Deze bundel essays brengt, eindelijk, systematisch in beeld wat de waarde en het potentieel is van wat vaak de ‘beweging van onderop’ wordt genoemd: initiatieven vanuit burgers en betrokken, ondernemende, mensen die vanuit hun eigen leefomgeving de wereld proberen te veranderen. Op veel plekken, zo laten de auteurs zien, zijn er de afgelopen jaren sociale initiatieven ontstaan die de weg (willen) wijzen naar een circulaire en duurzame toekomst. Deze initiatieven zijn altijd lokaal geworteld maar ook mondiaal verbonden: translokaal. ‘Bottom up’ of ‘van onderop’ doet ze dan ook tekort: ze komen van alle kanten. Hoogstens zeggen zulke benamingen iets over het perspectief van degene die erbuiten staat: de beleidsmaker (of onderzoeker) die ermee wordt geconfronteerd. Ja, het zijn vaak ondernemende burgers die uit eigen beweging aan de slag gaan, maar tegelijk brengen ze vaak professionele expertise en netwerk mee. @en

Local sustainability initiatives are studied from two scholarly perspectives: the perspective of sociotechnical innovation, which relates to the capacity of bottom-up initiatives to contribute to the development of sociotechnical alternatives; and the perspective of civic engagement which relates to the capacity of citizens to organize themselves in order to pursue community goals. This paper argues that taking both these perspectives into account overcomes the problem of being too instrumental or the problem of neglecting the role of technology and innovation in local initiatives. The perspective of sociotechnical innovation presents different types of innovation pursued by local initiatives: the creation of new technology, the application of existing technology and the development of social innovation. Furthermore, innovations might diffuse over wider society by: replication, scaling up, and translation. In turn, civic engagement may take the shape of: the strengthening of social capital, the formation of social movements, and the substitution of functions and services. The insights from literature are illustrated and qualified by applying them in the context of concrete local initiatives. Finally, local initiatives will be portrayed as social contexts that are successful in gathering actors with different motivations and world views and that may contribute to the democratization of innovation.

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This paper aims to contribute to understanding the dynamics of industrial symbiosis. More specifically, we focus on the dynamics of anchoring as they can be observed in the Chinese context of eco-industrial development. We define anchoring as those activities that (typically local) actors perform to create local physical and institutional conditions conducive to the emergence and further development of industrial symbiosis in a specific regional industrial system. We argue that, in the study of industrial symbiosis dynamics, it is conceptually more useful to focus on anchoring as an activity, rather than anchor tenants as actors. Based on a systematic literature review, we distinguish two types of anchoring activities: institutional and physical. We analyze anchoring dynamics in the case of Qijiang Industrial Symbiosis (Chongqing Municipality) in China. We have identified the physical and institutional anchoring activities, the actors responsible for these activities, and how different anchoring activities build on each other over time. Our case study shows that the attempt to bring about industrial symbiosis in the Qijiang industrial park can be described in a richer way than just 'governmental planning'.

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