L1D67

(1.3)
L1T128 (20%): processes (6%), actors (4%)

L1T34 (19%): transitions (12%), sustainability_transitions (10%), transition (9%)

L1T8 (12%): research (18%)

L1T131 (5%): approaches (16%)
titleabstract

ARTIFACTS AND FUNCTIONS - A NOTE ON THE VALUE OF NATURE (1993) 🗎🗎

This paper examines and compares the ontological and axiological character of artefacts - human creations - with nonhuman natural entities. The essential difference between artefacts and natural entities is that the former are always the result of human intention and design, while the latter are independent of human purpose. Artefacts have functions; natural entities do not. The connection to human intentional purpose implies a different kind of value for artefacts. Artefacts are evaluated solely by their instrumental (and anthropocentric) use, while natural entities can be appreciated for their independent and autonomous existence. This distinction has normative implications, especially for environmental policy and the development of an environmental ethic. Intervention in natural processes, even to 'improve' nature, must be limited, for human action changes natural entities and systems into artefacts. A moral imperative requires respect for the autonomy of nature and resistance to the human domination of nature.

SOCIAL-SCIENCE TRANSFORMED - THE SOCIOTECHNICAL PERSPECTIVE (1995) 🗎🗎

The recently-published second volume of the Tavistock Anthology on The Social Engagement of Social Science focuses on socio-technical systems theory and practice. This paper reviews that volume, examining its classic contributions in the light of modern perspective and challenges.

From technocracy to participation? Positivist, realist and pragmatist paradigms applied to traffic and environmental policy futures research in Finland (1996) 🗎🗎

This article continues the discussion of futures research categories. Nine questions are addressed concerning futures research methods, the use of the methods and the role of futures research in planning and decision-making processes from an environmental policy point of view. On the basis of the nine questions, three paradigms are outlined-positivism, realism and pragmatism. They form a gradient from technocracy to citizen participation. Three traffic futures research cases in Finland are analysed. The cases represent mostly the positivist paradigm although the method in case two has traces of realism and even pragmatism. Environmental problems are considered matters of uncertainty, not substantial arguments. It is concluded that the choice of a futures research method is less important than the use of the method. But of most crucial relevance is the role of futures research in the whole planning and decision-making process. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd

History as evolving systems (1998) 🗎🗎

This essay presents an approach to the history of technology which focuses both on technical systems and on sociotechnical systems. The former consist of artifactual components; the latter involve both artifactual and organizational components. A concept of reverse salients is used to explain the way in which systems synchronically and diachronically evolve. The essay also explores the nature of creativity, especially the creation of technical and sociotechnical systems by individual and collective system builders.

Translation, difference and ontological fluidity: Cerebral angiography and neurosurgical practice (1926-45) (2000) 🗎🗎

Cerebral angiography is nowadays a standard test in neurosurgical treatment. The coupling between such a diagnostic technique and neurosurgical practices is the outcome of a complex story. This paper explores that complexity, it does so by exploring the continuities and discontinuities between the multiple definitions and uses of angiography in the first 20 years of its history. It also investigates the relations between process and narrative in S&TS research, and suggests that it is possible to turn dis/continuity into an empirical question, viewing it as internal to the processes of socio-technical innovation as it becomes available in the practical engagements of the actors involved in those processes.

The limits to scale? Methodological reflections on scalar structuration (2001) 🗎🗎

Fruitful new avenues of theorization and research have been opened by recent writings on the production of geographical scale. However, this outpouring of research on scale production and on rescaling processes has been accompanied by a notable analytical blunting of the concept of geographical scale as it has been blended unreflexively into other core geographical concepts such as place, locality territory and space. This essay explores this methodological danger: first, through a critical reading of Sallie Marston's (2000) recent article in this journal on 'The social construction of scale'; second, through a critical examination of the influential notion of a politics 'of' scale. A concluding section suggests that our theoretical grasp of geographical scale could be significantly advanced if scaling processes axe distinguished more precisely from other major dimensions of sociospatial structuration under capitalism. Eleven methodological hypotheses for confronting this task are then proposed.

Escaping carbon lock-in (2002) 🗎🗎

This article explores the climate policy implications of the arguments made in "Understanding carbon lock-in" (Unruh, 2000), which posited that industrial countries have become locked-into fossil fuel-based energy systems through path dependent processes driven by increasing returns to scale, Carbon lock-in arises through technological, organizational, social and institutional co-evolution, "culminating" in what was termed as techno-institutional complex (TIC). In order to resolve the climate problem, an escape from the lock-in condition is required. However, due to the self-referential nature of TIC, escape conditions are unlikely to be generated internally and it is argued here that exogenous forces are probably required. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

From sectoral systems of innovation to socio-technical systems - Insights about dynamics and change from sociology and institutional theory (2004) 🗎🗎

In the last decade 'sectoral systems of innovation' have emerged as a new approach in innovation studies. This article makes four contributions to the approach by addressing some open issues. The first contribution is to explicitly incorporate the user side in the analysis. Hence, the unit of analysis is widened from sectoral systems of innovation to socio-technical systems. The second contribution is to suggest an analytical distinction between systems, actors involved in them, and the institutions which guide actor's perceptions and activities. Thirdly, the article opens up the black box of institutions, making them an integral part of the analysis. Institutions should not just be used to explain inertia and stability. They can also be used to conceptualise the dynamic interplay between actors and structures. The fourth contribution is to address issues of change from one system to another. The article provides a coherent conceptual multi-level perspective, using insights from sociology, institutional theory and innovation studies. The perspective is particularly useful to analyse long-term dynamics, shifts from one socio-technical system to another and the co-evolution of technology and society. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Seeking convergence between history and futures research (2004) 🗎🗎

The objective of this paper is to analyse how much the traditions of history research (HR) and futures research (FR) have in common and how they could assist each other. First, the role of time is analysed. Second, the path dependence theory, strategic decision-making, knowledge management and visionary management are discussed. Examples of the application of the latter in water and sanitation services and their long-term development are shown. Finally, some argumented views are presented on how the convergence between FR and HR could be improved. The key point of this research is the seeming discontinuity between presents, recent pasts and near futures. The traditions of HR probably make it more difficult to assess the effects of strategic decisions on the recent. If more convergence is wanted, the gap should be filled somehow. On the other hand, the core of FR research seems to concentrate more on strategic and visionary horizons while perhaps neglecting the operational horizon of the near future. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Information systems development as emergent socio-technical change: a practice approach (2005) 🗎🗎

Many information systems development (ISD) initiatives fail to deliver the expected benefits. An important percentage of these are the result of social and organizational factors, not simply technical failures. This paper explores the dynamics of these social and organizational factors to better understand the causes of success and failure. Based on data from a detailed case analysis of an ISD project, the paper depicts the ISD process as an emergent and dynamic one, characterized by continuous local adaptations. The paper ends with a proposal of a feedback-rich framework, based on a practice view of sociotechnical change that offers theoretical insights and practical heuristics to system developers and project managers.

The role of technological change for a sustainable development (2005) 🗎🗎

Technological change has become a major focus in environmental policy as well as in energy and climate policy. Indeed, there is a growing body of knowledge about how and in which direction technological change might have an impact on environmental resource constraints and how environmental policy might have an impact on this direction. In this article we introduce the contributions to this special issue showing how they add to recent developments in the field of economics of technological change and sustainability. We also discuss potential avenues for future research. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

Moving images: the mobility and immobility of 'kids standing still' (2006) 🗎🗎

Mobility is a frequently recurring theme in recent debates around the emergence of new technologies. However, with this increasing attention paid to mobility, how does `immobility' become notable as an absence of mobility? How are such perceptions of immobility used to occasion assessments of motive, intent and moral standing? This paper features a sociological interrogation of examples of immobility made notable through expectations of mobility. It utilises a study of CCTV as its principle example of the constitution and assessment of mobility and immobility. The paper explores theoretical strategies available for interrogating these issues. It concludes through an engagement with the boundaries constituted around mobility and immobility. The ways in which forms of assessment operate through, and further maintain, these boundaries are considered.

Normative expectations in systems innovation (2006) 🗎🗎

This paper is concerned with the way technological expectations are generated, articulated and deployed in processes of large-scale socio-technical change. We argue that expectations are intrinsic to all social action, so that visions of the future are both ubiquitous and context-specific. Agents will act in relation to private visions of the future that are complexly related to shared or collective visions. Characteristic features and forms of visions as they relate to socio-technical regimes are identified, and the specific roles visions play in the context of actor networks engaged in processes of systems innovation are discussed. Visions are seen as 'bids' that are deployed by actors in processes of coalition-formation and coordination. Examples from a range of visions of more sustainable systems are used to illustrate the main arguments. The paper ends by discussing the normative features of socio-technical expectations.

Feelings of discontent and the promise of middle range theory for STS - Examples from technology dynamics (2007) 🗎🗎

This article critically discusses the state of STS, expressing feelings of discontent regarding four aspects: policy relevance, conceptual language, too much focus on complexity, theoretical styles. Middle range theory is proposed as an alternative, promising avenue. Middle range theories focus on delimited topics, make explicit efforts to combine concepts, and search for abstracted patterns and explanatory mechanisms. The article presents achievements in that direction for technology dynamics, particularly with regard to the role of expectations, niche theory and radical innovation, and the multi-level perspective on sociotechnical transitions.

Typology of sociotechnical transition pathways (2007) 🗎🗎

Contributing to debates about transitions and system changes, this article has two aims. First, it uses criticisms on the multi-level perspective as stepping stones for further conceptual refinements. Second, it develops a typology of four transition pathways: transformation, reconfiguration, technological substitution, and de-alignment and re-alignment. These pathways differ in combinations of timing and nature of multi-level interactions. They are illustrated with historical examples. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Society, technology, and region: contributions from the social study of technology to economic geography (2008) 🗎🗎

Recent debates in economic geography have emphasized the need for a more explicit analysis of innovation processes at a sectoral or technological level. A great deal of attention has furthermore been devoted to connect the internal disciplinary debate with the wider discourse of the social sciences that deal with economic development in general and with the role of innovation in particular. In the present paper I argue that the field of the social study of technology (SST) can inspire research in economic geography in important respects: SST research has an explicit focus on the genesis of sociotechnical configurations; it has developed sector-related and technology-related multilevel theories of sociotechnical change; it has a strong emphasis on innovation dynamics and sector transformations; and finally, it has a focus on strategic planning in multiactor settings and thus favors foresight and participatory planning approaches in science, technology, and innovation policy. SST-inspired research could thus be an interesting partner for those approaches within economic geography that share some ontological starting positions with regard to actors, the role of institutions, and a coevolutionary and multilevel analysis of sociotechnical transformation processes.

Technological innovation systems and the multi-level perspective: Towards an integrated framework (2008) 🗎🗎

Technological innovation systems and the multi-level framework are closely related concepts for the study of far-reaching technological change. They draw on common theoretical roots and analyze similar empirical phenomena. However, they have developed rather independent research strands over the past few years. The paper reviews the state of the art of both concepts and explores commonalities as well as differences. Against this background, we outline first elements of a path towards an integrated framework that combines the strengths of the two approaches and allows providing a better understanding of radical innovation processes and socio-technical transformations. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Does scale exist? An epistemological scale continuum for complex human-environment systems (2008) 🗎🗎

Scale pervades interdisciplinary research on human-environment systems that exhibit hallmarks of complexity such as path dependence, nonlinearity, and surprise. Although scale concepts are woven through the data, methodology, and theory of human-environment research, the question remains: does scale exist? More broadly, can a single definition of scale suffice for human-environment systems? The meaning and use of scale is contested across the social, natural, and information sciences. Given that the study of human-environment systems spans many of these disciplines, specific research problems inherit a broad range of conflicting scale concepts. This paper proposes an epistemological scale continuum that arrays scale perspectives from the realist contention that there are natural scales independent of observers through to the constructionist view that scale is subjective and socially mediated. As seen in biocomplexity and human-environment research more broadly, this scale continuum establishes that scale is not a single measure or object of study, nor is any single definition of scale sufficient for human-environment systems. Viewpoints and tensions among scale epistemologies also suggest several general principles for using scale effectively in human-environment research. (C) 2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Overcoming barriers to innovation and diffusion of cleaner technologies: some features of a sustainable innovation policy regime (2008) 🗎🗎

Despite a deepening understanding of systems and processes by which the innovation and diffusion of cleaner technologies occurs, relatively little attention has been given to the development of policy processes that reflect this deeper understanding. A set of guiding principles for improving sustainable innovation policy processes has been formulated and disseminated by the authors and colleagues in research drawing on theoretical and empirical analysis, including a case study of low carbon energy innovation in the UK, and interactions with policy-makers and other stakeholders through a series of workshops. This paper elaborates on two of the guiding principles: (1) stimulating the development of a sustainable innovation policy regime, bringing together innovation and environmental policy regimes; (2) applying systems thinking, engaging with the complexity and systemic interactions of innovation systems and policy-making processes, to promote a transition to sustainability. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rethinking the multi-level perspective of technological transitions (2008) 🗎🗎

In recent years numerous articles have been published which advocate a multi-level perspective (MLP) for the analysis of long-term technological transitions. This paper reviews current transitions research and considers the limitations of the MLP which need to be addressed to enhance understanding of processes of innovation affecting the transformation of technology and society. The paper suggests ways in which the MLP may be effectively rethought, based on more thoroughgoing application of a co-evolutionary concept of technological transitions. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Social policy in Europe: paradigms of change (2008) 🗎🗎

Social policy research deploys a variety of approaches for analysing processes of dynamic change but these face major limitations. This article argues for an institutionally grounded complexity analysis, bringing together the historical institutionalism of Pierson (2004) and Crouch (2005) and the treatment of dynamically coupled adaptive systems by Kauffman (1993; 1995) and Potts (2000). It concludes that, at the very least, social policy researchers will need to make a considered assessment of these complexity-based approaches, as they invade an increasing area of the social sciences.

