Abstract:Urbanisation and climate change are urging cities to chart novel paths towards sustainability. European cities are increasingly looking to the circular economy (CE) as one route to achieve a sustainable future. The CE concept describes how flows of resources moving through economies can be 'closed'. The aim of this article is to explore how emergent 'circular cities' are adopting CE as a strategy. We found that leadership of the agenda, building adaptable future visions, using experimental approaches (such as living labs), developing contextual knowledge about resource use, and engaging with diverse stakeholders to be important. However, we also identify that there is a lack of consensus on what a circular city constitutes and a need to untangle how a circular city might be developed in practice. The research contributes to the field by outlining emergent cases, a set of common strategies, and providing an initial conceptualisation of a circular city.