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The article argues that to reach circular economy goals urban regions need to identify and understand the challenges and opportunities originating from the differences in spatial settings, and to develop place-based solutions by adequately involving (local) stakeholders. Based on the case study that was conducted in Hamburg within the Horizon2020 project REPAiR, spatial specificities in five different urban areas shall be analysed and strategies that were developed in a co-creative process shall be explored. The results show that the spatial organisation of CE strategies depends on urban structures and stakeholders’ interest and needs to be embedded in the (local) governance setting and a spatial planning system.

This paper identifies and explores key elements for planning and implementing citizen involvement in the area of waste management and circular economy in cities. The analysis has shown that institutions responsible for waste management regard strategic planning, inclusivity, transparency, continuity, and resources as particularly important for reaching the objectives of citizen involvement. However, not all of the four analysed cities have applied these elements to the same extent, due to e.g. a lack of a strategy for citizen involvement, or limited personal and financial resources.

The aim of this paper is to map the spatial variations in the size of the shadow economy within Brussels. Reporting data provided by the National Bank of Belgium on the deposit of high denomination banknotes across bank branches in the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, the finding is that the shadow economy is concentrated in wealthier populations and not in deprived or immigrant communities. The outcome is a call to transcend the association of the shadow economy with marginalized groups and the wider adoption of this indirect method when measuring spatial variations in the shadow economy.