The governance of sustainable development: taking stock and looking forwards (2008) 🗎🗎

The number of books and papers bearing the terms 'sustainable development' and 'governance' in their titles has grown exponentially in the last decade or so. The main purpose of this paper is to explore what meanings have been attached to these two essentially contested terms and to assess the extent to which the material on them constitutes an important, coherent, and cumulative body of scholarship. The first half explores the existing literatures on the two terms, and draws out some of the main similarities and differences. Drawing on papers that have been published in this journal over the last decade or so, the second half focuses on the attempts that have been made to build empirical and/or theoretical bridges between the two terms. The concluding section identifies a number of key themes and explores future research needs in what is evidently a vibrant and highly policy-relevant area of environmental social science research.

A Meta-Theory for Understanding Information Systems Within Sociotechnical Systems (2009) 🗎🗎

Information systems (IS) research often attempts to examine and explain how technology leads to outcomes through usage of IS. Although extensive research in this area has resulted in a significant number of theories, limited work has been done on integrating these theories. This paper presents adaptive structuration theory (AST) as a meta-theory for examining IS within an organizational context. The two main contributions of the paper are an understanding of meta-theory's role in IS and building a case for using AST as a meta-theory to (1) provide an overarching perspective for understanding and integrating existing literature and theories, (2) provide a template and set of guidelines for creating better context-specific IS models and theories, and (3) provide a deeper understanding of a theory. Along with discussion of the contributions, we provide examples to guide researchers in applying AST as a meta-theory.

Cities mediating technological transitions: understanding visions, intermediation and consequences (2009) 🗎🗎

Approaches to technological transitions and their management have generated considerable interest in academic and policy circles in recent years. The development of this body of work may be seen as a response to the complexities, uncertainties and problems which confront many western societies, in organising 'sustainably' various aspects of energy, agricultural, water, transport and health systems of production and consumption; problems which are seen as systemic and entwined or embedded in a series of social, economic, political, cultural and technological relationships. For all the light that transitions approaches shine on such processes they say little explicitly about the role of places. In this paper we address this through looking at the way in which London is currently beginning to shape a systemic transition in its energy infrastructure. We outline and discuss key aspects of the roles of strategic intermediary organisations, which have been strategically set up to intervene between technological possibilities and the territorial context of London. We draw on the case of London to highlight an emblematic example of a city's attempt to systemically re-shape its energy infrastructure and the lessons to be drawn from this. We also outline the particularity of London in this respect, the limitations of the transferability of experiences in London and highlight directions for future research in this area.

Converging agendas? Energy and climate change policies in the UK (2009) 🗎🗎

In the UK climate change and energy have converged on the policy agenda. We discuss the implications for theories of policy change based on well-defined networks located within single, discrete, policy domains. We suggest that such approaches struggle to account for the dynamics of change in conditions of policy convergence. The issue of climate change has opened up and destabilised the UK energy policy sector, but this process has been surprisingly free of conflict, despite radical policy shifts. To date, convergence of the energy and climate change sectors has largely occurred at a discursive level, and we focus our attention on a number of different, but largely complementary, storylines about solutions to climate change. We draw on ideas about sociotechnical regime transitions, first, to explore why the storylines are not in obvious conflict, and, second, to identify small-scale niches where tensions in storylines do emerge as discourse is translated into material reality.

Conceptualizing, Observing, and Influencing Social-Ecological Transitions (2009) 🗎🗎

This article creates a meeting ground between two distinct and fairly elaborate research traditions dealing with social "transitions": the Dutch societal transitions management approach, and the Viennese sociometabolic transitions approach. Sharing a similar understanding of sustainability transitions-namely as major transformational changes of system characteristics-and a background epistemology of complex systems, autopoeisis, and evolutionary mechanisms, they address the subject from different angles: one approach asks how transformative changes happen and what they look like, and the other approach tries answer the question of how to bring them about. The Viennese approach is almost exclusively analytical and deals with a macro ("landscape") level of human history with a time scale of decades to centuries; the Dutch approach is based on intervention experiences and deals with a shorter time frame (decades) of micro-meso-macro levels of industrial societies. From both their respective angles, they contribute to some of the key questions of sustainability research, namely: how can a transformative change toward sustainability be distinguished from other types of social change? By which mechanisms can obstacles, path dependencies, and adverse interests be overcome? And what are the key persistent problems that call for such a transition?

Back to the future: New potential for structuration theory in management accounting research? (2009) 🗎🗎

For three decades, the use of structuration theory has made a distinctive contribution to management accounting research. A recent development of the theory by Stones [Stones, 2005. Structuration Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke] advocates a move away from the relatively abstract concepts evident in the work of Giddens, towards providing more concrete constructs that give epistemological and methodological guidance to researchers in the field. In order to achieve this, he recommends deployment of the concept of position-practices, combined with use of a quadripartite model of structuration. The main purpose of this paper is to examine the potential of this development for management accounting research. We do so by setting it within our own skeletal model of the structuration process, and then using it to analyse a case study of management accounting practices in a privatised utility company. We conclude that investigation of position-practices focuses attention on the strategic conduct of agents, the importance of power in social interaction, and a plurality of structures and theories of action. But, whilst the quadripartite model highlights the phenomenology, hermeneutics and practices of agents, we note that it provides few direct insights into the processes of reproduction, learning and change in management accounting. We suggest this limitation can be overcome by using structuration theory in a flexible manner, drawing inspiration from other theoretical perspectives which ascribe central roles to path dependency, contradiction and praxis. (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The transitions storyline in Dutch environmental policy (2009) 🗎🗎

In 2001 the Dutch government adopted a new policy in its Fourth National Environmental Policy Plan. Its transitions approach seeks radically more sustainable socio-technical systems, and represents an attempt to reinvigorate ecological modernisation. To explain the rise of this distinct policy storyline, a coalition of researchers and policy-makers forming the transition storyline is analysed. The interpretative flexibility of the storyline in relation to prevailing institutional priorities explains its success but also builds in limits by making subsequent institutionalisation susceptible to capture by incumbent interests, as illustrated by implementation in the energy sector.

The Politics of Social-ecological Resilience and Sustainable Socio-technical Transitions (2010) 🗎🗎

Technology-focused literature on socio-technical transitions shares some of the complex systems sensibilities of social-ecological systems research. We contend that the sharing of lessons between these areas of study must attend particularly to the common governance challenges that confront both approaches. Here, we focus on critical experience arising from reactions to a transition management approach to governing sustainable socio-technical transformations. Questions over who governs, whose system framings count, and whose sustainability gets prioritized are all pertinent to social-ecological systems research. We conclude that future research in both areas should deal more centrally and explicitly with these inherently political dimensions of sustainability.

Regional resilience: a promising concept to explain differences in regional economic adaptability? (2010) 🗎🗎

One of the most intriguing questions in economic geography is why some regional economies manage to renew themselves, whereas others remain locked in decline. To tackle this question, the idea of resilience has emerged building upon concepts derived from ecology, psychology, disaster studies and elsewhere. This conceptual paper aims at critically assessing whether regional resilience contributes to our understanding of regional economic adaptability, in particular, and its potential contribution to evolutionary economic geography, in general. It concludes that, due to three main shortcomings, its contribution is relatively limited.

'Energy regions': The transformative power of regional discourses on socio-technical futures (2010) 🗎🗎

'Guiding visions' play an important role in the transition management approach as a central means of mobilizing social actors and the co-ordination of dispersed agency. 'Energy regions' in Austria are an interesting example for the strategic promotion of such guiding visions in the context of regional development. We describe the case of Murau, an alpine district in which a strong actor network has been built around a vision of systematically exploiting renewable energy sources and at the same time saving the region from economic decay. The vision gained much authority and has been institutionalised at various levels of regional governance. It furthermore was supported by and played an important role for regime level attempts to influence socio-technical change. Development and social propagation of such visions are inherently political and contested processes involving much strategizing and anticipation of conflict. We describe particular discursive strategies applied in niches - such as the combination and translation of sentiments into localised visions and demonstrations of feasibility. These strategies can be understood as systematic attempts to support discursive shifts at regime level by means of local activities, and aim to modify rather durable power structures. We suggest ways to analyse such discursive practices in order to orient strategic action in the course of such processes: analysing 'guiding visions' and their interference with other emerging trends; extending analyses across spatial scales (e.g. translations) and across thematic fields (e.g. convergence of agendas); and focusing on processes of stabilisation, institutionalisation and mutually reinforcing developments. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Ontologies, socio-technical transitions (to sustainability), and the multi-level perspective (2010) 🗎🗎

Using recent criticisms and suggestions regarding the multi-level perspective as stepping stones, the article aims to enhance the reflexivity in transition debates regarding social theories. To that end, the article discusses seven social science ontologies (rational choice, evolution theory, structuralism, interpretivism, functionalism, conflict and power struggle, relationism), their assumptions on agency and causal mechanisms, and their views on socio-technical transitions and environmental sustainability. The second goal is to position the multi-level perspective on transitions with regard to these ontologies and to identify directions for theoretical extensions. The MLP is characterized not as a grand or unifying theory, but as a middle range theory that makes crossovers to some ontologies and not to others. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Frame-based guide to situated decision-making on climate change (2010) 🗎🗎

The present paper describes a frame-based approach to situated-decision-making on climate change. Building on the multidisciplinary literature on the relationship between frames and decision-making, it argues that decision-makers may gain from making frames more explicit and using them for generating different visions about the central issues. Frames act as organizing principles that shape in a "hidden" and taken-for-granted way how people conceptualize an issue. Science-related issues, such as climate change, are often linked to only a few frames, which consistently appear across different policy areas. Indeed, it appears that there are some very contrasting ways in which climate change may be framed. These frames can be characterized in terms of a simple framework that highlights specific interpretations of climate issues. A second framework clarifies the built-in frames of decision tools. Using Thompson's two basic dimensions of decision, it identifies the main uncertainties that should be considered in developing a decision strategy. The paper characterizes four types of decision strategy, focusing on (1) computation, (2) compromise, (3) judgment, or (4) inspiration, and links each strategy to the appropriate methods and tools, as well as the appropriate social structures. Our experiences show that the frame-based guide can work as an eye-opener for decision-makers, particularly where it demonstrates how to add more perspectives to the decision. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Innovation studies and sustainability transitions: The allure of the multi-level perspective and its challenges (2010) 🗎🗎

Sustainable development is prompting a re-assessment of innovation and technological change. This review paper contributes three things towards this re-assessment activity. First, it considers how the history of innovation studies for sustainable development can be explained as a process of linking broader analytical frameworks to successively larger problem framings. Second it introduces an emerging framework whose allure rests in its ability to capture the bigger picture: the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions (MLP). Whilst burgeoning researcher networks and literature suggests this policy-relevant theory is attractive, it is not without its challenges. The third purpose of this paper is to elaborate these challenges as areas for further research and development. We do this by drawing upon contributions to this special section and the wider literature. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Ideas, institutions, and interests: explaining policy divergence in fostering 'system innovations' towards sustainability (2011) 🗎🗎

Over the last few years a fast-growing literature has developed around the notion of sociotechnical transitions and the possibilities for governing 'system innovations' towards sustainability. Government policies are assumed to play an important role in such processes. However, an important critique has suggested not to see these transition processes as politically neutral but to pay more attention to the politics of these processes. With this paper I make a contribution towards this debate by analysing the underlying political processes and their institutional contexts which led to two quite different approaches aimed at promoting system innovations in the UK and the Netherlands. The main question I answer is why the two governments engage with the same challenge in such different ways. Building on a discursive-institutionalist perspective based on the work of Hajer and Schmidt, 1 highlight the interplay of discourses, institutional contexts, and interests in shaping policy initiatives to promote system innovations. I conclude by suggesting a typology of possible relationships between these variables and expected policy outputs which helps to explain the two case studies and is believed to be applicable more widely.

A dynamic conceptualization of power for sustainability research (2011) 🗎🗎

This paper takes up the challenge of providing a conceptual power framework to be used in the context of sustainability research. First, challenges of sustainability research are discussed by focusing specifically on recent insights from Integrated Sustainability Assessment (ISA), and on that basis some requirements for concepts to be used in sustainability research are postulated. It is argued that two of the most important aspects of sustainability assessment research are the long-term dynamics of change and an interdisciplinary paradigm. Second, a dynamic power framework is presented that was developed in the context of research on socio-technical sustainability transitions, including the basics of this power framework as well as some empirical illustrations. Third, it is discussed how the presented power framework deals with time, change and long-term dynamics, and how this contributes to the state-of-the-art. Fourth, it is indicated how the power framework integrates interdisciplinary and 'interparadigmaticatic' research requirements, and how this contributes to the state-of-the art. In conclusion, the arguments are summarized and some challenges for future research are distilled. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sustainable Development Paths: Investigating the Roots of Local Policy Responses to Climate Change (2011) 🗎🗎

As the implications of a changing climate come into focus, attention must shift to effectively stimulating action in response to this dramatically pervasive phenomenon. Responses to climate change, however, are embedded in institutional procedures, technological pathways and cultural practices that are characterized by deep inertia. By paying express attention to linkages among disciplines, this paper takes steps towards contributing a richer definition of the development path concept, identifying realms of inquiry that may together be called a 'development path' literature and discussing ways in which this sheds light on effective responses to global climate change. This paper reveals the value of fundamentally interdisciplinary approaches to climate change responses, the necessity of a deeper understanding of the context of action on climate change and the ubiquity of path dependence. Rooted in the underlying socio-technical, institutional and socio-cultural development paths, barriers to action may best be addressed through contextually specific, inter-disciplinary analyses of collective human behaviour. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Translation mechanisms in socio-technical niches: a case study of Dutch river management (2011) 🗎🗎

This paper makes three contributions to the field of transition research. First, it sheds light on how the concept of translation can contribute to a better understanding of agency in niche development. Second, it articulates how the local-global distinction in the strategic niche management (SNM) approach relates to the levels in the multi-level perspective. Third, the article is empirically novel by presenting a radical sustainable innovation in Dutch water management ('New Rivers').

