Circular Economy Pathways for Sustainable Urban Housing in India
Practitioner‐Informed Insights
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19235264 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Janappriya Jayawardana (0000-0002-5307-4017, School of Property, Construction and Project Management RMIT University Melbourne Victoria Australia, corresponding author), Usha Iyer‐Raniga (0000-0002-3088-8739, School of Property, Construction and Project Management RMIT University Melbourne Victoria Australia), Akvan Gajanayake (0000-0003-1405-1776, School of Property, Construction and Project Management RMIT University Melbourne Victoria Australia) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-14 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sustainable Development (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0968-0802 • E-ISSN: 1099-1719 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/sd.71327 |
| OpenAlex | W7164755613 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 72 |
Rapid urbanisation, population growth, socioeconomic disparities, and sustainability pressures are intensifying India's urban housing challenges, particularly for low‐income and economically weaker section households, creating a critical need for context‐sensitive circular economy (CE) pathways. This study investigates how CE approaches can be contextualised for Indian urban housing through a 2‐day participatory workshop involving 20 built environment practitioners from 15 organisations. Participants collaboratively mapped systemic factors, identified design and material strategies, and refined circular interventions within a state‐level housing context. Workshop outcomes were subsequently analysed using hybrid inductive‐deductive qualitative content analysis, complemented by follow‐up interviews with five participants and a targeted policy and document alignment analysis. The findings show that CE in Indian urban housing is not only a technical issue of materials and design, but a multidimensional socio‐technical challenge shaped by governance, finance, stakeholder capacity, market acceptance, and behavioural change. The study developed a practitioner‐driven framework comprising six priority areas: policy and governance; stakeholder engagement, social inclusion, and capacity building; circular materials and resource loops; circular design and construction; business, finance, and market models; and technology and innovation. Follow‐up interviews further revealed growing practitioner understanding of CE as a systems and life cycle issue, while exposing persistent boundary blurring between CE and green building approaches. The policy and document alignment indicated that India already has partial CE implementation anchors, but these remain fragmented rather than integrated into a coherent CE pathway. Although exploratory, the study offers actionable entry points for policy, practice, and research in rapidly urbanising and resource‐constrained housing contexts
Circular economy · Citizen journalism · Population · Psychological intervention · Qualitative research · Resource Efficiency · Stakeholder · Sustainability · Recycled Aggregate Concrete Performance · Sustainable Building Design and Assessment · Sustainable Supply Chain Management
Urban Transition Labs
Targets for a circular economy
Transformative Learning as Discourse
Conceptualizing the Circular Economy (Revisited)
Methodological challenges in qualitative content analysis
Impacts of urban living labs on sustainability transitions
Demystifying Content Analysis
The qualitative content analysis process
Stakeholder participation for environmental management
Transformative learning in the field of sustainability
The development of a participatory assessment technique for infrastructure
Housing Passport knowledge graph
Public Housing Redevelopment in Melbourne
The potential of transformative learning for sustainability transitions
Urban resilience
Transdisciplinary research in sustainability science
Societal effects of transdisciplinary sustainability research—How can they be strengthened during the research process
Systems thinking as a paradigm shift for sustainability transformation
Necessity-driven circular economy in low-income contexts
Barriers to the Circular Economy
Closing the loop at the local scale
Co-designing the urban energy transition
The geography of circularity missions
What is participatory research
Qualitative Content Analysis
Demonstrating Rigor Using Thematic Analysis
| Highly cited | No |
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