Towards solutions and infrastructure for circular neighbourhoods in rural areas

Recently, there has been an increase in circular cities and research on the concrete meaning of circularity at the city mesolevel. However, circular solutions or requirements for rural areas are often overlooked. This can be explained by the dominant deterritorialized and sectoral approach in circularity research, policy, and practice, which isolates places, people, and practices. The point of departure of our study is that circular cities can only thrive if their related rural areas are healthy, as they are interdependent. Within this context, we develop a framework that contributes to the conceptualisation of circular neighbourhoods and infrastructure in rural areas. We use a literature review to build on the findings of circularity research in Japan, Belgium, Finland, and Norway, and distil predefined categories for deductive analysis. We validate the deductive analysis by a further inductive analysis of the literature. Our review focuses on how the existing built environment (buildings, roads, and other infrastructure) can increase the vitality of rural areas to enable rural circularity practices (RCPs). In addition, we propose new directions for future research on circular neighbourhoods in rural areas, preferably in symbiosis with circular cities.