Socio-technical change as gradual transformation (2011) 🗎🗎

Processes of socio-technical change that are triggered by new technological opportunities do not occur as radical fractures over short periods of time, which then quickly lead to new periods of technological, institutional and organizational continuity. What appears to be radical socio-technical change is in fact the result of longer search and restructuring processes that are influenced by a number of related technological and socio-economic changes. Once these changes accumulate they lead to substantial adjustments within the technological, institutional and (inter-)organizational foundations of society, the economy or other sectors. How can an analysis of processes of both radical and gradual change be introduced? What modes are involved in their occurrence, which patterns do they follow and what variations do they assume? Against the background of technology-driven change within economic sectors, this paper develops a concept of gradual socio-technical transformation. This concept can be used to analyze and structure multi-phased, often erratic and non-linear processes of socio-technical change that only over time evolve into substantial sectoral adjustments.

Processes and Practices of Strategizing and Organizing: Review, Development, and the Role of Bridging and Umbrella Constructs (2011) 🗎🗎

The scope and purpose of this special issue is to draw interconnections between domains of strategy and strategic management research. Specifically, we initially conceptualized this special issue with two goals in mind: (1) to highlight and bridge intersections between strategy theories and bodies of scholarship; and (2) to advance and mainstream ways in which an explicit organizational dimension can be fostered in strategy and strategic management research. The papers selected for the issue capture this set of aspirations in various ways, and, as such, they collectively offer a foundation for extending strategy and strategic management research in exciting new directions. We start our introduction by providing a brief overview of the contributions provided by each paper in the context of three broad strategy themes: strategy and process; resources and organizational growth; and environment and institutional context. We subsequently discuss the potential for integration of research across these themes, and highlight the importance of what we define as bridging and umbrella constructs that are able to connect various strategy and organizational phenomena in coherent and meaningful ways. We elaborate the important distinction between these two constructs and their respective roles ill theory development, and use that to drive and articulate directions for further research.

Contesting power, trust and legitimacy in the South African e-waste transition (2012) 🗎🗎

Socio-technical transition theory is increasingly being used in research and practice to explain and guide transitions toward sustainability. Although recognizing the coevolution of technology and society, multi-scalar influences, and complex social processes, transition theory has thus far inadequately accounted for the role of power and in shaping transitions. This study uses the example of the transition-in-progress toward more sustainable e-waste practices in South Africa as one illustration of how power shapes the successes, failures, and direction of transitions. I look specifically at three transition arenas that are competing for legitimacy to guide the South African e-waste transition and show how their history, membership, and rules of participation shape the different pathways promoted by these organizations. In the South African case, vested interests and constraints on participation resulted in the splintering of original transition arena. While socio-technical transition theory suggests the importance of different competing niche experiments, in this case, different pathways are being promoted by different coalitions of actors through different arenas. The presence of multiple arenas and pathways has divided resources, created confusion, and arguably delayed the transition. Further, the scope for participation in these organizations differs, and this has implications for the redistribution of power. I suggest the need to more carefully consider the role of power, trust, and legitimacy within socio-technical transition theory and specifically within the transition arena. Importantly, analyzing the transition arena as a site of contestation over the distribution of costs and benefits of the particular pathway will enhance socio-technical transition theory's explanatory power regarding how and why particular outcomes emerge.

Local Demonstrations for Global Transitions-Dynamics across Governance Levels Fostering Socio-Technical Regime Change Towards Sustainability (2012) 🗎🗎

Which role do spatial dimensions play in the transformation of socio-technical regimes, in particular the energy system, towards more sustainable configurations? Concepts such as the multilevel perspective on socio-technical change have not given sufficient attention to space and place so far. We develop our considerations around the case of an "Energy Region" in Austria where people try to bring about a substantive shift in their "local" energy supply structure and have the ambition to contribute to a "general" transition towards sustainable energy systems. However, if this ambition is to stand the test of reality, what are the mechanisms and processes through which regional governance can have a broader impact on the transition of the energy system? What are the resources it can draw upon? What are the linkages with other governance levels? We investigate in detail how one regional showcase for the feasibility of a non-fossil, sustainable energy system was set up in Murau, a remote, alpine district of Austria. Starting from the multilevel framework for the modelling of niche-regime interaction, we put particular emphasis on the formation of discourse coalitions and dynamics of multi-level governance. Our findings support the view to pay considerably more attention to the interplay of local and non-local discourses and the dynamic relations between local initiatives and non-local networks which can provide specific opportunities for the legitimization and entrenchment of alternative socio-technical configurations.

Sustainability transitions and final consumption: practices and socio-technical systems (2012) 🗎🗎

This article examines the significance of final consumption processes for understandings of prospective transitions towards more sustainable societies. It argues that most existing conceptualisations either place too much emphasis on technology or on 'consumer behaviour', ignoring the deeply intertwined relationships between the two. After briefly reviewing recent contributions to the technology-oriented multi-level perspective (MLP) and to social scientific explanations of 'behavioural change', we outline a practice-based approach to understanding final consumption and sustainability. Practice-based approaches reveal processes of reproduction (stasis) and change in forms of consumption, which we argue present conceptual insights into sustainability transitions. By examining the tensions and crossovers between the MLP and practice-based approaches to consumption, three specific forms of interaction are identified for further conceptual and empirical exploration: the social relations of consumption; co-dependent changes in production and consumption; and, technologies, practices and consumption.

The shadowy side of innovation: unmaking and sustainability (2012) 🗎🗎

Transitions towards more sustainable ways of life depend on the development or reintroduction of lower carbon sociotechnical arrangements and the demise of other more resource intensive configurations. Within the fields of innovation studies and transitions theory, processes of emergence and stabilisation are better documented and more widely discussed than those of disappearance, partial continuity and resurrection. In this article I refer to the recent history of cycling in the UK and in other European countries, using this as a means of identifying questions that lie at the margins of current debate but that are important in understanding how incoming and outgoing configurations co-exist, how dormant remains of past regimes come back to life, and how innovation journeys start over again. I argue that there are new questions to be found in the shadows of innovation studies, and that these are important for academics and policy makers interested in developing and promoting more sustainable sociotechnical systems, aspects of which are foreshadowed by ways of the past.

Metatheoretical perspectives on sustainability journeys: Evolutionary, relational and durational (2012) 🗎🗎

Journeys to a sustainable future have become important to industry, government and research. In this paper, we examine evolutionary, relational and durational perspectives on sustainability journeys. Each perspective emphasizes different facets of sustainability - shifts in selection environments, reconfigurations of emergent networks, and intertemporal comparisons and contrasts. Drawing on our analysis, we discuss implications for sustainability policy, strategy and research. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Toward a spatial perspective on sustainability transitions (2012) 🗎🗎

In the past decade, the literature on transitions toward sustainable socio-technical systems has made a considerable contribution in understanding the complex and multi-dimensional shifts considered necessary to adapt societies and economies to sustainable modes of production and consumption. However, transition analyses have often neglected where transitions take place, and the spatial configurations and dynamics of the networks within which transitions evolve. A more explicit spatial perspective on sustainability transitions contributes to the extant transitions literature in three ways. Firstly it provides a contextualization on the limited territorial sensitivity of existing literature. Secondly, it explicitly acknowledges and investigates diversity in transition processes, which follows from a 'natural' variety in institutional conditions, networks, actor strategies and resources across space. Thirdly, it encompasses not only greater emphasis but also an opportunity to connect to a body of literature geared to understanding the international, trans-local nature of transition dynamics. Concerned with the prevalent lack of attention for the spatial dimensions of sustainability transitions in most studies, this paper seeks to unpick and make explicit sustainability transition geographies from the vantage point of economic geography. The paper argues that there are two interrelated problems requiring attention: the institutional embeddedness of socio-technical development processes within specific territorial spaces, and an explicit multi-scalar conception of socio-technical trajectories. Following these arguments, the paper concludes that transitions research would do well to take a closer look at the geographical unevenness of transition processes from the perspective of global networks and local nodes. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Environmental Innovation and Sustainability Transitions in Regional Studies (2012) 🗎🗎

TRUFFER B. and COENEN L. Environmental innovation and sustainability transitions in regional studies, Regional Studies. Sustainable development and environmental innovations have received increasing attention in regional studies and the related literature. In how far sustainability concerns might also lead to fundamental transformations in technologies, industries and lifestyles (so-called sustainability transitions) has, however, found much less resonance. Sustainability transitions have been in the focus of scholars from the field of innovation studies. However, until recently, these approaches mostly disregarded spatial aspects. This paper therefore maps out a field of future research - the geography of sustainability transitions - that might be beneficially laboured by both traditions. The paper introduces the core concepts, but also the limitations of the transitions literature. After reviewing salient lines of sustainability-related research in regional studies, the paper specifies promising research areas at the interface between both fields. Empirical illustrations will be provided from recent work in sustainability transitions research venturing into this interface.

Past and prospective energy transitions: Insights from history (2012) 🗎🗎

This introduction to the special issue on past and prospective energy transitions presents some insights from research into past energy transitions of relevance for a possible transition to a low carbon economy. It also provides a synthesis of insights generated during a workshop attended by many of the leading researchers on this topic at Cardiff University in April 2011. The final section introduces the articles in the special issue. It is hoped that the workshop and this issue will help to move forwards the integration of the exciting research on past energy transitions in ways that will also offer valuable insights into the challenges of prospective low carbon transitions. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Future visioning for sustainable household practices: spaces for sustainability learning? (2012) 🗎🗎

Despite widely articulated concerns about unsustainable production and consumption processes, governance interventions have led to only incremental shifts in routinised production and consumption behaviour, particularly within households of western, industrialised societies. In response, techniques of future visioning have been mooted as more ambitious governing mechanisms that could help to liberate policymakers and other stakeholders from current patterns of disjointed incrementalism in the field of sustainable production and consumption. At the heart of these claims is the assertion that visioning promotes learning that can lead to the emergence of innovative approaches to sustainability challenges from problem redefinition to practical action. This paper examines the extent to which participatory visioning creates spaces for sustainable learning using empirical evidence from workshops focused on transforming household consumption practices in Ireland. It is concluded that participatory visioning approaches do provide supportive physical places and intellectual spaces for personal and collaborative learning with regard to potential sustainability transformations. The bounded nature of the particular workshops examined, in terms of duration, focus and participants, means that embedding such learning within wider organisational structures and practices is likely to be a much less certain process that, if it does occur, will unfold over longer timescales and in unpredictable ways.

Legitimizing research, technology and innovation policies for transformative change Combining insights from innovation systems and multi-level perspective in a comprehensive 'failures' framework (2012) 🗎🗎

The recent policy debates about orientating research, technology and innovation policy towards societal challenges, rather than economic growth objectives only, call for new lines of argumentation to systematically legitimize policy interventions. While the multi-level perspective on long-term transitions has attracted quite some interest over the past years as a framework for dealing with long-term processes of transformative change, but the innovation systems approach is still the dominant perspective for devising innovation policy. Innovation systems approaches stress the importance of improving innovation capabilities of firms and the institutional settings to support them, but they are less suited for dealing with the strategic challenges of transforming systems of innovation, production and consumption, and thus with long-term challenges such as climate change or resource depletion. It is therefore suggested to consider insights from transition studies more prominently in a policy framework that is based on the innovation systems approach and the associated notion of 'failures'. We propose a comprehensive framework that allows legitimizing and devising policies for transformative change that draws on a combination of market failures, structural system failures and transformational system failures. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Transition failure: Understanding continuity in the automotive industry (2012) 🗎🗎

This paper argues that there is a powerful tendency in forecasting of socio-technical change to focus on the causes and consequences of change at the cost of greater understanding of the reasons for and significance of continuity. Taking the case of the global automotive industry, the paper therefore analyses the evidence for systemic continuity in technologies, economic structures, cultural positioning and embedded social function through the lens of transition theory and the multi-level perspective. It is concluded that the observable processes are as much about enduring technologies and social practices as they are about systemic change. That is, the industry has shown resistance to change notwithstanding the apparent imperatives for radical action or the multitude of attempts via socio-technical experimentation to nurture strategic niches. At a theoretical level, it is concluded that greater attention must be paid to understanding how change can be nullified. Moreover, theoretical expectations of systemic change need a greater emphasis on the way in which technological transition as a process may mean that many existing practices and structures are retained more or less intact rather than entirely replaced by new practices and structures. The future research agenda needs therefore to understand more fully how embedded practices and technological change inter-relate in specific concrete conditions. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sustainability transitions: An emerging field of research and its prospects (2012) 🗎🗎

Sustainability oriented innovation and technology studies have received increasing attention over the past 10-15 years. In particular, a new field dealing with "sustainability transitions" has gained ground and reached an output of 60-100 academic papers per year. In this article, we aim to identify the intellectual contours of this emerging field by conducting a review of basic conceptual frameworks, together with bibliographical analysis of 540 journal articles in the field. It is against this background that we position the six papers assembled in a special section in Research Policy. These papers pave the way for new conceptual developments and serve as stepping-stones in the maturation of sustainability transition studies, by linking with the scholarly literatures of management studies, sociology, policy studies, economic geography, and modeling. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Energy transitions research: Insights and cautionary tales (2012) 🗎🗎

This short essay first reviews the pioneers of energy transition research both in terms of data as well as theories. Three major insights that have emerged from this nascent research fields are summarized highlighting the importance of energy end-use and services, the lengthy process of transitions, as well as the patterns that characterize successful scale up of technologies and industries that drive historical energy transitions. The essay concludes with cautionary notes also derived from historical experience. In order to trigger a next energy transition policies and innovation efforts need to be persistent and continuous, aligned, as well as balanced. It is argued that current policy frameworks in place invariably do not meet these criteria and need to change in order to successfully trigger a next energy transition towards sustainability. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Climate Change and the Emergence of New Organizational Landscapes (2012) 🗎🗎

There is general agreement across the world that human-made climate change is a serious global problem, although there are still some sceptics who challenge this view. Research in organization studies on the topic is relatively new. Much of this research, however, is instrumental and managerialist in its focus on 'win-win' opportunities for business or its treatment of climate change as just another corporate social responsibility (CSR) exercise. In this paper, we suggest that climate change is not just an environmental problem requiring technical and managerial solutions; it is a political issue where a variety of organizations - state agencies, firms, industry associations, NGOs and multilateral organizations - engage in contestation as well as collaboration over the issue. We discuss the strategic, institutional and political economy dimensions of climate change and develop a socioeconomic regimes approach as a synthesis of these different theoretical perspectives. Given the urgency of the problem and the need for a rapid transition to a low-carbon economy, there is a pressing need for organization scholars to develop a better understanding of apathy and inertia in the face of the current crisis and to identify paths toward transformative change. The seven papers in this special issue address these areas of research and examine strategies, discourses, identities and practices in relation to climate change at multiple levels.

