Membership Category
- Associate
Institution
- Université de Montréal - UdeM
Discipline(s)
- Human Geography
- Urban Studies
Expertises
- Circular city
- Urbanism
- Urban metabolism
- Transition management
- Experimentation
Scientific activities and affiliations
- Faculté de l'aménagement
- Lab Ville prospective
Biography
Philippe Genois-Lefrançois is a candidate in the interdisciplinary doctoral program in urban planning at the Université de Montréal. His thesis focuses on urban planning approaches to the urban deployment of the circular economy. He is particularly interested in the potential of tools derived from the study of urban metabolism and transition management for the design and implementation of innovative urban planning strategies.
Affiliated research axes
Change and Transition Management
Planning Optimization
Resource and Product Maximization
Policy levers
Projects funded by the RRECQ
Synthesis of knowledge on urban metabolism and urban experimentation approaches for the territorial expansion of the circular economy
Description
Owing to their demographic weight, potential for action and concentration of infrastructures, activities and stakeholders, cities constitute strategic arenas for the transition to the circular economy (CE). However, the expansion of CE on an urban scale requires the transformation of the means of collective action.
First, there must be a new reading of the territory to quantify and characterize the resource flows within it. With that in mind, urban metabolism (UM) provides conceptual and methodological tools for territorial diagnosis and strategic design.
Second, governance approaches are required to stimulate circular innovations that may serve as transitional trajectories. In this context, urban experimentation derived from transition management constitutes a tool to mobilize stakeholders, innovation and systemic change.
Based on a review of scientific and grey literature and interviews, the synthesis of knowledge involves three components:
- Identify urban collective actions (policies, urban projects, etc.) in CE that mobilize UM in North America and Europe.
- Identify strategies to scale up urban experiments in CE.
- Categorize the characteristics and impacts of a crossover between UM and experimentation to implement urban CE strategies.
Themes
- Change management
- Social innovation and transformation
- Territory
- Urban experimentation
- Urban metabolism
