The Dutch government and leading academics in the field of circular economy propose that “repurposing”, i.e., finding new usages for discarded material, is important to reduce resource usage. Waste collectors, municipalities and start-ups increasingly find ways to develop circular business models, aiming for minimum loss of material integrity. Repurpose is a circular business model strategy which entails using a discarded product or its parts in a new product with a different function.The aim of this research is to gain a better understanding of this promising but academically underexposed circular strategy by empirically exploring its key characteristics and developing a taxonomy that reflects the scope and potential of the concept. The taxonomy development was based on clustering and comparing 96 case examples using key characteristics and critical factors empirically collected by means of 11 semi-structured expert interviews. The taxonomy was iteratively refined and validated by means of workshops with experts.This paper proposes a taxonomy and a comprehensive definition for repurposing. The Repurpose taxonomy distinguishes three main categories with increasing levels of material integrity: “Reprocess”, “Reshape” and “Recontextualize”. The taxonomy provides a refinement of existing circular business model patterns and frameworks for closing material loops strategies. It shows how repurposing may exploit the creative potential of design to fill the gap between reuse and recycling by retaining previously added value with three levels of physical adjustment.
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circular economy as a system change is gaining more attention, reusing materials and products is part of this, but an effective method for repurposing seems to be missing. Repurpose is a strategy which uses a discarded product or its parts in a new product with a different function. Literature on specific design methods for 'repurposing’ is limited and current design methods do not specifically address repurpose driven design. This paper aims to contribute to the literature on repurpose as a circularity strategy by evaluating repurpose driven design processes which are deployed in practice and evaluate to what extend existing design methods are suited for repurpose driven design. Building on a multiple case study two main design approaches are identified. First, a goal-oriented approach in which a client commissions the design studio. Second, a resource-oriented approach in which a discarded product or its components is the starting point of a design process initiated by the designers. Although both approaches follow a more or less standard design process, each intervenes with repurpose specific input at different phases in the design process, depending on the role of the designer. Results show that in order to be able to deal with the inconsistencies of discarded products, specific repurpose-related tools are required for an efficient and effective repurpose driven design process. Future research should address these issues in order to develop comprehensive and practical tools that accommodate the two repurpose driven design approaches.
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Studying images on social media introduces several challenges that relate to the size of datasets and the different meaning-making grammars of social visuality; or as aptly pointed out by others in the field, it means ‘studying the qualitative on a quantitative scale’. Although cultural analytics provides an automated process through which patterns can be detected in large numbers of images, this methodology doesn’t account for other modalities of the image than the image itself. However, images circulating social media can (and should) be analyzed on the level of their audience as the latter is co-creating the meaning of images. Bridging the study of platform affordances and affect theory, this paper presents a novel methodology that repurposes Facebook Reactions to infer collective attitudes and performative emotional expressions vis á vis images shared on the large Syrian Revolution Network public page (+2M). We found visual patterns that co-occur with certain collective combinations of buttons, displaying how socio-technical features shape the discursive frameworks of online publics.
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This manual presents a framework and accompanying tools designed tosupport designers and other stakeholders in finding new and meaningfulapplications for waste streams. When new products are designed fromdiscarded products, components, or materials with a different function, wecall this Repurpose.Previous research by the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences intoRepurpose Driven Design and Manufacturing revealed that no methods or tools existed to support designing with waste streams, while it also becameclear that there was a demand for such tools among companies anddesigners. Therefore, these tools have been developed in collaboration withpartners. This manual first provides a brief introduction to repurpose and thedeveloped tools. It then explains the steps that can be taken in a designprocess where a waste stream is the starting point. Next, the methodologyfor each tool is discussed. Finally, you will find printable versions of the files,so you can start working with them yourself.