Peak electricity demand and social practice theories: Reframing the role of change agents in the energy sector (2012) 🗎🗎

Demand managers currently draw on a limited range of psychology and economic theories in order to shift and shed peak electricity demand. These theories place individual consumers and their attitudes, behaviours and choices at the centre of the problem. This paper reframes the issue of peak electricity demand using theories of social practices, contending that the 'problem' is one of transforming, technologically-mediated social practices. It reflects on how this body of theory repositions and refocuses the roles and practices of professions charged with the responsibility and agency for affecting and managing energy demand. The paper identifies three areas where demand managers could refocus their attention: (i) enabling co-management relationships with consumers; (ii) working beyond their siloed roles with a broader range of human and non-human actors; and (iii) promoting new practice 'needs' and expectations. It concludes by critically reflecting on the limited agency attributed to 'change agents' such as demand managers in dominant understandings of change. Instead, the paper proposes the need to identify and establish a new group of change agents who are actively but often unwittingly involved in reconfiguring the elements of problematic peaky practices. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Proceeding in parallel or drifting apart? A systematic review of policy appraisal research and practices (2012) 🗎🗎

Policy appraisal has spread rapidly throughout the OECD and beyond, as has the associated academic literature. In this paper we present the findings of a systematic review of this literature. We assess the extent to which developments in academic research and in everyday appraisal practices have informed to one another. While there are signs that policy appraisal research is moving away from the 'technical - rational model' of appraisal, both research and practice remain heavily informed by it. The review reveals that research and practice are interacting in subtle ways, but these fall well short of what is sought by advocates of more reflexive approaches. We systematically examine the exact pattern of research - practice interaction depicted in the literature and explore how this may change in the future.

How theories of practice can inform transition to a decarbonised transport system (2012) 🗎🗎

In this article, I explore the potential of theories of practice to inform the socio-technical transition required to adequately decarbonise the UK transport system. To do so I push existing applications of practice theories by outlining a 'systems of practice' approach, which articulates theories of practice with socio-technical systems approaches. After sketching out a theory of practice, I explore the potential of a practice theory approach to illuminate systemic change in transport. I do this by confronting two key criticisms of practice theories; first of their apparent difficulty in accounting for change; second of their limited demonstrated ability to move beyond a micro-level focus on doing. The counter I offer to these criticisms leads directly into recognising how theories of practice can articulate with socio-technical systems approaches. From this basis. I go on to consider the implications of a practice theory approach for informing interventions to effect a system transition towards decarbonised transport. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mapping and navigating transitions - The multi-level perspective compared with arenas of development (2012) 🗎🗎

Transitions of socio-technical systems imply the reconfiguration of institutions and politics making made evident the need to understand and intervene in existing patterns of growth and socio-technical practices in more sustainable directions. In recent decades, theories of transitions have been introduced, which include the multi-level approach indicating ways to govern transitions through understanding the interactions between niches, regimes and landscapes. An alternative approach is suggested, which takes its outset in arenas of development and increased awareness of actors and their way of interpreting context and performing interventions. Building on three cases covering aspects of transitions since the 1970s, the article compares the two approaches based on three concerns in relation to transition studies. The first concern reflects that conflicts are important elements of change helping actors to navigate. The second concern builds on the observation that actors engage at all levels in society including visions, institutions, and innovations. The third concern addresses the role of academic theories and advice regarding governance of transition processes in which they function as entrenched actors. The article ends by emphasising the need to help actors navigate in a field in flux. The study of arenas of development may help interpret transitions in the making, and provide a background of information about how different actors can navigate and perform strategic interventions that support sustainable transitions. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Transformative innovation policy to meet the challenge of climate change: sociotechnical networks aligned with consumption and end-use as new transition arenas for a low-carbon society or green economy (2012) 🗎🗎

A shift in international climate policy discourse toward a new shared narrative on the need for a 'transition' to a low-carbon society and green economy is outlined and assessed in terms of its implications for innovation policy. It is seen as recognition of the limits of incrementalism and the need for pervasive transformative innovation. Key passage points are identified in the early 2000s through which new ideas about transition moved from academic discussion into policy practice. Transitions thinking expresses a new synthesis of evolutionary and associational approaches in science, technology and innovation studies. It introduces concepts of sociotechnical networks and configurations which fulfil core societal functions of consumption and end use. The agenda for innovation shifts from the traditional macroeconomic or microorganisational level, to a new focus on a range of situated sociotechnical transitions at the mesoregime level. The real world of contemporary innovation policy is assessed in terms of the new policy measures for the transformative innovation implied by this different perspective. A contradictory picture is found of new challenge led, demand oriented, systemic initiatives muddled with a legacy of technology driven, supply side, singular approaches. Evidence is given of how new computer based visualisation analysis of the global energy system reveals that its overall complexity may be addressed through a small number of fundamental end-use or consumption categories. It is argued that these offer the opportunity for a fundamental reframing of innovation policy for the experiments and arenas needed for sociotechnical transitions which are not predetermined by technology-driven choices.

Socio-technical regimes and sustainability transitions: Insights from political ecology (2012) 🗎🗎

Sustainability is increasingly becoming a core focus of geography, linking subfields such as urban, economic, and political ecology, yet strategies for achieving this goal remain illusive. Socio-technical transition theorists have made important contributions to our knowledge of the challenges and possibilities for achieving more sustainable societies, but this body of work generally lacks consideration of the influences of geography and power relations as forces shaping sustainability initiatives in practice. This paper assesses the significance for geographers interested in understanding the space, time, and scalar characteristics of sustainable development of one major strand of socio-technical transition theory, the multi-level perspective on socio-technical regime transitions. We describe the socio-technical transition approach, identify four major limitations facing it, show how insights from geographers - particularly political ecologists - can help address these challenges, and briefly examine a case study (GMO and food production) showing how a refined transition framework can improve our understanding of the social, political, and spatial dynamics that shape the prospects for more just and environmentally sustainable forms of development.

Ecological macroeconomics: An application to climate change (2013) 🗎🗎

Ecological economics has not paid sufficient attention to the macroeconomic level both in terms of theory and modeling. Yet, key topics debated in the field of ecological economics such as sustainable consumption, reduction in working time, the degrowth debate, the energy-exergy link, and the rebound effect require a holistic and macro perspective. While this deficiency has been identified before and Keynesian economics has been generally suggested as a potent vehicle to establish economic systemic thinking, very little concrete theorizing and practical suggestions have been put forward. We give further credence to this suggestion and demonstrate the value of tackling key concerns of ecological economics within a Keynesian growth framework. Contextualized by an application to climate change we suggest that policy relevant recommendations need to be based on a consistent view of the macroeconomy. We end with laying out key building blocks for a Keynesian model framework for an ecological macroeconomics. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Up, down, round and round: connecting regimes and practices in innovation for sustainability (2013) 🗎🗎

The multilevel perspective and social practice theory have emerged as competing approaches for understanding the complexity of sociotechnical change. The relationship between these two different camps has, on occasions, been antagonistic, but we argue that they are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, through empirical analysis of two different case studies of sustainability innovation, we show that analyses that adopt only one of these theoretical lenses risk blindness to critical innovation dynamics. In particular, we identify various points of intersection between regimes and practices that can serve to prevent (or potentially facilitate) sustainability transitions. We conclude by suggesting some possible directions for further research that place these crossovers and intersections at the centre of analyses.

Diagnosing transformative change in urban water systems: Theories and frameworks (2013) 🗎🗎

As urban water systems become increasingly stressed from climate change impacts, population growth and resource limitations, there is growing acceptance by scholars and practitioners of the need to transform practices towards more sustainable urban water management. However, insights into how strategic planning should be made operational to enable this transformation are limited; there is a need for a reliable diagnostic procedure that could assist planners, policy analysts and decision-makers in selecting and designing strategic action initiatives that best fit an urban water system's current conditions to enable desired system changes. This paper is the first step in the development of such a diagnostic approach by proposing a scope for an operational procedure that maps a system's current conditions and identifies its potential transformative capacity. It then reviews five existing analytic frameworks, which are influenced by transitions theory and resilience theory, and applies them each to a common empirical case study of successful transformative change in the stormwater management system of Melbourne, Australia. In this way, the paper explores how existing frameworks could potentially contribute to a diagnostic procedure for selecting and designing strategic action initiatives from the perspective of dynamic transformative change. The paper found that such a procedure should guide an analyst through steps that develop descriptive, explanatory and predictive insights to inform which strategic action initiatives best fit the current system conditions. The types of insights offered by different analytic frameworks vary, so a diagnostic procedure should be designed with a particular aim, problem or question in mind and the underpinning framework(s) selected accordingly. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sustaining trajectories towards Sustainability: Dynamics and diversity in UK communal growing activities (2013) 🗎🗎

Civil society is a critical arena both for exploring Sustainability itself and for sustaining trajectories towards it through innovation, experimentation and debate. Innovations can be mould breaking and can challenge local institutions. Concurrently, initiatives may be fragile due to the development of new working relationships, reliance on voluntary labour and goodwill, and dependence on grant funding. Here we examine different aspects of what it takes to sustain grassroots trajectories for 'communal growing', given the pressures that groups and intermediary organisations practicing and supporting this activity experience, and the consequential need to build qualities like 'resilience'. Attending carefully to the definition of this otherwise slippery concept, a particular focus is given to how contrasting aspects of temporality and agency lead to divergent constructions of 'resilience' and strategies for sustaining growing. We draw on fieldwork that explores the practice and support of communal growing in East Sussex, England, and directly associated activities at a national level. We find important interdependencies between communal growing projects and the intermediary organisations supporting them. Additionally there is huge diversity within and between both projects and the organisations that support them, including with respect to the ends to which growing is seen as a means. These ends link growing initiatives - both antagonistically and synergistically - to food, education and health systems. This diversity can be seen positively as: a source of innovation; facilitating the open and bottom up nature of growing; and, enabling the securing of greater financial support for the endeavour. What is less clear is how this plays into framing and configuring communal growing specifically in relation to achieving a more Sustainable and localised food system. We discuss the conceptual and methodological implications of these empirically derived observations with regards future research on grassroots innovations. (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Novel multisector networks and entrepreneurship in urban climate governance (2013) 🗎🗎

The papers in this theme issue seek to advance our understanding of the roles of networks and partnerships in the multilevel governance of climate change and related issues in the urban context. In particular, the papers examine the roles of nontraditional actors and apply emerging theoretical approaches such as sustainability transitions theory to gain a greater understanding of the variety of approaches being employed around the world, as well as the transformative potential of these approaches. We discuss the role of the state relative to the roles of local leadership, knowledge systems, and community-wide collaborative engagement in bringing about sustainability transitions.

Worldviews and Their Significance for the Global Sustainable Development Debate (2013) 🗎🗎

Insight into worldviews is essential for approaches aiming to design and support (more) sustainable pathways for society, both locally and globally. However, the nature of worldviews remains controversial, and it is still unclear how the concept can best be operationalized in the context of research and practice. One way may be by developing a framework for the understanding and operationalization worldviews by investigating various conceptualizations of the term in the history of philosophy. Worldviews can be understood as inescapable, overarching systems of meaning and meaning making that to a substantial extent inform how humans interpret, enact, and co-create reality. Moreover, worldviews are profoundly historically and developmentally situated. An Integrative Worldview Framework (IWF) can operationalize worldviews by differentiating five interrelated aspects: ontology, epistemology, axiology, anthropology, and societal vision. The evolution of the worldview concept is suggestive of an increasing reflexivity, creativity, responsibility, and inclusiveness-each of which are qualities that appear to be crucial for the global sustainable development debate.

Realising sustainable urban water management: Can social theory help? (2013) 🗎🗎

It has been acknowledged, in Australia and beyond, that existing urban water systems and management lead to unsustainable outcomes. Therefore, our current socio-technical systems, consisting of institutions, structures and rules, which guide traditional urban water practices, need to change. If a change towards sustainable urban water management (SUWM) practices is to occur, a transformation of our established social-technical configuration that shapes the behaviour and decision making of actors is needed. While some constructive innovations that support this transformation have occurred, most innovations remain of a technical nature. These innovative projects do not manage to achieve the widespread social and institutional change needed for further diffusion and uptake of SUWM practices. Social theory, and its research, is increasingly being recognised as important in responding to the challenges associated with evolving to a more sustainable form of urban water management. This paper integrates three areas of social theories around change in order to provide a conceptual framework that can assist with socio-technical system change. This framework can be utilised by urban water practitioners in the design of interventions to stimulate transitions towards SUWM.

