The comprehensive sustainability assessment of urban waste management systems (UWMSs) is crucial for understanding the impact of current and future city strategies aimed at improving circularity and inclusion in cities. In this study we propose a framework for conceptualizing the inclusive circular city (ICC), and we review specifically scientific literature on methodological tools and trends in integrated sustainability assessments (ISAs) of UWMSs. Of the 145 publications reviewed, only 10 % concurrently evaluated social, environmental, and economic aspects, and just 2 % incorporated circularity and inclusion metrics. Publications focusing simultaneously either on social and environmental dimensions or economic and environmental dimensions accounted for 3 % and 17 % of studies, respectively, while 70 % adopted a single-dimensional approach. A notable proportion of studies focused exclusively on environmental impact assessment, predominantly employing life cycle assessment or indicators such as carbon footprint. Social assessments were notably less prevalent, comprising only 20 % of studies. Stakeholder engagement and inclusion metrics were considered in 20 % and 5 % of the publications, respectively. In terms of R strategies, 65 % of the studies concentrated on recycling and recovery, targeting mainly municipal solid waste. To advance our knowledge on ISAs of UWMSs and improve our understanding of their embeddedness in ICCs, future research should: (a) focus on multidimensional, transdisciplinary assessments with an emphasis on strong sustainability-oriented methodologies by including circularity and inclusion metrics; (b) prioritize inclusion and active stakeholder participation in collaborative knowledge creation; and (c) shift the focus from conventional waste recycling and recovery to ambitious circular strategies that retain resources in closed-loop systems.

The political and public interest in issues of inclusion and inclusiveness has grown steadily in recent years. Keeping different segments of society together in the aftermath of a neo-liberal era where much of the social tissue underlying market operations has been eaten up by the prevalence of those same market values is a key concern to many public and private actors. The popularity of the label ‘inclusive city’ can also be observed in its increased use among municipal governments worldwide for city branding purposes and its surge in the academic literature. Its relevance notwithstanding, the meaning of the term ‘inclusive’ is not always clearly defined and often multi-dimensional. In this chapter, a state-of-the art overview will be offered of what is currently known about this city label in the academic literature and look both at journal articles and books in the timeframe 2000–2022. Key finding in this study, which builds on and further develops earlier work is that based on both bibliometric research of academic articles and a systematic review of books, book chapters and grey literature, we find six different dimensions of inclusion (spatial, social, environmental, economic, political and cultural) with their own connotations and associations. Taking this variety into account is essential to a more sophisticated understanding of what developing an inclusive city entails and what variations and variety of developmental paths exist.

Rapid urbanization in combination with unsustainable production and consumption patterns leads to the generation of substantial amounts of urban waste. The circular economy promises to bring solutions both with top-down and with bottom-up activities. The former relate to the implementation of policies which are based on the waste hierarchy principles by local governments, whereas the latter are about the adoption of circular business models by urban stakeholders. However, a circular economy does not automatically endow cities with inclusion or resilience against shocks. Consequently, any decision which relates to such a transition is not trivial. This chapter presents an integrative framework to assist urban decision makers in considering inclusion and circularity simultaneously when developing urban waste management systems where urban regeneration has a central role. The framework places explicit attention on improving the accessibility of social groups to various forms of capital and stimulating the development of local economies through improved circulation of resources and information within the urban fabric.

This chapter provides the background of this book’s topic. It does so by explaining how informal waste picking and urban formal waste infrastructure systems are both relevant to realizing an effective inclusive and circular economy at the urban scale, but that bringing them together does not occur automatically in the policymaking process. It provides a conceptual model that clarifies how the different components of the urban waste management system are connected, clarifies the logic underlying the structuring of the book into the various chapters that follow and then proceeds to present a brief outline of what each of those following chapters will be dealing with.

