an area of 636 km2 and more than 3.3 million inhabitants is one of the largest metropolitan areas in Europe.The Environment Unit includes various Directorates such as Water, Climate Change, and Waste and AMB is responsible for managing waste, while promoting its reduction, selective collection, recycling, and possible reuse.

Publications and output

Some publications of the research team on the topic of repair & reuse:

• Designing through Planetary Breakdown: Locating Material Knowledge and Practical Skill
  Duque, M. & Callén, B. (in press). Repair-led Learning for Design Education. In: Adams, J. & Carr, Ch. (eds). Routledge
• Anticipatory Repair: Reframing Breakage through a Futures Agenda
  Ruckenstein, M., Pink, S., Duque, M., & Callén, B. (2024).  Interview with Minna Ruckenstein and Sarah Pink. Diseña, (24), Interview.1.
• Repairing Design: Damage, Care, and Fragilities
  Callén, B., & Duque, M. (2023). , (23), Editorial.
• Generative Repair and Graceful Decay: Interview with Caitlin DeSilvey
  DeSilvey, C., Callén, B., & Duque, M. (2023). Diseña, (23)
• Circles and Mistakes: Interview with Tim Ingold
  Ingold, T., Callén, B., & Duque, M. (2023). Diseña, (23), Interview.2.  
• Postcards from Abroad
  Callén, B., Duque, M., Callén, E., Andrés, P., González San Emeterio, A., Gallego, S., Céspedes, S., Caballé, M., Lampón, C., Martínez, N., & Martínez-Rivera, O. (2023). Diseña, (23), Postcards.
• “We Not Only Repair Our Devices, But Also Our Relationship With Them”: Repair-Led ¡Designing at the Restart Parties in Barcelona
  Callén, B., Duque Hurtado, M. (2023). In: Kalantidou, E., Keulemans, G., Mellick Lopes, A., Rubenis, N., Gill, A. (eds) Design/Repair. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
• “Basura electrónica. Cosmovisiones reparadoras para una ética de los residuos“. 
  Callén, B. (2023). In: M. Rispoli, R. Rispoli (Eds.), Design, STS e la sfida del più-che-umano/Diseño, STS y el desafío de lo más-que-humano (pp. 100-110). Terraformazioni #1. Napoli: Cratèra Edizioni, (ISBN 979-12-80884-10-7)
• On the Social Dimensions of Disposal
  Akese, G., Callén, B. & Wenger, J. (2022). VIGIA: Elektro-Schrott (Zeitschrift Für Technologie und Gesellschaft). Ausgabe 2: "Elektroschorott". Pp. 28-41. Zürich: Verein Vigia
• Intimate with your junk! A waste management experiment for a material world
  Callén, B. & López, D. (2019). Sociological Review. Special Issue “Intimate Entanglements in Science and Technology”. Volume 67 Issue 2, March 2019. pp. 318-339
• The making of obsolescence: how things become public in the age of precariousness
  Delgado, A. y Callén, B. (2017). Public Understanding of Science (Special Issue). Vol. 26(2) 179–194. DOI: 10.1177/0963662516647348
• Donner une seconde vie aux déchets électroniques (Recreating e-Waste: Informal expertises and socio-technical innovation from the margins)
  Callén, B. (2016). Techniques&Culture 65-66 « Réparer le monde. Excès, reste et innovation », p. 206-219 ISBN 978-2-7132-2529-1

In the medium-sized town of Nantes, located in western France and home to approximately 300,000 inhabitants, grassroots initiatives have played a pivotal role in raising awareness and addressing social and environmental challenges (Ecopôle, 2014). These citizen-led movements have faced both support and threats, especially since Nantes was named the European Green Capital in 2013. While some initiatives thrived and scaled up, others faded away. 

This project offers a unique opportunity to explore the evolution of these grassroots environmental actions in Nantes, emphasizing their importance and ensuring their sustainability.

To achieve this, we are focusing on food circularity, a topic that has been underrepresented in transition studies, despite its significant impact on the socio-environmental metabolism of cities. Nantes is already home to numerous food-related initiatives that can be considered innovative practices for sustainability. The recent changes in legal frameworks, coupled with increasing involvement from citizen groups, the public, and private sectors, make it a compelling time to examine this circular approach.