Understanding transition-periphery dynamics: renewable energy in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (2013) 🗎🗎

Over the coming decades the Highlands and Islands of Scotland will be transformed as new technologies and infrastructures are installed to exploit wind, wave, and tide power. However, interactions between the region understood as a sociospatial category shaped by history, culture, and institutions and these technologies are poorly understood and need to be appreciated in more detail before the changes gather momentum. In this paper we link and extend research around sociotechnical transitions and resource peripheries and use this framework to analyse wind energy projects on the island of Lewis. Our analysis draws attention to transition-periphery dynamics and the ways in which renewable energy projects and particular locations are coshaping each other through these. Building on this case study we suggest implications for the region as a whole, argue that the analytical-normative agenda of sociotechnical transitions should be recast, and highlight the need for more research on sociotechnical transitions and new resource peripheries.

The Social Dynamics of Degrowth (2013) 🗎🗎

Degrowth cannot be realised from within a capitalist society, since growth is the sine qua non for capitalism. But, societies are no blank slates; they are not built from scratch. Putting these two thoughts together seems to make degrowth logically impossible. In this paper we argue that this paradox can be solved with the use of classical and contemporary concepts from the social sciences. We illustrate the use of these concepts with reference to studies on current practices and patterns of food production and consumption. The concept of social mechanism is used to illustrate how social practices can simultaneously reinforce and challenge the dominant (food) regime. We argue that current discussions on degrowth fail to envision how such contrasting developments are linked, and that the degrowth paradox originates in the idea of capitalism and the steady-state economy as alternative systems. The paradox dissolves with studies of mechanisms and social practices that show how the two systems are not autonomous, but 'hybridised' and come into existence and gain shape as reactions to each other.

Social-ecological memory as a source of general and specified resilience (2014) 🗎🗎

We explored why social-ecological memory (SEM) is a source of inertia and path dependence, as well as a source of renewal and reorganization in social-ecological systems (SESs). We have presented two case studies: the historical case of the Norse settlement on Greenland and an empirical case from contemporary southern Madagascar. The cases illustrate how SEM is linked to specific pathways of development and a particular set of natural resource management practices. We have shown that in each case, a broader diversity of SEM is present in the SESs, but not drawn upon. Instead, SEMs are part of what explains community coherence and the barriers to adoption of more diverse practices. We have elaborated on how specific SEMs are linked to specified resilience, and we have shown that this fits existing notions of resilience, robustness, inertia, and path dependence. We have proposed that to change the dynamics of development pathways that do not produce desired results, it is necessary for managers to shift from specific to general SEM, which would also mirror the shift from specified to general resilience. The challenge lies in the interplay between the specified and the general. In this critical work, it is important to recognize that the valued diversity of SEM necessary for general resilience might actually reside in a different community.

Putting the Power in 'Socio-Technical Regimes' - E-Mobility Transition in China as Political Process (2014) 🗎🗎

A mobility low-carbon transition is a key issue both socially and for mobilities research. The multi-level perspective (MLP) is justifiably a leading approach in such research, with important connections to high-profile socio-technical systemic analyses within the mobilities paradigm. The paper explores the key contributions that a Foucauldian-inspired cultural political economy offers, going beyond central problems with the MLP, specifically regarding: a productive concept of power that affords analysis of the qualitatively novel and dynamic process of transition; and the incorporation of the exogenous 'landscape' into the analysis. This move thus resonates with growing calls for attention to power dynamics in mobilities research and a 'structural' turn. In making this case, we deploy the key case study of contemporary efforts towards mobility transition in China. This not only sets out more starkly the importance of MLP's gaps but also provides an empirical case to illustrate, albeit in the form of informed speculation, possible routes to low-carbon urban mobility transition and the inseparability from broader qualitative power transitions at multiple scales, including the global.

Sociotechnical Transitions and Urban Planning: A Case Study of Eco-Cohousing in Tompkins County, New York (2014) 🗎🗎

The sociotechnical transitions framework describes how novel practice emerges from marginal niche contexts to the mainstream. Scholars of various fields have used sociotechnical transitions to explain processes of structural change for sustainability, yet little research examines the role of local plans or planners in transition processes. The author offers an in-depth case study following the evolution of an eco-cohousing model from its grassroots origins to its current application in the housing market of Ithaca, New York. Planners used existing planning documents to translate innovative practices to the public, defying assumptions of the rational-linear model still common in planning scholarship.

Civil society organizations and deliberative policy making: interpreting environmental controversies in the deliberative system (2014) 🗎🗎

This paper argues that while research on deliberative democracy is burgeoning, there is relatively little attention paid to the contributions of civil society. Based on an interpretive conceptualization of deliberative democracy, this paper draws attention to the ways in which civil society organizations employ "storylines" about environmental issues and deliberative processes to shape deliberative policy making. It asks, how do civil society organizations promote storylines in the deliberative system to change policy? How do storylines constitute policy and policy-making processes in the deliberative system? I answer these questions through an empirical analysis of two environmental controversies in the USA: environmental justice in New Mexico and coalbed methane development in Wyoming. Findings indicate that civil society organizations used storylines in both cases to shift the dynamics of the deliberative system and to advance their own interpretations of environmental problems and policy-making processes. Specifically, they used storylines (1) to set the agenda on environmental hazards, (2) to construct the form of public deliberation, changing the rules of the game, (3) to construct the content of public deliberation, shaping meanings related to environmental policy, and (4) to couple/align forums, arenas and courts across the system. These findings suggest that promoting storylines through accommodation and selection processes can be an important mechanism for shaping policy meanings and for improving deliberative quality, although these effects are tempered by discursive and material forms of power, and the competition among alternative storylines.

Governing Sustainability: A Discourse-Institutional Approach (2014) 🗎🗎

The paper considers problems and possibilities connected with governing and realising the "transition to sustainability"-or at least to a more deeply resilient energy system. Conceptually its focus is on neo-institutional analysis and critical discourse analysis and the development of a discourse-institutional perspective. The first strand of the paper outlines the limitations of and potential insights into the governance of sustainability transitions that may be derived from adopting an approach based on a more thoroughgoing appreciation and application of work in sociology on neo-institutional theory. The second strand of the paper concerns discourse, recognising the role of text, discursive practice and social structures in framing the possibilities considered available and legitimate for governance. The two strands are brought together in a discourse-institutionalist framework, an approach that is illustrated by a case study of microgeneration in the UK. The paper's conclusion makes suggestions regarding the conduct of future research employing the proposed approach, and for furthering our understanding of issues connected with the governance of sustainability transitions.

Intersections in system innovation: a nested-case methodology to study co-evolving innovation journeys (2014) 🗎🗎

Current persistent sustainability challenges are widely understood to require transitions and system innovations. As these systemic changes typically emerge from multiple co-evolving innovations, Schot and Geels [2008. Strategic niche management and sustainable innovation journeys; theory, findings, research agenda, and policy. Technology Analysis and Strategic Management 20, no. 5: 537-54] urge to study the interactions between innovation journeys. Their call for multiplicity has been met through several studies. Yet considering that these analyses still leave the attendant navigational challenges underexposed, this article demonstrates the usefulness of nested-case methodologies. Focusing on the intersections' between interpenetrating case histories, in-depth investigation is combined with broader attention to next-order changes. The relevance and implications of these intersections are illustrated through four innovation journeys in the Dutch traffic management field: unfolding largely in parallel, but sometimes intersecting, they yield a mixed picture of trajectory formation and fragmentation. The phenomenon of emergent incoherence is identified as a key strategic challenge in system innovation processes.

Spaces for sustainable innovation: Solar photovoltaic electricity in the UK (2014) 🗎🗎

This paper engages with recent research concerning the roles of niche spaces in the strategic management of sustainable innovations. Whilst a growing body of empirical investigation looks to developments within these spaces, it is surprising how little pauses to consider how the spaces themselves develop over time, what constitutes these spaces, and how their characteristics influence sustainable innovation. We explore such questions through a case study into the history of solar photovoltaic electricity generation over the last 40 years in the UK. Whilst we see evidence consistent with recent ideas about niche spaces shielding, nurturing, and empowering sustainable innovation, the main thrust of our analysis concludes that this arises in contested and compromised ways. Moreover, our analysis identifies niche space developing through the political ability of technology advocates recursively interpreting, representing, and negotiating between the content and contexts of innovation. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluation, assessment, and policy innovation: exploring the links in relation to emissions trading (2014) 🗎🗎

Policy development and implementation should ideally be informed by assessments and evaluations, but research has shown that their use is far from straightforward in politicised environments. Their role in the adoption and evolution of policy innovations, which fundamentally change policy, has not been extensively analysed. Here, I show that the role can be understood using a new framework that bridges the gap between an agency-dominated innovation management perspective and a process-oriented transition perspective. I apply this framework to examine the evolution of an important policy innovation: the EU emissions trading system (ETS). In the political struggle to introduce and maintain the ETS, the role of evaluations and assessments has changed from destabilisation and reframing to consolidation. The analysis underlines the importance of the interaction between Member States, EU institutions, and non-state actors in the often-neglected stabilisation phase of EU-level policy innovations.

The green economy: functional domains and theoretical directions of enquiry (2014) 🗎🗎

The green economy is a highly complex construct in terms of its attempts to integrate economic, environmental, and social concerns, the wide range of actors involved, its material outcomes, and the forms of governance needed to regulate processes of economic greening. As such, it poses new empirical and theoretical challenges for social science research on socioenvironmental futures. This paper has two main aims. The first is to survey the emergent features and functional domains of the green economy. The second is to consider theoretical tools that might be used to analyse the drivers and processes shaping the green economy. Focusing on literature on sociotechnical transitions, ecological modernisation, the 'green' cultural economy, and postpolitical governance, we argue that understanding the functional and spatial heterogeneity of the green economy necessitates a multitheoretical approach. We then explore how combining branches of research on socioenvironmental governance can lead to theoretically and ontologically richer insights into the drivers, practices, and power relations within the green economy. In so doing, we respond to calls for socioeconomic research on environmental change which is neither just empirical nor bound to one theoretical outlook to the detriment of understanding the complexity of socioenvironmental governance and human-nature relations.

Identifying Transition Capacity for Agri-food Regimes: Application of the Multi-level Perspective for Strategic Mapping (2014) 🗎🗎

In this paper, agri-food systems are discussed in the context of a set of socio-technical transitions principles, with a focus on energy, materials and practice elements that have the potential to promote sustainable outcomes across the system. This paper aims to develop an integrated approach for regime analysis, informed by emerging knowledge on socio-technical transitions. The application of the multi-level perspective (MLP) as a heuristic framework to structure descriptions of the multi-dimensional transition contexts of contemporary agri-food regimes is explored. To do this, the paper aims to elaborate the MLP by proposing an integrated means through which complex transition dynamics can be mapped across: (a) energy and material flows and (b) social practices which shape, direct and determine these energy and material flows. This approach is labelled strategic regime mapping (SRM). The paper forwards insights from the development of SRM and discusses the role of strategic mapping of key points across the regime. By combining insight on the conceptualization of dynamic and globally interconnected socio-technical systems with specific observations on contemporary agri-food systems, the paper provides insight into the mapping of transition capacity across agri-food systems, as well as highlighting the significant challenges associated with such an undertaking.

Creating Space for Change: Real-world Laboratries for Sustainability Transformations The Case of Baden-Wurttemberg (2015) 🗎🗎

In the face of persistent sustainability problems challenging economic development, ecological integrity as well as social justice, transformational changes are crucial. Proposed changes shall include, for instance, large-scale transitions of practices, infrastructures as well as values and priorities. In Germany, real-world laboratories are proposed for research in and with society, aiming to understand and contribute to transformations.

Guidance systems across Europe: heritage, change and the art of becoming (2015) 🗎🗎

Guidance systems exist within learning, working and welfare cultures, which are upheld by prevailing institutions and stakeholders. Implementing a lifelong approach questions rooted codes and idiosyncrasies of the sectors across which guidance is distributed. To support individuals' careers, unlock their potential and increase their contribution to the economy i.e. support their process of becoming, lifelong guidance must strive for effective systems' integration across policy fields, cultures and organisations. This article departs from national experiences and discusses how cultures and institutional contexts generate resistance to change, but can also be the departure point for the successful development of lifelong support to people's careers.

Energy transitions in small-scale regions - What we can learn from a regional innovation systems perspective (2015) 🗎🗎

The prevalent theories in the debate on sustainability transitions have been criticised for not sufficiently addressing energy change processes at the local level. This paper aims to enhance our understanding of local energy reorganisation processes. Drawing on the Regional Innovation Systems (RIS) approach, we argue that local development dynamics result from the interaction of various subsystems: science, politics, public administration, industry, finance, intermediaries and civil society. The analysis of the involved subsystems and their interaction shows how energy transitions are shaped by different individual and organisational actors as well as institutions on the local level. Empirical evidence from case studies on the German cities of Emden and Bottrop illustrates our theoretical conceptualisation of energy transitions. We conclude by presenting characteristic interaction patterns for energy transition drawn from the two cases. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lifestyle Mobilities: The Crossroads of Travel, Leisure and Migration (2015) 🗎🗎

This article examines how the mobilities paradigm intersects with physically moving as an ongoing lifestyle choice. We conceptualise a lens of 'lifestyle mobilities' that challenges discrete notions of and allows for a wider grasp of the increasing fluidity between travel, leisure and migration. We demonstrate how contemporary lifestyle-led mobility patterns contribute to and illustrate a breakdown in conventional binary divides between work and leisure, and a destabilisation of concepts of 'home' and 'away'. We unpack issues of identity construction, belonging and place attachment associated with sustained corporeal mobility, and conclude by suggesting avenues for the further study of lifestyle mobilities.

