Linking Circular Economy with People, Policy, Processes and Place in Regard to Redevelopment Projects in Mumbai

Abstract

The study investigates how existing circular economy (CE) practices operate within Mumbai’s brownfield redevelopment projects. It examines the decentralized network of actors, spaces and processes that govern material recovery, reuse and redistribution across demolition cycles. It addresses the empirical CE research gap in the Indian context by examining practices and policies. The research adopts an actor–network framework through a multi-site fieldwork design using a multi-method qualitative approach. Data were collected through supply chain tracing, field observations, semi-structured interviews and material flow mapping across demolition sites, secondary material markets, workshops and scrap markets in Mumbai between the period of May and November 2025. Thematic coding and diagramming were used to analyse actor roles, processes, spatial configurations, material and value circuits across building life cycles and the 12Rs framework. The findings reveal that Mumbai’s redevelopment economy already sustains a functioning decentralized circular system through informal socio-spatial networks of material recovery, reuse, refurbishment and redistribution. However, these systems remain weakly recognized within formal CE scholarship and policy frameworks, which continue to emphasize debris management and centralized recycling approaches. The study advances CE scholarship beyond techno-material framings by showing how circularity operates through socio-spatial relations across actor networks, material processes, spaces and value circuits within redevelopment cycles, thereby foregrounding necessity-driven systems in the Global South. The study relies on snowball sampling across multiple sites in Mumbai and recognizes the need for further research on material recovery rates and spatial, economic and environmental implications of these practices at the city scale. The findings suggest policy reforms that acknowledge and integrate decentralized reuse systems through spatial planning provisions, incentives, capacity-building and worker safety protections. The study suggests that higher-order CE outcomes can be achieved by integrating decentralized informal CE networks, thereby reducing stigma, enhancing livelihoods and supporting resource-efficient redevelopment while advancing more inclusive CE pathways.