Silvia Grandi (p), Angela Salzo

Jonathan Morris

The concept of the Circular Economy has gained increasing attention in both academia and policy agendas. However, its application to the textile and fashion industry remains underdeveloped despite tackled by severa EU very recent policies. This paper seeks to address this gap by examining the case of Prato’s renowned textile industrial district, which was iconically analyzed by Giacomo Becattini in his seminal works. From this perspective, the study presents Prato as an archetype of a circular textile industrial district, exploring its evolution and the complex challenges it faces in adapting to the European Union’s new legal requirements. These challenges can be compared to the transformative effects of globalization and increased trade liberalization on European regions in the early 2000s, particularly in reshaping Prato’s socio-economic system. Notably, Prato's circular model is deeply rooted in its historical tradition of wool fiber recovery, a practice that dates back over a century and can be traced as far as its 12th-century Wool Guild. The case of Prato offers valuable insights into the challenges and resilience patterns shaping the circular transition of the fashion industry.

Umut Türk (p), John Östh (p), Aura Reggiani, Jelena J. Stanković, Ivana Marjanović, Marija Džunić, Marina Stanojević , Marina Toger

Balázs György Forman

This research examines economic resilience and network connectivity in the Western Balkans within the framework of a regenerative economy. It explores long-term population changes using open-source geospatial and population data, offering a novel approach to resilience assessment in data-scarce regions. The study investigates how network connectivity and spatial factors, such as road density, urban features, and economic opportunities, influence demographic shifts as a proxy for resilience.

Using population census data, OpenStreetMap-derived urban features, and road network distances between cities with over 50,000 residents, the study applies Weighted Least Squares regression to analyze key determinants of population change. Results indicate that cultural and financial amenities support resilience, while child-rearing facilities correlate with population decline. Road network density enhances resilience in origin cities but can hinder it in destination cities. Language similarities also play a role in sustaining population stability.

Among spatial interaction models tested, the log-normal function best captures these dynamics. The findings highlight distinct resilience patterns across cities, providing insights into urban development and policy-making. This study demonstrates the value of open-source data and advanced modeling in understanding economic resilience and demographic trends in regions with limited traditional data sources.

Jonathan Morris (p), Lisa Junge, Namchul Shin

John Östh

The market shaping potential of public procurement can be harnessed to drive the integration of circular practices and strategies into the supply chains of companies providing goods and services to the public sector. By placing criteria into calls for tender, governments can support new technologies, products and innovations which can help to drive the circular transition. This research is concerned with how circularity is currently integrated into existing calls for tender for public procurement projects. This also concerns cities and regions, since business activity is concentrated into specific geographical areas, and the evaluating of the success of policies will need to be evaluated through the development of screening criteria, indicators and monitoring systems. In order to address the first objective, research explores public tender documents from European countries from the Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) database for the year 2023, applying automated content analysis to synthesise qualitative and quantitative information arising from the documents. Automated content analysis relies on machine learning and text-mining, which is not yet widely applied in the sustainability management literature, making it an innovative methodology to derive insights for the equally new topic at hand. From our test study sample of 269 calls for tender containing the terms “circular economy”, we find 89 tenders which are explicitly focused on the local and regional level. Our testing phase analysis of tender documents (n=20) so far has found a lack of CE integration into PP call for tender documents, with price dominating the award criteria, and vague environmental references that lacked clear operationalization or scale of activity. The continued work work will continue to test and refine the framework and model, to provide deeper insights into how PP can be implemented at different spatial scales to support circular economy transitions, and roll out the methodology to a wider range of calls for tender across the European Union.

Balázs György Forman (p)

Silvia Grandi

The role of FDI in global value chains and the circular economy
FDI, as one of the most defining phenomena of today's world economy, has been researched from many aspects in recent decades. Many have examined it from the perspectives of host and sending countries, investing transnational corporations and the local communities involved. But these studies described the role and significance of FDI in the context of an economic system operating on a linear principle. But today, the situation has changed. With the spread of the circular economy practice and the emergence of relevant regulations, TNCs are also forced to rethink the material flows associated with their products. Many questions arise here as well. For example, is a car factory obliged to recycle the passenger cars it produces? At the end of their lifespan? Or only if all their parts are original factory parts? Is it possible to narrow the range and quantity of products that can be recycled after use? Or is the goal really to return as much of the material from consumer durables and cars that have become unusable and obsolete at the end of their lifespan to the material flow of the circular economy as possible?
The situation is not simple even if the entire value chain is within one country.
But what about when the main components of a passenger car are manufactured in 4-5 countries, and all its components in 30-40 countries, as a result of the work of hundreds of suppliers? For example, who should be responsible for taking back used cars, dismantling them, and reusing their components and materials? Can a reverse value chain be created within TNCs? What role can a country, where FDI spends 85-90% of its sales revenue on imported parts, raw materials, and energy sources, and 99% of its sales revenue comes from exports, have in a global circular economy? Will the plants in the parent company's country or in the FDI destination countries be responsible for the buyback?