Towards a thick understanding of sustainability transitions - Linking transition management, capabilities and social practices (2015) 🗎🗎

Scientific activities which are targeted to engage and enact on societal problems and governance of sustainability transition itself is one such activity are necessarily prescriptive endeavours, have to recognize the fundamental normativity of sustainable development, need to be based on a thick description of the issues to change, and should embrace the multi-dimensional importance that individuals take in societal change. Societally relevant research on and for sustainability transitions therefore has to produce systems, target, as well as transformative knowledge. The challenges of sustainability transitions require furthermore that the individual and the societal levels have to be linked as to relate individual agency and structural change within the different knowledge types. Taking transition management as a rather obvious starting point to enrich the concept of sustainability transitions, the paper elaborates that its conceptual basis is too thin to address the first two types of knowledge. In its current elaborations, transition management does furthermore not cover individual agency as potential driver of transitions. We therefore suggest complementing transition management approaches with the more descriptive practice theory and the more normative and individualistic capability approach. We suggest a heuristic combination that places individuals back into the study of sustainability transitions. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The energy cultures framework: Exploring the role of norms, practices and material culture in shaping energy behaviour in New Zealand (2015) 🗎🗎

The energy cultures framework was developed in 2009 to support interdisciplinary investigation into energy behaviour in New Zealand. In this paper, we discuss the framework in light of 5 years of empirical application and conceptual development. The concept of culture is helpful in seeking to better understand energy behaviour because it conveys how behaviours are embedded within the physical and social contexts of everyday life, and how they are both repetitive and heterogeneous. The framework suggests that the energy culture of a given subject (e.g. an individual, a household, a business, a sector) can be studied by examining the interrelationships between their norms, practices and material culture, and how these, in turn, are shaped by external influences. We discuss the key theoretical influences of the framework, and how the core concepts of the framework have evolved as we have applied them in different research situations. We then illustrate how we have applied the framework to a range of topics and sectors, and how it has been used to support interdisciplinary research, in identifying clusters of energy cultures, in examining energy cultures at different scales and in different sectors, and to inform policy development. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Framing Processes in the Envisioning of Low-Carbon, Resilient Cities: Results from Two Visioning Exercises (2015) 🗎🗎

Visioning exercises were convened in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, to explore how these cities could become low-carbon and maintain resilience over the next 25 years. Drawing on the concept of framesin particular Schon and Rein's conceptualisation of a frame as a diagnostic-prescriptive story that is based on an underlying structure of beliefs, perceptions and appreciationthis paper seeks to: Attend to the ways that workshop participants framed the problems (of emissions reduction and maintaining resilience); surface framing processes and potential related sources of political contention; and discuss the role of visioning exercises in sustainability transitions. Five frames are identified, along with the interpretive orientations underpinning each frame, framing processes and the potential for frame conflict and alignment. The study suggests that the designers and facilitators of visioning exercises need to be attentive to framing processes, potential framing contests, and related social processes during a visioning exercise. Key implications are identified, with a focus on whether an exercise seeks to open up a complex issue or to agree upon a singular, i.e., consensual, agenda.

Theoretical activity in sustainable tourism research (2015) 🗎🗎

There is growing recognition in tourism and sustainable tourism research of the need for a fuller engagement in theoretical activity. The paper examines how different research strategies in recent articles on sustainable tourism have advanced theoretical understanding in this research field. The articles advance thinking through ideas and concepts connected with political ecology, mobilities, transition pathways, and behavioural and systems change. They are evaluated using a typology of research strategies associated with theoretical work, using a broad perspective on this work The research strategy typology was developed for the paper, and it is explained and illustrated. While the papers on sustainable tourism use a range of strategies associated with theoretical activity, there is only limited engagement with "big" social theories. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The geography of sustainability transitions: Contours ofanemergingtheme (2015) 🗎🗎

Transition research has recently been criticized to lack of geographically sensitive concepts to address sustainability transitions and environmental innovation processes. This has generated a number of suggestions how space, place and scale can be better incorporated into transitions studies. Moreover, it has led to a quickly growing number of empirical studies that explicitly deal with geographical aspects of transition processes. This special issue takes stock of these recent developments by assembling a set of eight exemplary papers that illustrate the added value of an explicitly geographical perspective on sustainability transitions. The contributions include a conceptual paper, a literature review and six empirical papers that offer representative examples of recent work. Taken together, these contributions testify to the vitality of the emerging research on the geography of sustainability transitions. This introduction to the special issue provides an overview of the special issue and offers suggestions for future research(C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The geography of sustainability transitions: Review, synthesis and reflections on an emergent research field (2015) 🗎🗎

This review covers the recent literature on the geography of sustainability transitions and takes stock with achieved theoreticaland empirical insights. The review synthesises and reflects uponinsights of relevance for sustainability transitions following fromanalyses of the importance of place specificity and the geographyof inter-organisational relations. It is found that these contributions focus on the geography of niche development rather thanregime dynamics, and that there is an emphasis on understanding the importance of place-specificity at the local level. Whilethere is a wide consensus that place-specificity matters there is stilllittle generalisable knowledge about how place-specificity matters for transitions. Most contributions add spatial sensitivity toframeworks from the transitions literature, but few studies suggest alternative frameworks to study sustainability transitions. Toaddress this, the review suggests promising avenues for futureresearch on the geography of sustainability transitions, drawing onrecent theoretical advancements in economic geography. (C) 2014 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

Adaptive transition for transformations to sustainability in developing countries (2015) 🗎🗎

Adaptation and transition are two prominent sustainability science concepts. The former includes one facet of resilience, the capacity of socio-ecological systems to continually change and adapt within their critical thresholds with some exceptional transformability beyond thresholds. The latter concept entails niche experimentation of low-carbon systems and how niche-internal actors influence transformational changes, so-called sustainability transitions, and are influenced by incumbent socio-technical regime. Critics argue that neither adaptation literature nor transition literature sufficiently informs adaptive transition pathways that need to be responsive to already low-carbon subsistence production systems in many developing countries. Recognizing this gap, this paper, albeit in a modest way, develops a framework of adaptive transition integrating socio-ecological systems approaches to adaptation to change referred to as adaptive management, and socio-technical systems approaches to management of change referred to as transition management.

Towards a cross-paradigmatic framework of the social acceptance of energy systems (2015) 🗎🗎

As the significance of public opinion and practice for energy system change has become more widely understood, an expanding body of work is investigating drivers of social and public acceptance of a wide diversity of energy technologies, both infrastructure and end-user applications. The literature is large and spans multiple contexts, methods, theoretical and disciplinary perspectives and paradigms. While this diversity is in many ways healthy, experience suggests that it can be confusing for those without close knowledge of its constituent parts. Here we set out a framework for thinking about energy technology 'acceptance' that is relatively neutral in normative and theoretical terms, while acknowledging that a full integration of perspectives and complete theoretical neutrality are not possible. We do not claim a comprehensive review base, but draw on our experience to illustrate the diversity of what we regard as the more influential perspectives in the literature. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Understanding institutional capacity for urban water transitions (2015) 🗎🗎

Transitions management (TM) is emerging as an approach to governing complex sustainability problems. Critiques point to the need to understand dynamics of system change, particularly, with regard to actor agency at micro and meso scales. This paper begins to address this scholarly gap by first, developing an analytical framework of the institutional context of a transition that recognizes forms of agency. Second, a method to apply the framework to empirical cases of urban water socio-technical systems to map their institutional context is developed. The results revealed: i) ways to identify problematic features of current systems and underlying cognitive and normative frames, to assist with envisioning and transition pathway development, ii) a method of system analysis that can target leverage points for strategizing transitions agendas and experiments, and iii) a dynamic description of the system to assist with evaluating TM interventions and monitoring transitions. By providing a systems analysis cognizant of contextual dynamics and targeted to the knowledge needs of TM activities, this analytical tool shows promise for improving TM through further empirical application and research. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Human geography and socio-technical transition studies: Promising intersections (2015) 🗎🗎

Transition researchers recognize increasingly the need to betteraddress the role that spatial and geographical factors play in guiding the evolution of socio- technical and technological innovationsystems. At the same time, some geographers are being drawn totransition studies as they strive to better understand the development trajectories of cities, industries, production networks, andeconomies. Building off these convergences, this paper proposestwo interventions through which geographical ideas might furthercontribute to transitions research. The first focuses on conceptualizations of the socio-spatial dynamics through which TIS or nichecontexts are coupled or aligned effectively with socio-technicalregimes such that regime shifts become possible. The second bringsthe concept of place-making to bear on transition studies in orderto analyze the political processes that shape the evolution of sociotechnical systems. The paper closes with general arguments aboutways to expand and diversify the geography-of-sustainabilitytransitions epistemic community. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Understanding snacking through a practice theory lens (2015) 🗎🗎

This article approaches snacking from a practice theory perspective in order to understand how this reframing may afford new insights. In doing so it also contributes to sociological thinking on eating practices and their reproduction as well as reflecting upon the ontological assertions of practice theory and its theory of social change. In particular this article argues that the re-conceptualisation serves to clarify a sociological research agenda for eating practices associated with snacking. It is argued that setting snacking within routine temporalities and spatialities and as bound up in the recursivity between practices and relations is especially important for thinking about snacking sociologically. In common with applications of practice theory in the field of sustainability transitions the aim is to move beyond individualistic assumptions of behaviour change and instead situate snacking as an eating practice with health implications that has emerged within the social, temporal, economic and cultural organisation of everyday life.

Understanding and actioning BRE environmental assessment method: a socio-technical approach (2015) 🗎🗎

The following research applies a socio-technical approach to an original study of the role of BRE environmental assessment method (BREEAM) in sustainable building practice. The primary objective is to gain insight into what facilitates and what weakens professional associations to implement a sustainability agenda in a building project. It focuses on understanding different sets of meaning which underlie engagement with BREEAM and how BREEAM is actioned. To do this, the research framework draws on social network analysis. However, this research does not consider that sustainable building is merely an outcome of planned action. Instead, sustainable building is seen to involve processes of engagement amongst different groups, technologies, materials and methods. Therefore, the conceptual framework adopted incorporates consideration of the materiality of sustainable building engagements, highlighting the relations between actors. Interviews with project professionals involved in a case study of a BREEAM Outstanding development provide the empirical basis for this work. This research will be of interest to scholars interested in socio-technical approaches to building development, environmental building assessment methods and sustainable building.

ICT-enabled boundary spanning arrangements in collaborative sustainability governance (2016) 🗎🗎

Collaborative forms of governance are expected to be crucial for solving wicked sustainability problems. However, to realize their potential, various physical, cognitive, and social boundaries need to be bridged. This article addresses the question of the extent to which, and under which conditions, ICT-enabled boundary spanning arrangements (IBSAs) can help to cross boundaries and thus contribute to collaborative solutions to sustainability problems. It concludes that (1) the potential of IBSAs for crossing physical boundaries is most obvious; (2) balanced mixtures of on-line and off-line activities are most effective; (3) new forms of policy entrepreneurship by young boundary workers are important triggers; and (4) IBSAs more fundamentally change the relationships within and between governments, firms, NGOs, and civil society.

Alternative technology niches and sustainable development: 12 years on (2016) 🗎🗎

This article provides brief, personal reflections on developments in the research fields of sociotechnical transitions theory and grassroots innovation since publication of the article 'Alternative technology niches and sustainable developments'. What is striking about work since then is the importance for sustainable development of interaction and contestation between diverse approaches to innovation. Rather than looking for general models for sustainable innovation, research can fruitfully understand interactions and exclusions between diverse approaches. Undertaken critically and reflexively, such work sheds light on the wider social structures that inhibit a more democratic innovation politics.

Trojan horses in transitions: A dialectical perspective on innovation "capture' (2016) 🗎🗎

As current sustainability challenges are increasingly acknowledged to be of a persistent and systemic nature, sustainability transitions are pursued as likewise systemic solutions. Attempts at such systemic innovations have frequently been seen to become captured' by incumbent actors, however. As such neutralizing or even perverting co-optation reveals the tense power relations involved, capture is a key dimension of sustainability transition politics. This article argues that capture need not be considered as undesirable per se, however. Against prevalent idealist understandings, a dialectical understanding of innovation capture is developed. This perspective elicits two often neglected aspects of capture, namely its ambiguity and its longitudinal development. Invoking insights from the sociology of translation, it is highlighted how innovation attempts are translated by situated actors, who strategically emphasize or downplay the elements of the innovation that fit their ambitions. Through the typical alternation of radicalizing and domesticating appropriations, it is shown how capture may even turn out favourable to capture victims' and their envisioned transitions. Comparing four system innovation processes in the Dutch traffic management field, it is shown how transition politics unfold around Trojan horses. Being equipped with latent transformative force, these seemingly innocuous innovations are even meant to be captured.

Exploring the Micro-politics in Transitions from a Practice Perspective: The Case of Greenhouse Innovation in the Netherlands (2016) 🗎🗎

This article takes up the challenge of moving beyond a dichotomous reading of niches' and regimes' in transition literature in order to grasp the power struggles involved in fundamental societal transformations. It is argued that the practice turn' in the social sciences, and particularly Knorr-Cetina's perspective on objects of knowledge, offer a promising starting point for doing so. To understand the micro-politics of transitions, an analytic framework is developed that combines a focus on power with a focus on the creativity at work in the reconfiguration of novel practices. It is used to analyse innovations in the domain of Dutch greenhouse farming and research in the 1990s and 2000s. In contrast with the definition of niches as purposeful constructions, it concludes that innovative practices are gradually and experimentally created out of discontent with, and in relation to, existing practices and that power dynamics involved in the process are tied up with three forms of creativity: (1) the articulation of innovative networks and concepts, (2) the consolidation of the resulting transformation of existing practices, and (3) the innovation of actual material objects. The second form of creativity is employed notably by regime-actors'.

