Urheberrecht: © Marius Angstmann

The Circular Economy aims at decoupling economic growth from natural resources. As a synthetic concept, it is characterised by the diversity of approaches and definitions it encompasses various solutions differing in their focus on the stages of a products life cycle.

Industrial symbiosis is one key concept discussed in this context. It focuses on spatial aspects and cooperation between neighbouring companies as it describes the utilisation of by-products such as energy, water, residues through proximate companies. It further denotes a planning approach, which, however, until now has found only little resonance in municipal circular economy strategies.

While the idea has been gaining attention in recent decades, by-product utilisation is by far no new phenomenon. By-Products are commonly utilised locally in various heavy industries (e.g. utilisation of slag sand or fly ash in the cement and concrete industry) where they generate positive environmental effects.

Marius Angstmann presents findings from regional case studies in the German steel and cement industry, which are informed by Interviews with industrial representatives. He traces the emergence and status quo of cross-sectoral waste-to-value circular economic approaches and investigate their prospective development in the context of the industries’ decarbonisation roadmaps.

Findings show how circular solutions cut CO₂ emissions and primary resource usage while simultaneously introducing new interdependences. When previously widely available by-products alter or disappear because of technological advancements and industrial decarbonization, new challenges appear. Cross-sectoral symbiotic ties however also provide basic framework for compensating or actively addressing these challenges. The findings feed into the debate on local and regional solutions of circularity as well as literature on path transformation and regional economic adaptability.

Urheberrecht: © Niloufar Vadiati

The prospect of calculable cities with tech fixes and solutionist approaches did not only get raving reviews. Among recent urban experimental collectives, there is an increasingly strong aspiration to imagine new digital urbanism possibilities representing those who refuse to be excluded from the ‘backend’ of smart city projects, being kept in the dark by black-boxed technologies and algorithmic decision-making.

Telling observational and performative tales, I follow multiple, creative, and careful practices of resistance of bottom-up collectives in Berlin. Through the observation method, I have reviewed the different forms of resistance, the discourses underpinning their work and the alternative they are building. The collectives range from DYI internet infrastructure with autonomous data-hub that contest the deterministic digital technological infrastructure, tech-feminist collectives (cyber feminist cities) that are loudly refusing the current hegemonic subjectivity of digital technology, and the neighbourhood-based digital currency based on the solidarity economy. Through the performative approach, we, with all those observed collectives, are organising a three-day-workshop for the experimental construction of a niche urban space and governance anarchitectures.

As a vignette, this presentation contributes to discussing the communal refusal strategy of these collectives and elaborates on how they are politically, spatially and performatively reappropriating the technological glitches in the city and enabling the (re)imagining alternative modes of digital urbanism in Berlin.