ERASMUS+ Blended Intensive Programme

Fit4Future Summer School 2026 "The Circular Urban Turn – Towards Zero-Waste Cities and Regions”

A collaboration between BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg (Germany), Université Polytéchnique Hauts-de-France (France), University of Vaasa (Finland), Karlstad University (Sweden)

Background and objectives:

Cities are metabolic engines of contemporary societies. They concentrate material flows, energy consumption, waste production, social inequalities, and innovation capacity in unprecedented density. account for 75 per cent of the world’s consumption of resources and for 60 to 80 per cent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (UNEP, 2019).). Yet the extraction of materials, agricultural production, energy generation, and waste disposal largely occur outside city boundaries. Thus, cities are embedded in regional production systems, global value chains, ecological hinterlands, and socio-material infrastructures. Any attempts for urban transformation therefore cannot stop at municipal borders. Despite their resource-intensive metabolism, cities and urban areas are often described as laboratories for transformative change (WBGU 2012). But what would it take to redesign urban systems (like housing, mobility, food, infrastructures, governance) towards more sustainable concepts like circularity, zero-waste, sufficiency, and commons?

The summer school enables participants to understand, critically assess, and design circular transformation processes across urban and regional scales, with a strong focus on bottom-up social innovation. Participants develop a systemic perspective on cities and regions as socio-ecological and socio-metabolic systems. They learn to analyse material and energy flows, identify structural lock-ins, and examine how infrastructures depend on regional and ecological contexts.

A key objective is to distinguish technocratic circular economy strategies from broader societal transformation approaches. The program explores how zero-waste policies, sufficiency practices, commons-based initiatives, and regenerative models intersect with climate mitigation, biodiversity protection, and social justice. Particular attention is given to grassroots initiatives—such as informal donation systems, repair networks, free shops, community-supported agriculture, and cooperative infrastructures—as sites of experimentation. Participants assess their transformative potential, internal tensions, and the challenges of institutionalisation and scaling.

To strengthen climate literacy and systems thinking, the summer school integrates a facilitated workshop by Climate Fresk. This participatory training deepens participants’ understanding of the causal mechanisms of climate change and connects circular urban and regional strategies to global climate dynamics.

About the BIP:

Blended Intensive Porgramme (BIP) between BTU-UVA-KAU-UPHF brings together students at different levels (bachelor, master, PhD) as well to engage in discussions and pathways for transformative action to face complex change in their regional contexts.Problem-based learning (PBL), hybrid (online and in-person) learning and flipped classroom approach.

Dates:

Online:                 2-hours-session May, June, July, August 2026

In-person:         7-11 September 2026 at BTU Cottbus

More information about application and programm will follow soon!