This conclusion chapter synthesizes the contributions from the preceding chapters to address the central question of how a city can govern its Urban Waste Management System (UWMS) to achieve circularity and inclusion. By integrating insights from diverse perspectives, we highlight the key principles and strategies that enable cities to transition towards more sustainable and inclusive waste management practices. The synthetic UWMS framework introduced earlier in the book serves as a comprehensive tool for understanding the complex dynamics of circularity and inclusion in urban contexts. This chapter discusses the interconnectedness of governance, policy, technology, and community participation, emphasizing that effective UWMS governance requires a multi-layered approach. It concludes with practical recommendations for policymakers and urban planners, outlining pathways for achieving a circular economy while fostering social equity and inclusion within urban waste systems. Ultimately, it calls for an adaptive, collaborative governance model to ensure long-term sustainability and inclusivity in urban waste management.

Urban infrastructure development is one principal way people are transforming the natural world and their living conditions. It is important for humanity, but it can also cause major impacts to the environment, such as huge amounts of solid waste and CO2 emissions. Considering this, the circular economy (CE) is a promising alternative to the traditional “make, use, and dispose” linear economy model. However, as a strategy for sustainable development (SD), the CE is still in its infancy in the urban transport infrastructure sector. Therefore, this article aims to guide the implementation of CE during transport infrastructure projects. To achieve this goal, a literature review and case study were adopted as the research methods. After reviewing existing well-established CE frameworks, the iReSOLVE (implement, Regenerate, Share, Optimize, Loop, Virtualize, Exchange) framework is recognized as the most comprehensive one. Upon it, an analytical framework containing specific-related aspects of CE in urban transport infrastructure projects (which belongs to meso-scale) is proposed (coined as the 4Wh-iReSOLVE framework). The 4Wh means Who, When, Where, and What. The proposed framework offers insight into potential CE activities for transport infrastructure projects and assists in assessing the performance and impacts of CE of these projects to cover the gap of the neglected meso-scale. Ten circular viaduct project initiatives in the Netherlands are used as case analyses with the 4Wh-iReSOLVE framework. The results present the highlights of the circular viaduct initiatives in the Netherlands, with CE activities categorized into five groups (design-related strategies, general CE strategies, implementation, management, and related digital technologies and materials, as well as environmental sustainability). As verified by several experts of the projects studied, it can be concluded that the 4Wh-iReSOLVE framework is suitable for transport infrastructure project CE analyses and implementations. It can potentially be a suggested guideline in future policy documents.

In the quest for Smart City (SC) development, numerous examples of ‘good practices’ have circulated in national and international policy arenas. Learning from good practices elsewhere is a common approach for cities to initiate and develop SC policies of their own. Nevertheless, because of political, legal and cultural differences across countries and cities, policies will always be context dependent, and prosper under specific conditions. There is a vast literature on policy transfer and policy mobility, but much of it utilizes different concepts (i.e., policy translation, policy learning, and policy diffusion). Nonetheless, a critical omission they all share is limited concern for context-dependence and lack of prescriptive clues. Addressing both omissions would lead to a framework in which learning from good SC policy practices, formulating lessons, transferring them, and then adjusting them to fit the recipient's needs is taken up systematically in a stepwise manner. To develop a theoretical framework for Smart City adoption, this study brings together variegated existing literature under the heading ‘policy transplantation’ and synthesizes existing insights into a prescriptive procedure policymakers can follow. A systematic literature review is conducted to identify all key elements and sub-elements associated with SC policy transplantation, leading to a theoretical framework. This (prescriptive) theoretical framework is subsequently validated using an expert group and illustrated through a real-life case. The framework can be used as an analytical lens by researchers, but also constitutes a practical tool to guide policymakers aiming to use insights from good practices and implement them in line with their own contextual setting. Conducting contextual assessment before transplanting a SC policy is essential.

Xiong’an New Area is not only a newly emerging and nationally endorsed technopole, it is also regarded as a test-bed for novel forms of governance and financial management in China. Although it is currently only in its starting phase, Xiong’an demonstrates that various institutional features are very different from those found in traditional technopoles, such as National High-tech Industrial Development Zones (NHTIDZs). How such institutional innovation affects feasibility and viability of the construction and maintenance of new high-tech metropolises is under-studied. This article develops a conceptual framework based on the theory of space production and identifies two types of space production, global industrialization and local urbanization, which are then applied to the NHTIDZs. Analysis of the situation in Xiong’an leads to the conclusion that Xiong’an represents a mode of strong state-led space production within China’s governance modernization. This not only opens the door to a reconsideration of current land finance and social management systems but it also implies that the transferability of its institutional innovations is limited to other cities where imposing greater social control through technologies is possible.

