290090 SE (Green) Socio-Economic Transformation in Space: Innovative Approaches for Circular Economy (2022W)

This seminar offers insights into current debates, theories and practical examples around Circular Economy (CE) from a geographical perspective. CE is increasingly seen as an important aspect in decarbonising our economies and protecting biodiversity by decoupling environmental impacts and economic growth. An important goal is to close loops in production and consumption in order to increase the efficiency of resource use and minimise waste and energy. As part of the European Green Deal, the EU has introduced an action plan for the circular economy at supranational level. In the context of the EU agenda, there are a number of top-down initiatives, such as product standards and legislation related to durability, reusability and repairability. While these top-down initiatives are unfolding, urban and regional contexts also start to supporting the adoption of local CE. Cities such as Vienna are developing ideas on how to adopt and scale up CE approaches at the city-regional scale in various thematic areas such as construction industry, food production, eco-design, fashion etc.. As a goal of the seminar, the students will identify and categorise different CE initiatives in and around Vienna and analyse their structures and support systems. Besides exploring best practice examples, the seminar will also take a critical look at CE by discussing the limits of the approach.

The overarching goal of this seminar is to teach students basic skills of interdisciplinary understandings and practice using self-chosen case study. Special emphasis is placed on the ability to gain knowledge about selected real-world problems and to elaborate and report on it in a presentation and a seminar paper.