Transformative Hope. Blockchains and Civic Digital Platforms for Circular Urban Economies

In a context where envisioning the future is increasingly difficult, digital innovation has emerged as a genuine beacon of hope for improving our territories, particularly in relation to social and environmental justice. However, this optimism is tempered by complexities and ambiguities that highlight the limitations of a strictly technocratic understanding of digital innovation. The use of digital technologies in civic and non-profit urban initiatives provides compelling examples that depart from such a technocratic perspective. The research presented in this paper is part of the European project CORPUS, which aims to explore viable models of circular urban economies (CUE) for the retrofitting of public urban spaces through participatory processes and digital technologies. The paper first offers an exploratory review of CUE and examines how digital tools are employed within these initiatives. It then discusses the cases under consideration through the lens of prefigurative planning (Davoudi, 2023), using it as a critical framework to assess both their potential to challenge the status quo of unsustainable production and consumption models in urban contexts and the internal complexities they entail.