With rapid high-speed railway (HSR) developments in China, HSR-based transit-oriented development (TOD) has proliferated across the country. Although local governments claim that HSR station areas are planned according to TOD principles, some scholars argue that these station areas actually contribute to unsustainable development. This study investigates two main questions: (1) what success factors should be included in a TOD plan for HSR station areas? (2) to what extent are these factors considered in the plans of Chinese HSR station areas? To answer these questions, we use content analysis to compare spatial plans for 15 HSR station areas across China, triangulating the findings via in-depth interviews and field investigations. This study reveals that most of the factors in the plans for HSR station areas deviate from TOD principles, especially in small- and medium-sized cities. We find that Chinese local governments mainly use TODs as a tool to promote suburban expansion around HSR stations.

Rapid global urbanization, urban renewal and changes in people's lifestyles have led to both an increase in waste generation and more complex waste types. In response to these changes, many local governments have invested in municipal solid waste infrastructure (MSWI) to implement circular strategies. However, matching and bridging the costly and logistically complex MSWI with the dynamic social context is a central challenge. In this paper we aim to explore the interdependencies between MSWI and the local social system, and then conceptualize and empirically validate the systemic nature of MSWI. We first review the current MSW treatment methods, corresponding infrastructure, and the challenges facing them. Then, we interrogate system-oriented concepts and use two key insights to set up a conceptual model for mapping the interdependencies in a MSWI system (MSWIS). Finally, a case study of the Dutch city of Almere is used to empirically validate the MSWIS model and identify the social systems that contribute to the development of the MSWIS. The analysis reveals that the development of MSWIS is beyond the municipality's control: efficient resource recovery facilities established by businesses under market rules and waste reuse facilities constructed by social organizations/individuals based on their own needs are key pieces of the puzzle to complete the MSWIS. This highlights the ability of the framework to capture interdependencies that go further than just the formal municipal sphere of influence.

The development of high-speed railway (HSR) new towns in China represents a new phase of suburbanization and has had a significant impact on urban expansion, but not all of its mechanisms and drivers have been studied. This article aims to understand the booming development of HSR new towns in China through the theoretical lens of state entrepreneurialism. It dissects the entrepreneurial behaviors of the local state in a medium-sized city, which harnesses the HSR project strategically to develop a new town. Our findings reveal that local governments play out state entrepreneurialism in developing HSR new towns. They compete with other cities for HSR projects. They are motivated by land revenue generation, career advancement for officials, and maintaining state power. Furthermore, this article contributes to the understanding of interactions among multi-level governments. Local states in China can also exert influence on the policymaking and resource allocation of the national government.

Local governments in China actively promote low carbon city pilots to respond to the challenges of climate change mentioned in the Sustainable Development Goals, including building sustainable cities and communities, and taking climate action. However, relatively little is known about the actual implementation of programs to achieve sustainable cities, especially how combinations of policy instruments are deployed in the realisation of low carbon cities. First, this study contributes to the literature in policy studies by identifying how four types relevant to carbon city development, hierarchy, market, network and information based ones, can be combined in policy mixes and play out in the effective realisation of low carbon cities in other countries. Second, this framework is used to map the application of policy instruments in China's 35 low carbon pilot cities. This study uses fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to explore which configurations of policy instruments are in use and assesses their effects on low carbon city construction. It thus builds a bridge between theory on policy instruments, their combinations and low carbon city development. The presence of hierarchical policy instruments appears to be a necessary condition for low carbon city development and their use prevails. Market-based and network-based instruments complement hierarchical instruments but do not suffice in themselves. Applying hierarchical instruments and market-based instruments together tends to hamper the effect of network instruments and information instruments, whereas network instruments appear to be interchangeable with information instruments. Network governance in China's low carbon city development is still comparatively underdeveloped.

