CfP: Resourceful Cities. Material Circulations, Design, and Sustainability in Asia14.11.2025 {en}

A quick reminder about the upcoming deadline for the Resourceful Cities special issue.

Extended proposals are due in just over two weeks: 1 December 2025.

Many thanks to those who have already submitted!
For anyone still planning to send in a proposal, there’s still time. We’re very much looking forward to reading your ideas and contributions.

Call for Papers

Special Issue: Resourceful Cities. Material Circulations, Design, and Sustainability in Asia
Guest Editor: Beata Świtek

Across Asia, cities are at the forefront of profound experiments in managing material and ecological flows. From housing and infrastructure designed to be easily dismantled to recover and recycle building materials, through the integration of food cultivation within dense urban spaces, to novel practices of water capture and reuse, these initiatives challenge conventional assumptions about how cities use resources, sustain themselves, and shape design.

This Special Issue aims to bring together interdisciplinary perspectives on how Asian cities are negotiating resource constraints and ecological pressures by reconfiguring the relationship between urban life, material circulation, and design innovation.

We welcome empirically grounded, qualitative, and case-based contributions from anthropology, urban studies, architecture, environmental humanities, design studies, STS, and related disciplines. Comparative analyses are also encouraged and may include cities outside Asia, as long as they shed light on resource and sustainability practices through conceptual and empirical insights.

Possible themes include (but are not limited to):

New material flows and circulations in Asian cities (waste, water, food, energy, building materials)
Design and architectural innovations for sustainable or circular urbanism
Comparative perspectives on sustainability initiatives across Asian urban contexts
The politics of infrastructure, ecology, and material scarcity
Intersections of technology, culture, and ecology in shaping urban futures

This issue seeks contributions that integrate empirical research with theoretical innovation, advancing data-driven and conceptual insights on how urban Asia is reimagining its relation to resources and sustainability.

The Special Issue will be published in The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies.

Timeline

Extended proposals (1–2 pages):
Include: title, author(s), affiliation(s), short description of methodology, empirical focus, and contribution
Deadline: 1 December 2025
Notification of acceptance: 30 January 2026

Full papers (by invitation):
Deadline: 1 May 2026
Length: 6,000–8,000 words
Formatted according to CJAS guidelines: https://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/cjas/about/submissions
Publication: Winter 2026 / Spring 2027 (Issue 44.2)

All full papers will be anonymously reviewed by at least two external experts, with the guest editor making the final decision. Authors can expect comprehensive editorial feedback to refine and strengthen their contributions prior to publication.

Please submit your extended proposals by 1 December 2025 to beata.switek[at]gmail.com.
When sending your abstract, kindly include Resourceful Cities SI in the subject line.