Towards solutions and infrastructure for circular neighbourhoods in rural areas

Abstract

Recently, there has been an increase in circular cities and research on the concrete meaning of circularity at the city mesolevel. However, circular solutions or requirements for rural areas are often overlooked. This can be explained by the dominant deterritorialized and sectoral approach in circularity research, policy, and practice, which isolates places, people, and practices. The point of departure of our study is that circular cities can only thrive if their related rural areas are healthy, as they are interdependent. Within this context, we develop a framework that contributes to the conceptualisation of circular neighbourhoods and infrastructure in rural areas. We use a literature review to build on the findings of circularity research in Japan, Belgium, Finland, and Norway, and distil predefined categories for deductive analysis. We validate the deductive analysis by a further inductive analysis of the literature. Our review focuses on how the existing built environment (buildings, roads, and other infrastructure) can increase the vitality of rural areas to enable rural circularity practices (RCPs). In addition, we propose new directions for future research on circular neighbourhoods in rural areas, preferably in symbiosis with circular cities.

Finding Satoyama – Forest bathing as a creative practice of knowledge creation and healing in/with/through damaged landscapes

“…Many of these scholars, including Walter Benjamin, focused on urban spaces in their walks. In my own studies of landscapes and reterritorializing circular economy, I criticise the urban-rural divide and the metabolic rift in circular economy planning (Wuyts & Majidi, 2022). Forest bathing can be done everywhere.…”

Planning Reclamation, Diagnosis and Reuse in Norwegian Timber Construction with Circular Economy Investment and Operating Costs for Information

“…There are various reasons not to discuss the timber construction sector or the built environment in a vacuum (for good argumentation, we refer to [35][36][37]), but to spatialise or territorialise circular economy analysis and interventions. For example, Nordic timber construction is rooted in so-called rural or peripheral areas and might require different solutions and infrastructure than in the case of densely built urban areas [38].…”