| Abstract |
Circular Economy is widely recognized as an effective tool for achieving urban sustainability. Over the past years, scientific research on Urban Circular Economy (UCE) has intensified. However, there is a lack of review studies that effectively capture the evolution and current state of UCE in relation to sustainability. To address this gap, we thoroughly reviewed the literature and conducted a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of UCE publications indexed in Web of Science. We employed software packages such as CiteSpace and VOSviewer to analyze the collected data. Our quantitative analysis highlighted China, Italy, England, Spain, and the USA as the major contributors to UCE research. The category "Environmental Sciences & Ecology" contained the highest quantity of UCE publications. The most frequently occurring terms in our dataset were circular economy, municipal solid waste, life cycle assessment, waste management, and sustainability. Hotspots in UCE research included developing country, renewable energy, household waste, sustainable consumption, supply chain management, and extended producer responsibility. Our qualitative analysis revealed several emerging trends in UCE, including the social dimension of UCE practices, shorter-loop strategies within the R-framework, and the integration of Industry 4.0 technologies into UCE practices. Drawing upon the bibliometric results and an in-depth study of prominent works in this field, we developed a conceptual framework that outlines a five-stage evolutionary process of UCE literature. Additionally, we proposed a guiding framework with a comprehensive set of theoretical and practical recommendations to steer future research and policymaking toward effective UCE implementation in the urban sustainability context. |