Energy justice: A conceptual review (2016) 🗎🗎

Energy justice has emerged as a new crosscutting social science research agenda which seeks to apply justice principles to energy policy, energy production and systems, energy consumption, energy activism, energy security and climate change. A conceptual review is now required for the consolidation and logical extension of this field. Within this exploration, we give an account of its core tenets: distributional, recognition and procedural. Later we promote the application of this three-pronged approach across the energy system, within the global context of energy production and consumption. Thus, we offer both a conceptual review and a research agenda. Throughout, we explore the key dimensions of this new agenda - its evaluative and normative reach-demonstrating that energy justice offers, firstly, an opportunity to explore where injustices occur, developing new processes of avoidance and remediation and recognizing new sections of society. Secondly, we illustrate that energy justice provides a new stimulating framework for bridging existing and future research on energy production and consumption when whole energy systems approaches are integrated into research designs. In conclusion, we suggest three areas for future research: investigating the non-activist origins of energy justice, engaging with economics, and uniting systems of production and consumption. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Applying institutional theory to the low-carbon energy transition (2016) 🗎🗎

The low-carbon energy transition is a form of socio-technical transition and, as such, it involves profound changes in the institutions that govern society. Despite the acknowledged importance of institutions in shaping the pace and nature of transition, a relatively small proportion of the academic literature on the topic applies institutional theory to the analysis of this transition in a systematic and detailed manner, and these accounts draw mainly on organizational and sociological institutionalism. This paper aims to demonstrate the benefits of applying a wider set of institutional theories to the study of the low-carbon energy transition. It draws principally, but not solely, on rational choice and historical institutionalism with selective reference being made to key concepts within social and organizational institutionalism as well as discursive institutionalism. The paper demonstrates the high degree of parallelism that exists between the literatures on socio-technical regimes and institutions, and also shows how the systematic application of institutionalism can provide a deeper understanding of socio-technical transitions. It concludes by outlining the main elements of a research agenda relating to the low-carbon energy transition. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bridging analytical approaches for low-carbon transitions (2016) 🗎🗎

Low-carbon transitions are long-term multi-faceted processes. Although integrated assessment models have many strengths for analysing such transitions, their mathematical representation requires a simplification of the causes, dynamics and scope of such societal transformations. We suggest that integrated assessment model-based analysis should be complemented with insights from socio-technical transition analysis and practice-based action research. We discuss the underlying assumptions, strengths and weaknesses of these three analytical approaches. We argue that full integration of these approaches is not feasible, because of foundational differences in philosophies of science and ontological assumptions. Instead, we suggest that bridging, based on sequential and interactive articulation of different approaches, may generate a more comprehensive and useful chain of assessments to support policy formation and action. We also show how these approaches address knowledge needs of different policymakers (international, national and local), relate to different dimensions of policy processes and speak to different policy-relevant criteria such as cost-effectiveness, socio-political feasibility, social acceptance and legitimacy, and flexibility. A more differentiated set of analytical approaches thus enables a more differentiated approach to climate policy making.

Doing Evolution in Economic Geography (2016) 🗎🗎

Evolutionary approaches in economic geography face questions about the relationships between their concepts, theories, methods, politics, and policy implications. Amidst the growing but unsettled consensus that evolutionary approaches should employ plural methodologies, the aims here are, first, to identify some of the difficult issues confronting those working with different frameworks. The concerns comprise specifying and connecting research objects, subjects, and levels; handling agency and context; engaging and integrating the quantitative and the qualitative; comparing cases; and, considering politics, policy, and praxis. Second, the purpose is to articulate a distinctive geographical political economy approach, methods, and illustrative examples in addressing these issues. Bringing different views of evolution in economic geography into dialogue and disagreement renders methodological pluralism a means toward improved understanding and explanation rather than an end in itself. Confronting such thorny matters needs to be embedded in our research practices and supported by greater openness; more and better substantiation of our conceptual, theoretical, and empirical claims; enhanced critical reflection; and deeper engagement with politics, policy, and praxis.

Municipalities' ambitions and practices: At risk of hypocritical sustainability transitions? (2016) 🗎🗎

In contemporary planning discourse and practice, different planning ideas co-exists. How this affects the transition towards a sustainable development is an important question for both research and practice. The aim of this study is to explore potential conflicts between planning goals caught between growth-led planning and sustainability commitments in a case study of Fredericia, Denmark. The paper discusses the underlying, framing and controlling conditions for transition dynamics. The analysis builds largely on the formulated policies, strategies or national goal achievements towards sustainable futures. These are put in the context of planning and political practices, which are interpreted from a sustainability rationale. Here this study introduces hypocrisy as a theoretical-analytical perspective to dispute actual sustainability practices to respond to continuous ambivalent planning measures. The author concludes that disregarding the inherently different internal logics of growths and sustainability leads to planning paradoxes and impedes sustainable transitions pursued.

Importance of Actors and Agency in Sustainability Transitions: A Systematic Exploration of the Literature (2016) 🗎🗎

This article explores the role of actors and agency in the literature on sustainability transitions. We reviewed 386 journal articles on transition management and sustainability transitions listed in Scopus from 1995 to 2014. We investigate the thesis that actors have been neglected in this literature in favor of more abstract system concepts. Results show that this thesis cannot be confirmed on a general level. Rather, we find a variety of different approaches, depending on the systemic level, for clustering actors and agency as niche, regime, and landscape actors; the societal realm; different levels of governance; and intermediaries. We also differentiate between supporting and opposing actors. We find that actor roles in transitions are erratic, since their roles can change over the course of time, and that actors can belong to different categories. We conclude by providing recommendations for a comprehensive typology of actors in sustainability transitions.

Socio-technical transitions and policy change - Advocacy coalitions in Swiss energy policy (2016) 🗎🗎

Policies and politics are an integral part of socio-technical transitions but have not received much attention in the transitions literature so far. Drawing on the advocacy coalition framework, our paper addresses this gap with a study on actors and coalitions in Swiss energy policy. Our results show that advocacy coalitions in Switzerland have largely remained stable despite the Fukushima shock. However, heterogeneity of beliefs has increased and in 2013, even a majority of actors expressed their support for the energy transition - an indication that major policy change might be ahead. It seems that in socio-technical transitions, changes in the policy issue and in the actor base also work toward policy change, next to changes in core beliefs. We make suggestions how the advocacy coalition framework can inform analysis and theory building in transition studies. We also present first ideas about the interplay of socio-technical systems and policy systems. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A practice approach to study the spatial dimensions of the energy transition (2016) 🗎🗎

The spatial dimension of the energy transition has received increasing interest over the last years. This paper discusses the potentials of a practice approach to better understand the role of space, place and scale in transition processes and applies it to a case study in Beckerich, Luxembourg. The practice approach focuses transition practices as main conceptual and empirical object. It enables us to explore processes, contexts, and spaces of the energy transition. An in-depth case study illustrates transition practices and their implications for the 'renewable energy arena'. The findings highlight the importance of analysing developments on the ground and how local actors (re)produce contexts. They illustrate how a practice-sensitive analysis helps to better understand the processes of niche formation and the spatial dimension of underlying mechanisms of transitions. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The role of narratives in socio-technical transitions-Fukushima and the energy regimes of Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom (2016) 🗎🗎

In order to reconfigure global socio-economic systems to be compatible with social imperatives and planetary boundaries, a transition towards sustainable development is necessary. The multi-level perspective (MLP) has been developed to study long-term transformative change. This paper complements the MLP by providing an ontological framework for studying and understanding the role of narratives as the vehicle of meaning and intermediation between individual and social collective in the context of ongoing transitions. Narratives are established as an analytical entity to unpack how disturbances at the level of the socio-technical landscape are translated into and contribute to the transformation of socio-technical regimes. To illustrate and test the approach, it is applied to the case of the Fukushima catastrophe: The narratives in relation to nuclear power in Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom are scrutinized and it is explored how these narratives have co-determined the policy responses and thus influenced ongoing transformation processes in the power sectors of the respective countries. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multidimensionality and the multilevel perspective: Territory, scale, and networks in a failed demand-side energy transition in Australia (2016) 🗎🗎

The multilevel perspective (MLP) has emerged as an influential framework for analyzing sustainable transitions. Whilst the MLP has recently incorporated valuable geographical perspectives this paper argues that more nuanced accounts of socio-spatial dimensions are still needed to explain how and why some regions miss opportunities for energy transitions. It does this through a study of the restructuring of the Victorian electricity system in Australia in the 1990s and the resulting failure to build demand side management into the energy market design and regulatory framework. The failure of the demand management niche requires a compelling explanation as to why, despite increasingly porous and seemingly unbounded flows of knowledge and capital and emergent actor networks, the territorial-scalar embeddedness of the electricity regime was reinforced. Drawing on geography literature the paper argues that a multidimensional analysis can do the following: address criticisms of the a-spatial and residual character of the landscape level; situate transitions within a geographical political economy context; and reveal the variations and semi-coherency of regimes shedding light on the degree of regime stability and the opportunities for niches to break through. This paper expands the conversation between theories of geographical political economy and sustainable transitions arguing that the geographies of capitalism and the state need to feature more than as a backdrop to socio-technical change, and instead should be brought directly into the MLP.

Further reflections on the temporality of energy transitions: A response to critics (2016) 🗎🗎

In tandem with the call for more careful, thoughtful, reflexive thinking on the topic of energy transitions, in this paper we attempt to unpack some of the themes advanced in this Debate. We begin by investigating the multi-dimensionality of energy transitions as well as transition speeds for different parts of energy systems at different scales. We then call on analysts to consider transition speeds and scalar levels. We also argue for focusing on accelerated diffusion driven by rapid changes in cost, improvements in technology, or other factors. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Illustrating the use of concepts from the discipline of policy studies in energy research: An explorative literature review (2016) 🗎🗎

With the increasing challenges the energy sector faces, energy policy strategies and instruments are becoming ever more relevant. The discipline of policy studies might offer relevant concepts to enrich multidisciplinary energy research. The main research question of this article is: How can policy studies contribute to multidisciplinary energy research, and in how far does research on energy policy actually use the concepts of policy studies? The article presents key theoretical concepts from the discipline of policy studies and shows how they can be of use in multidisciplinary energy research. This is illustrated by presenting the results of a systematic review of academic literature on the use of policy studies concepts in academic literature on energy policy in The Netherlands. Results reveal the main theoretical concepts that were used as well as the identification of major research clusters. Results also show that many concepts from policy studies were actually integrated into eclectic theoretical frameworks. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Shifting Power Relations in Sustainability Transitions: A Multi-actor Perspective (2016) 🗎🗎

This paper contributes to understanding transition politics by conceptualizing (shifting) power relations between actors in sustainability transitions. The authors introduce a Multi-actor Perspective as a heuristic framework for specifying (shifting) power relations between different categories of actors at different levels of aggregation. First, an overview is provided of how power and empowerment have been treated in transition research, and remaining questions are identified on who exercises power and who is empowered by and with whom. It is argued that theoretical frameworks and empirical analyses in transition studies lack precision when it comes to distinguishing between different types and levels of actors. In response, a Multi-actor Perspective (MaP) is developed, which distinguishes among four sectors (state, market, community, third sector), and between actors at different levels of aggregation: (1) sectors, (2) organizational actors, and (3) individual actors. The paper moves on to specify how the MaP contributes to understanding transition politics specifically in conceptualizing shifting power relations. Throughout the paper, empirical illustrations are used regarding public debates on welfare state reform, civil society and Big Society', as well as more specific empirical examples of community energy initiatives.

Participation in Transition(s): Reconceiving Public Engagements in Energy Transitions as Co-Produced, Emergent and Diverse (2016) 🗎🗎

This paper brings the transitions literature into conversation with constructivist Science and Technology Studies (STS) perspectives on participation for the first time. In doing so we put forward a conception of public and civil society engagement in sustainability transitions as co-produced, relational, and emergent. Through paying close attention to the ways in which the subjects, objects, and procedural formats of public engagement are constructed through the performance of participatory collectives, our approach offers a framework to open up to and symmetrically compare diverse and interconnected forms of participation that make up wider socio-technical systems. We apply this framework in a comparative analysis of four diverse cases of civil society involvement in UK low carbon energy transitions. This highlights similarities and differences in how these distinct participatory collectives are orchestrated, mediated, and subject to exclusions, as well as their effects in producing particular visions of the issue at stake and implicit models of participation and the public'. In conclusion we reflect on the value of this approach for opening up the politics of societal engagement in transitions, building systemic perspectives of interconnected ecologies of participation', and better accounting for the emergence, inherent uncertainties, and indeterminacies of all forms of participation in transitions.

Framing energy justice: perspectives from activism and advocacy (2016) 🗎🗎

Concepts of justice are now routinely mobilised in environmental and climate change activism, with movements for environmental and climate justice emerging around the world. More recently, the concept of energy justice has gained prominence, most frequently framed in terms of access to affordable energy and fuel poverty but also related to the politics of energy infrastructures. To date however, there has been little critical interrogation of energy justice in relation to actions undertaken by activist and advocacy movements. In this paper, we set out an analysis of the concept of 'energy justice' from the perspective of framing. Drawing on research with organisations in Philadelphia, Paris and Berlin, the paper explores the articulation and elaboration of an energy justice frame. In so doing, it explores how such actors strategically frame their interpretation of energy justice, considers the overall emergence of an energy justice frame, and draws out an agenda for future research. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The economic crisis as a game changer? Exploring the role of social construction in sustainability transitions (2016) 🗎🗎

Continuing economic turbulence has fuelled debates about social and political reform as much as it has stimulated actions and initiatives aimed at a more fundamental transition of dominant economic systems. This paper takes a transition perspective to explore, from a Western European viewpoint, how the economic crisis is actually viewed through a variety of interpretations and responded to through a range of practices. We argue that framing societal phenomena such as the economic crisis as "symptoms of transition" through alternative narratives and actions can give rise to the potential for (seemingly) short-term pressures to become game changers. Game changers are then defined as the combination of: specific events, the subsequent or parallel framing of events in systemic terms by engaged societal actors, and (eventually) the emergence of (diverse) alternative narratives and practices (in response to the systemic framing of events). Game changers, when understood in these terms, help to orient, legitimize, guide, and accelerate deep changes in society. We conclude that such dynamics in which game changers gain momentum might also come to play a critical role in transitions. Therefore, we argue for developing a better understanding of and methodologies to further study the coevolutionary dynamics associated with game changers, as well as exploring the implications for governance.

