Urban living labs: relationality between institutions and local circularity

Journal article, 2025

Mainstream concepts of circularity often overlook local socio-material practices in favour of market-driven, techno-based solutions. This paper argues for a community-based approach to foster a grounded socio-economic transition. It explores the potential of circularity initiatives becoming urban living labs (ULLs) by integrating institutional understandings of circularity with local vocabularies and practices. It aims to disentangle the tensions that such integration might have to overcome and define the (latent) potentials embedded in local practices. The study focuses on Fixoteket Hammarkullen, a collaborative initiative in a late modernist suburb of Gothenburg in Sweden. Using a qualitative methodology combining a historical narrative approach with actor–network theory sensitivity, it traces Fixoteket’s evolution from an experimental reuse centre to a municipally managed space. Drawing on interviews, document analysis, site observations and a workshop, the contextual conditions that shaped Fixoteket’s development are examined. These shifting relationships, roles and power dynamics have (dis)connected Fixoteket from the local community. Re-anchoring circularity in local vocabularies and networks could (re)activate its potential as a ULL. These understandings about the processes, collaborations and relationships can inform community-rooted social infrastructures and foster more inclusive, context-sensitive urban sustainability transitions.