Make it a circular city: experiences and challenges from European cities striving for sustainability through promoting circular making

Abstract

A growing number of cities are deploying circular economy practices to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Makerspaces are community-driven initiatives enabling the collaboration between a city's diverse stakeholders in that objective. They can enhance the citizens' contribution to circularity by engaging them in circular ''making'' activities (e.g., reuse, repair, sharing) and by providing them with novel means, skills, and knowledge in these activities. However, cities face various challenges during the process of engaging citizens to create a vibrant circular city. Based on an in-depth analysis of experiences and challenges in seven European cities, which attempted to embrace the SDGs through circular making activities, this paper presents ten engagement-related challenges and five strategies to overcome them. Integrating these challenges and strategies in a strategy-challenge matrix offers several recommendations for cities striving to address SDGs through establishing and maintaining circular makerspaces.