Many local governments engaging in sustainable urban development also have a growing interest in becoming inclusive too, brand themselves as such and develop policies to become inclusive cities. However, knowing what exactly this entails and how it can be achieved is not always quite straightforward and requires thorough theoretical and empirical exploration. Consequently, we present a systematic deconstruction of the inclusive city concept in order to develop a better understanding of the main features and dimensions; this is done by means of both a bibliometric analysis and qualitative literature review. The results indicate that inclusiveness is multidimensional and comprised of spatial, social, environmental, economic, and political dimensions in which the characteristics of participation, equity, accessibility and sustainability are sometimes interwoven. Overall, the inclusive city is not merely a precondition for the creation of just space, well-being, and environmental responsibility, but also an opportunity to take stock of interests of stakeholders in cities and to create local public value. The findings have implications for urban policy and practice, more specifically, the clarification of the inclusive city concept and conceptual dimensions will provide significant reference for policymakers and practitioners to make prudent decisions in the process of creating an inclusive city.

Co-production is a solution by which the government provides public services. Coproduction theory is built upon Western experience and currently focuses on the types of coproduction in different policy stages, the barriers and governance strategies for co-production. However, little attention is paid to how political background will influence the co-production process. To fill the gap, we analyzed a case of co-production that occurred in China, and we characterized the political background as consisting of three main political features: political mobility, central–local relations, and performance measurement. Based on an in-depth case study of a government project in a medium-sized Chinese city, the impact and the changes of political features affecting governmental projects in different co-production stages are analyzed and assessed. We find that political features play a critical role in the co-production of China’s large government projects and may separately and jointly affect co-production. Government performance measurement affects the co-design and co-implementation of projects. Political mobility and changes in local government and performance measurement also affect the co-implementation continuity of the project. Political focus affects the co-design of projects. Central-local relations influence the support from higher government and the actual practices of lower government in the co-implementation stage.

SDG 11 – ‘making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’ – draws attention to the criticality of urban governance in the quest for sustainable development. Reflecting this, diverse city labels, such as ‘sustainable city’ and ‘smart city’, have been mobilized by urban actors and scholars to consider cities’ responses to various challenges of urban transformation. Consequently, this study interrogates: (1) the growing use of city labels in the scientific literature over three decades; (2) the conceptual dimensions of individual city labels and their mutual interdependencies; and (3) likely future trajectories. This is accomplished through a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 35 city labels: we examine their (co-)occurrences during 1990–2019 based on 11337 articles harvested in Scopus; analyse their conceptual associations drawing on a corpus of 22820 author keywords; and make a future forecast based on logistic growth modelling (the underlying datasets are available through open access). The findings significantly take forward recent bibliometric research by demonstrating: the rapid growth in scientific outputs; the diversification of city labels beyond ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’; and the evolution of an intricate conceptual field made up of different constellations of city labels. The findings have implications for urban policy and practice: regarding ongoing concerns about how to achieve synergies, rather than trade-offs, between SDGs, the conceptual field points to possible ways for relating SDG 11 to other dimensions of sustainable development. More broadly, the clarification of individual city labels’ conceptual underpinnings should help policymakers and practitioners make considered choices when mobilizing city labels in support of urban transformation efforts.

Along with unprecedented urbanization in the last few decades, cities have experienced rapid social and economic transformation in China. A major challenge facing urban authorities in the immediate future is how to plan and govern cities such that they can serve as inclusive systems where everyone is enabled and empowered to fully participate in and contribute to socioeconomic life. A first step towards realizing this is to conceptualize an integrated framework that allows analysts and decision-makers to delineate, evaluate, and guide the development of these cities towards inclusiveness. In this study, we conducted a conceptual analysis of urban inclusiveness and then proposed a multidimensional framework for the evaluation of inclusive development. This is followed by the presentation of the case of Xiong'an, for which inclusive development indicators (IDIs) were selected. By comparing the state before the establishment of Xiong'an with its current development progress, and analyzing the area's management structure and policy measures, the inclusive development challenges are identified. Subsequently, suggestions are given on how to direct Xiong'an toward higher levels of inclusiveness, including offering equal access to public services and employment opportunities, preserving environmental health and sustainable use of natural resources through waste recycling, and encouraging public participation in decision-making to bring higher levels of inclusion within reach.