Our study will specifically explore areas such as:

• urban agriculture
• food distribution and consumption
• organic waste management
• resource valorization and reuse
• food packaging, transport
• waste prevention initiatives

Two distinct areas in Nantes will serve as primary research sites: 

1. A central, gentrified area marketed as Nantes’ new city center, historically industrial, but still home to a working-class community.
2. A disadvantaged working-class neighborhood located on the city’s outskirts, mostly comprising social housing, currently undergoing urban renewal.

This project is led by a team of four researchers: 

• Jean-Baptiste Bahers, a research fellow in geography, specializing in urban metabolism and waste management.
• Mathieu Durand, a senior lecturer in geography and urban planning, with a focus on environmental justice and waste management.
• Cyria Emelianoff, a senior lecturer in geography, specializing in sustainable cities.
• Aline Le Failler, a PhD student in social geography, dedicated full-time to this project.

Collaboration partner

Operationally, the project is being developed in close collaboration with Ecopôle, a local association dedicated to environmental education and the coordination of environmental stakeholders within the Nantes region.

Read more about Ecopôle on their website. 

The Gothenburg part of the project, which also leads and coordinates the consortium, is to contribute with knowledge from a Northern European perspective with a traditionally well-developed welfare system, which is experiencing increasing inequality and segregation between city districts.

Gothenburg is developing and expanding at a rapid pace, at the cost of reduced spaces for grassroots activities. New forms of collaboration are simultaneously emerging through various experiments with the sharing economy and circularity. In this sub-project, we study how spaces can serve multiple functions in both central and peripheral areas, in private and public buildings and places, and in different socio-economic parts of the city. Additionally, we will explore how the local government's organization, together with civil society, can work to create participatory and supportive infrastructure for grassroots initiatives, as well as the challenges and opportunities for scaling up and spreading these innovations within the city, to other cities and countries.

This project is led by a team of four researchers from two universities, Chalmers university of technology and University of Gothenburg:

• Associate prof María José Zapata Campos, PhD in urban sociology, docent in business administration University of GRB, Sweden (University of Gothenburg). Expert in social movements, SSE, and public-private collaboration in Sweden, Spain, East Africa and Latin America.
• Associate prof Marco Adelfio, in Applied Urbanism, (Chalmers, Sweden). Expert in multistakeholder dialogue, co-production of knowledge, social inclusion and bottom-up urban transformation processes, and transferability of urban practices.
• Senior lecturer Ulrika Holmberg, Marketing, University of Gothenburg. Director of the Consumption Research Centre, at GU, expert in recycling & sustainable housing.
• Professor Patrik Zapata, Public Administration University of Gothenburg. His research concerns local governments, sustainable city organizing and local public and community collaboration.

Collaboration partners

The project is being developed in close collaboration with: 

• Majorna Collaboration (Majornas Samverkansförening) 
  Majorna Collaboration (MC) is a grassroots organization focusing on local urban development, youth activities, and citizen initiative. In 2005 the local youth center was shut down by the municipality. A group of parents organized to protest and later started MC to take over the youth center building (the Activity house) and organize youth activities on their own. Since then MC has been operating from the Activity house, with a lot of focus on children and youths, but also on making the local residential area a better place to live through different kinds of projects.
• Solidarity Fridge - Solikyl Göteborg 
  The Solikyl is since 2015 a grassroots, open and collaborative project aimed at reducing food waste occurring at households, supermarkets, restaurants, events, through a physical and digital infrastructure (with public food sharing points and a digital platform). Currently there are ten Solidarity Fridges (distribution points) at the city and agreements with more than 25 grocery stores and bakeries
• The Democracy and Citizen Service, City of Gothenburg 
  The Democracy and citizen service Administration coordinates and develops the city's common service to those who live, visit and work in the city. The administration conducts proactive democracy work and also leads the city’s work on creating good conditions for sustainable living in the city, as part of The Environment and Climate Programme for the City of Gothenburg 2021-2030 which is the guide and the shared platform for the city’s strategic long-term work for the environment.