Sustainable circular cities? Analysing urban circular economy policies in Amsterdam, Glasgow, and Copenhagen

Analysis of CE policies in Amsterdam, Glasgow and Copenhagen

This paper analyses CE policies and discourses in three European cities to draw critical insights and recommendations.

It first reviews the academic literature on urban CE policies to develop a new conceptual framework for analysing CE discourses and policies. This is then used to analyse and compare the CE policies of Glasgow, Amsterdam and Copenhagen.

Results show that technocentric approaches to the CE are dominant in the three cities. Moreover, they have very limited social justice policies for fair distribution of the costs and benefits of a CE transition. Key policy recommendations to address these shortcomings are thus proposed.

The insights offered by this paper are valuable for practitioners and academics seeking to improve urban CE policies.