On the circularisation of territorial metabolism

The circularizsation of urban metabolism has appeared as policy objective in cities around the world. But many policies are not “authentically” circular and based on wrong assumptions (Arnsperger and Bourg, 2016). This article prolongs extends this critical perspective and examines the implications of circularisationcircularization for throughput intensity, the spatial structure, and socio-technical agengytscies of metabolisticmetabolic exchanges. This approach underlines the salience of pPolitical eEconomy issues that have so far not been addressed in the literature on circular economy. More specifically, we document the existence of cleavages such as pro-growth vs. post-growth and technocratic vs. emancipatory that are inherent to alternative interpretations of circular economy. Taking into these issues into account these issues leads to a more accurate understanding of the social-ecological complexity of urban metabolism, but it comes at the cost of lower practical applicability. In order provide operative input to current policy discussions, the complex and mostly idiosyncratic nature of circular metabolism should be addressed in localised, case-specific studies that combine the (mostly quantitative) research on biophysical flows with the (predominantly qualitative) insights on socio-economic transitions.