The role of local government in promoting circular economy: The case of the city of Tampere

In this presentation we discuss the role of local government in the promotion of circular economy. The analytical framework of this paper is built on circular city discourse with a special view of the identification of local government’s role in the multi-actor and multi-sector governance field. We will exemplify the real-life development of local circular economy by using the city of Tampere, Finland, as our case. Tampere is a progressive city in a Finnish welfare society, which has applied hybrid governance in its quest for balancing economic development with socially and ecologically desirable future. It pursues an ambitious circular economy policy that reflects the consensual thinking embraced by the European Union and international organizations, and uses its role as a major local governance player to engage major local institutions, corporations, and associations in the promotion of local circular economy.