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Upcycling has been embraced by circular economy enthusiasts, policy-makers and collaborative initiatives across Europe. Early studies describe upcycling as a concept aimed at resource conservation by keeping products, components and materials at their highest potential value across consecutive product lifecycles, with zero-negative or even potential positive impact on the natural environment. Similarly, more recent literature on the circular economy views upcycling as a strategy to slow and close resource cycles through product life-extension approaches, such as reuse, repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing and repurpose. With growing environmental concerns, upcycling has become a re-emerging theme in literature and practice. Cities offer opportunities for an increasing number of upcycling initiatives, but little is known about what manifestations of upcycling occur specifically in urban areas or how these urban upcycling initiatives emerge. For example, so-called Urban Resource Centers seek to tackle challenges in urban solid waste management by encouraging entrepreneurs to create value from local waste streams. Therefore, our objective is to address this literature gap and explore manifestations of upcycling in a city context by means of qualitative research, following a case-study approach based on data collected from research archives and 17 preliminary interviews with entrepreneurs and experts in urban upcycling of furniture and interior design products. This study contributes to a structured overview of urban upcycling initiatives and the internal and external factors that drive entrepreneurial initiatives and development. Future work will build on this study to make urban upcycling initiatives more widespread and impactful to deliver on their environmental and social goals.
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By reframing (from a future perspective) projects, programs and events, as deployed over the last decade, the paper aims to provide stimuli to convert them into a coherent strategic line of development. Based on postmodern epistemologies, the authors of this paper propose an analysis of selected lighting manifestations as separated future-forming moments of city identity. The adoption of a futures research matrix as a reflexive framework sees the repurposing of such a framework from its standard generative function within design processes to an analytical function. The ambition is to provide narrative context to existing projects and everyday practices by linking them within given future scenarios. With the final outcome proposed as to coherently connect separate, lighting-related, manifestations to an overarching system of interpretation. The case offered is the city of Eindhoven, The Netherlands. The tool adopted and repurposed is the Urban Futures Matrix from city.people.light. The specific manifestations, as presented, pertain both high culture and popular culture. This paper does eminently offer a coherent and consistent reflection on practices in the form of a case study, however, grounded in a theoretical and epistemological solid framework of reference.
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With growing environmental concerns, upcycling has become an important theme in literature and practice. Upcycling can help slow and close resource cycles through product life-extension. Cities offer opportunities for upcycling initiatives and seek to tackle challenges in urban solid waste management by encouraging entrepreneurs to create value from local waste streams in urban resource centres and circular crafts centres. However, little is known about what drives urban upcycling and which barriers and drivers occur. This study explores urban upcycling in the context of the Dutch furniture industry, since The Netherlands positions itself as a ‘circular economy hotspot’ and furniture offers promising opportunities and best practices for upcycling. The analysis of 29 semi-structured interviews with experts engaged in urban upcycling reveals personal motives, drivers and barriers. Personal motives include (1) a personal purpose to ‘do good’, (2) an urge to challenge the status quo and (3) learning and inspiring by doing. Key drivers entail opportunities to (1) engage in collaborative experimentation, (2) participate in cross-sectoral local networks, (3) develop resource-based adaptive competences, (4) respond to increasing demand for upcycled products and (5) make social business activities financially viable. Key barriers perceived by upcycling experts include (1) limitations in resource availability, (2) increasing capacity requirements, (3) negative public quality perception, (4) limited marketing competences and (5) an unequal playing field. This study contributes with a comprehensive definition of urban upcycling and a structured overview of key factors that drive and constrain urban upcycling.
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In our in-depth case study on two circular business models we found important roles for material scouts and networks. These key partners are essential for establishing circular business models and circular flow of materials. Besides, we diagnose that companies are having difficulties to develop viable value propositions and circular strategies. The paper was presented at NBM Nijmegen 2020 and will be published at a later date
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Studying images in social media poses specific methodological challenges, which in turn have directed scholarly attention towards the computational interpretation of visual data. When analyzing large numbers of images, both traditional content analysis as well as cultural analytics have proven valuable. However, these techniques do not take into account the circulation and contextualization of images within a socio-technical environment. As the meaning of social media images is co-created by networked publics, bound through networked practices, these visuals should be analyzed on the level of their networked contextualization. Although machine vision is increasingly adept at recognizing faces and features, its performance in grasping the meaning of social media images is limited. However, combining automated analyses of images - broken down by their compositional elements - with repurposing platform data opens up the possibility to study images in the context of their resonance within and across online discursive spaces. This paper explores the capacities of platform data - hashtag modularity and retweet counts - to complement the automated assessment of social media images; doing justice to both the visual elements of an image and the contextual elements encoded by networked publics that co-create meaning.
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