The emergence and expansion of clusters of large metropolitan areas also known as Mega City Regions (MCRs) is a worldwide phenomenon. In China, governmental attempts are made to develop so-called regional brand identities for them. Regional brand identities, as a subspecies of place brand identities, differ from regional identities in the sense that they are the result of conscious branding efforts on the part of public authorities rather than more historically evolved regional identities as experienced by citizens. In this study, the establishment of regional brand identities for three MCRs in China is examined, as these are constituted through and institutionally embedded in intergovernmental relations. We map the perceptions of national, provincial and municipal governments of regional brand identities based on planning documents and relevant interviews. The emergence and stabilization of the regional profiles for China's largest MCRs Pearl River Delta (PRD), Yangtze River Delta (YRD) and Jing-Jin-Ji (JJJ) are featured in their dynamic territorial boundaries, centralized institutionalization and various symbolic meanings. The national government promotes the regional brands to reinforce the strategic awareness and future direction of the region, and these profiles are diffused at the provincial and municipal level.

While many national and local governments in the world are placing their bets on smart city development in countering challenges such as climate change, air pollution, and congestion, few know exactly how to develop them in practice. A high and rising number of publications has appeared addressing the concept of “smart city,” but not many address its implementation. This paper aims at a conceptual understanding of the smart city by describing its various facets and using them to develop an Input-Output model helping policymakers and analysts make informed design choices. Using this model allows them to further their conceptual understanding of smart cities, envisage design choices they will face during planning and implementation, and help them to understand the impact of these choices. The model is illustrated by introducing the case of “Smart Dubai.” Overall, this paper provides enhanced understanding of smart city development processes. This can be used in decision-making processes.

Among known studies of city branding by Chinese megacities to realise urban transformation, there is no explorative study of how smaller Chinese cities engage in city branding and attempt to trigger industrial transformation. In response, this article presents an in-depth case study of city branding processes in a medium-sized Chinese city. Roles, resources and interactions among the city's stakeholders are analysed during the brand creation and implementation stages in two different economic city branding projects. The stakeholder involvement mechanisms we identify confirm that city branding creation in China primarily follows political rather than business channels. Chinese local public authorities and more specifically key politicians, departments, and public enterprises are core stakeholders in branding creation. However, this leads to challenges in the branding implementation, since key public sector players tend to withdraw themselves when implementation begins, leaving previously uninvolved private (and public) players to implement the brands. The unsuccessful transformation contrasts with those observed in Chinese megacities, where involvement of powerful corporations and support from higher levels of government are both much higher. It appears that the imperative of broad stakeholder involvement to make city branding successful as we know it for Western cities may also apply in medium-sized Chinese cities.

The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) as the new paradigm of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and rapid changes in technology and urban needs urge cities around the world towards formulating smart city policies. Nevertheless, policy makers, city planners, and practitioners appear to have quite different expectations from what smart cities can offer them. This has led to the emergence of different types of smart cities and pathways of development. This paper aims to answer the research question: When comparing a selection of smart city projects, can we classify pathways for their implementation? We do this by using a cross-case research design of four cities to explore commonalities and differences in development patterns. An input-output (IO) model of smart city development is used to retrieve which design variables are at play and lead to which output. The four cases pertain to the following smart city projects: Smart Dubai, Masdar City, Barcelona Smart City, and Amsterdam Smart City. Our analysis shows that Amsterdam is based on a business-driven approach that puts innovation at its core; for Masdar, technological optimism is the main essence of the pathway; social inclusion is the focus of Barcelona Smart City; and visionary ambitious leadership is the main driver for Smart Dubai. Based on these insights, a classification for smart city development pathways is established. The results of the present study are useful to academic researchers, smart city practitioners, and policy makers.