Building transitions to post-capitalist urban commons (2016) 🗎🗎

This paper opens up a novel geographical research agenda on building transitions beyond the capitalist present. It brings into conversation two previously disconnected areas of academic debate: socio-technical transition studies and more radical work on post-capitalism. The paper offers empirical evidence of real-life socio-spatial practices that build postcapitalist socio-technical transitions through a case study of the daily experiences, motives and values of residents in a community-led cohousing project in the UK. I begin by exploring definitions around post-capitalism and transition thinking, and then introduce the notion of the urban commons to point towards the geographies of post-capitalist transitions and illustrate the kinds of social and spatial relations that underpin them. The paper then provides empirical substance for a geographical agenda around post-capitalist transitions through the case study, highlighting themes of experimentation, transformation and direct democracy. The paper concludes with some strategic future reflections and makes a claim for a geographical research agenda that elaborates the possible radical geographies and place imaginaries of post-capitalist transitions in our teaching, research and policy work. Unless geographers forge direct and necessary links between transitioning and moving beyond capitalism, our ability to take decisive and meaningful action on the challenges that lie ahead will be limited.

Let's Get This Transition Moving! (2016) 🗎🗎

This paper makes four basic points about movement toward a low carbon economy in Canada: first, that it is important for political leaders, policy analysts, and researchers to approach the issue in terms of a transition to a carbon-emission-free society; second, that in Canada the development of regional pathways to a low-carbon economy is crucial; third, that we need "green development strategies" if we are to maximize the opportunities presented by this transition; and finally, that we should think about low carbon politics as well as low-carbon economics.

Transformational responses to climate change: beyond a systems perspective of social change in mitigation and adaptation (2016) 🗎🗎

There is a growing imperative for responses to climate change to go beyond incremental adjustments, aiming instead for society-wide transformation. In this context, sociotechnical (ST) transitions and social-ecological (SE) resilience are two prominent normative agendas. Reviewing these literatures reveals how both share a complex-systems epistemology with inherent limitations, often producing managerial governance recommendations and foregrounding material over social drivers of change. Further interdisciplinary dialogue with social theory is essential if these frameworks are to become more theoretically robust and capable of informing effective, let alone transformational, climate change governance. To illustrate this potential, ideas from Deleuze and Guattari's political writing as well as other approaches that utilize the notion social fields (as opposed to sociosystems) are combined to more fully theorize the origins and enactment of social change. First, the logic of systems is replaced with the contingency of assemblages to reveal how pluralism, not elitism, can produce more ambitious and politicized visions of the future. In particular, this view encourages us to see social and ecological tensions as opportunities for thinking and acting differently rather than as mere technical problems to be solved. Secondly, the setting of social fields is introduced to situate and explain the power of ideas and the role of agency in times of uncertainty. The potential of such insights is already visible in some strands of climate change mitigation and adaptation research, but more needs to be done to advance this field and to bring it into dialogue with the mainstream systems based literature. WIREs Clim Change 2016, 7:251-265. doi: 10.1002/wcc.384 For further resources related to this article, please visit the .

Resilience, Hardship and Social Conditions (2016) 🗎🗎

This paper provides a critical assessment of the term 'resilience' - and its highly agent-centric conceptualisation - when applied to how individuals and households respond to hardship. We provide an argument for social conditions to be embedded into the framework of resilience analysis. Drawing on two different perspectives in social theory, namely the structure-agent nexus and path dependency, we aim to demonstrate that the concept of resilience, if understood in isolation from the social conditions within which it may or may not arise, can result in a number of problems. This includes misidentification of resilience, ideological exploitation of the term and inability to explain intermittence in resilience.

Governing for sustainable energy system change: Politics, contexts and contingency (2016) 🗎🗎

This paper offers a new, interdisciplinary framework for the analysis of governing for sustainable energy system change by drawing together insights from, and offering critiques of, socio-technical transitions and new institutionalist concepts of change. Institutions of all kinds, including rules and norms within political and energy systems, tend to have path-dependent qualities that make them difficult to change, whereas we also know that profound change has occurred in the past. Current decisions to pursue climate change mitigation by dramatically changing how energy is produced and used depend to some extent on finding the right enabling conditions for such change. The approach adopted here reveals the highly political and contingent nature of attempts to govern for innovations, how political institutions mediate differently between forces for sustainable change and forces for continuity, as well as specific interactions between governance and practice change within energy systems. It concludes that it is only by being specific about the contingent nature of governing for innovations, and about how this affects practices in energy systems differently, that those of us interested in sustainability can credibly advise policy makers and drive for greater change. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

How long will it take? Conceptualizing the temporal dynamics of energy transitions (2016) 🗎🗎

Transitioning away from our current global energy system is of paramount importance. The speed at which a transition can take place-its timing, or temporal dynamics-is a critical element of consideration. This study therefore investigates the issue of time in global and national energy transitions by asking: What does the mainstream academic literature suggest about the time scale of energy transitions? Additionally, what does some of the more recent empirical data related to transitions say, or challenge, about conventional views? In answering these questions, the article presents a "mainstream" view of energy transitions as long, protracted affairs, often taking decades to centuries to occur. However, the article then offers some empirical evidence that the predominant view of timing may not always be supported by the evidence. With this in mind, the final part of the article argues for more transparent conceptions and definitions of energy transitions, and it asks for analysis that recognizes the causal complexity underlying them. (C) 2015 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Transforming power/knowledge apparatuses: the smart grid in the German energy transition (2016) 🗎🗎

Politics and the dominant actors in the German energy system fear that the politically promised integration of renewable energies in the course of the Energy Transition will lead to losses of control due to increasing volatility, decentralization and heterogeneity of processes and actors. Yet, a novel form of control through the artificial intelligence of smart grids is envisioned that would tame the chaos in the system. To analyze the conditions and effects of smart grids we introduce the Foucauldian concept of a power/knowledge apparatus into the study of sociotechnical transitions. It brings into focus the entwined changes of positions of actors, knowledge and power constellations and their effects. These are crucial to innovation and transformation processes, yet the question how they emerge is only marginally addressed in other science and technology studies approaches. The article analyzes the problem framing and solution by smart grids as an emerging power/knowledge apparatus which implies a comprehensive re-arrangement of the power/knowledge constellations in the energy system. The order and ordering of the emerging apparatus of transformation is getting visible by an empirical case study based on expert interviews and document analysis. The apparatus aims at and engenders a permanent experimentation of all relations between the actors, organizations, techniques, knowledges, etc., which are included in an energy system based on the envisioned smart grid.

Four dangers in innovation policy studies - and how to avoid them (2016) 🗎🗎

The field of innovation policy studies is at a crossroads. It has clearly been influential. However, might it be losing the critical insight necessary to remain so in future? We discuss four dangerous tendencies seen in many innovation policy studies: idealising policy rationales and policy-makers; treating policies as tools from a toolbox; putting too much faith in coordination and intelligent design of 'policy mixes'; and taking an atemporal approach to innovation policy. Based on these we identify some ways forward that, we argue, would deal better with the complex multi-actor dynamics, fundamental uncertainties and challenges to the implementation, coordination and evaluation of policies and which would make for more relevant and impactful innovation policy studies.

Framing the sun: A discursive approach to understanding multi-dimensional interactions within socio-technical transitions through the case of solar electricity in Ontario, Canada (2016) 🗎🗎

In response to calls to develop more politically-informed transition studies, a burgeoning literature on discourse-transition complementarities and niche-regime interactions has recently emerged. This paper draws these strands of literature together in order to develop a discursive approach that investigates the process by which actors use language to build or erode the legitimacy of socio-technical innovations and their niches within transition episodes. Conceptualizing this process in terms of multi-dimensional discursive interactions, we adopt a discursive approach to further scrutinize: (1) the way in which actor groups depicted within the multi-level perspective struggle to frame innovations using narrative work and (2) how these narratives are formed through the ideational capacity of actors to link the content and context of an innovation. We demonstrate this approach by applying it to the case of PV diffusion in Ontario, Canada. Our findings contribute to the development of a more politically-sensitive view of transitions as well as recent work on incumbent-challenger interactions and discourse-transition crossovers. Beyond this, we corroborate and extend several observations in the transition literature, including the semi-coherent nature of the regime, the social construction of the landscape, and the prevalence of fit and-conform orientations within niche empowerment strategies. However, findings also indicate that strategic orientations can be subtle and intermeshed, perhaps explaining why fit-and-conform orientations appear more prevalent. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Advocates or cartographers? Scientific advisors and the narratives of German energy transition (2017) 🗎🗎

Political debate on energy in Germany has been shaped by two historically opposed discourses, one pushing for a transition to renewables, the other holding on to the status quo. Scientific policy advice (SPA) has been involved in their evolution from the beginning. This paper draws on the Advocacy Coalition Framework and on discourse and narrative theory to study the role of SPA in recent German energy policy. We explore 1) whether scientific advisors have been members of advocacy coalitions, and 2) how their contributions may have interacted with the evolution of the discourses and major narratives. We perform a qualitative text analysis of 50 SPA reports published between 2000 and 2015. We find that the majority of studies clearly take sides in the debate, and that in most cases the reports' positions are fully transparent. Despite the polarization, SPA provides differentiated information on key aspects of the discourses, and alternative design options for policy instruments. We conclude that SPA contributions have improved the conditions for political consensus and compromise. Collectively, SPA studies provide a basis for mapping different policy pathways and their consequences. In the future, SPA should address additional critical issues such as coal phase-out and international leadership.

Qualitative methods for engineering systems: Why we need them and how to use them (2017) 🗎🗎

This paper discusses the role that qualitative methods can and should play in engineering systems research and lays out the process of doing good qualitative research. As engineering research increasingly focuses on sociotechnical systems, in which human behavior and organizational context play important roles in system behavior, there is an increasing need for the insights qualitative research can provide. This paper synthesizes the literature on qualitative methods and lessons from the authors' experience employing qualitative methods to study a variety of engineering systems. We hope that by framing the key issues clearly, other engineers who hope to join the qualitative path will build on what we have learned so far to enable greater insight into engineering systems.

A taxonomy of logistics centres: overcoming conceptual ambiguity (2017) 🗎🗎

This manuscript aims to disentangle the conceptual ambiguity around the notion of logistics centre. It proposes an overarching framework that categorises different types of infrastructure and identifies their distinctive components. The lack of a sound conceptualisation of logistics centres originates from the variety in temporal and spatial approaches. In transportation chains, path-breaking trends in market needs, technological innovations and institutional changes, as well as the place specificity of logistics centres embedded in various national contexts, inevitably led to a substantial theoretical ambiguity. This study consolidates prior fragmented works and identifies suitable criteria for classifying logistics centres. The functional criterion is proposed as a cornerstone for building a sound conceptualisation of these infrastructures. By capturing the distinctive characteristics of each type of logistics centre, the paper proposes an original and comprehensive taxonomy, which emphasises commonalities and specificities of various infrastructures. The paper provides a contribution to literature by sketching out a trustworthy conceptualisation of logistics centres. In addition, the outcomes bring insightful implications for researchers, policy-makers and practitioners.

The role of translation loops in policy mutation processes: State designated Bioenergy Regions in Germany (2017) 🗎🗎

The study is framed by EU renewable energy policy mobility and evaluates six German state-designated Bioenergy Regions and their role in policy performance processes. Based on in-depth interviews with Bioenergy Region personnel it displays aspects that shape the rationalities of actors and (re) produces policy translation and implementation. The cases are framed by a concept of translation loops and display the regions as relational assemblages that shape processes of policy mutation and influence the performance of policy aims. The paper shows how translation processes based on the socio-spatial relations of the involved entities affect initial policy aims and their implementations, particularly in regard to the prioritisation of economic aspects over sustainability. It further stresses the problem of insular approaches in bioenergy development that hinder joint approaches and problematises the questionable consequences of rationalist-linear based best-practice examples utilised in policy adjustment processes.

The Interplay Between Sustainable Entrepreneurs and Public Authorities: Evidence From Sustainable Energy Transitions (2017) 🗎🗎

Sustainable entrepreneurs are considered to play a crucial role in fostering sustainable development. However, transitions in sociotechnical systems, such as a transition to low-carbon energy solutions, are unlikely to succeed without the coordination with regional political actions, particularly in sectors characterized by path dependency and lock-ins. Based on an empirical analysis of the interplay between firms and public authorities when opening new energy niche markets through Sustainable Energy Action Plans, this article explores the role of sustainable entrepreneurs. We investigate the different levels of engagement with public authorities in co-evolutionary processes toward sustainable development. From this empirical research, four types of co-evolutionist sustainable entrepreneur are derivedhero, visionary, bandwagoner, and explorer. These correspond to the different degrees of interaction with public authorities and system level of action, and extend the definition of the sustainable entrepreneur. The related academic and managerial implications contribute to the current debate on sustainable entrepreneurship.

Governing system innovation: assisted living experiments in the UK and Norway (2017) 🗎🗎

Debates on how to address societal challenges have moved to the forefront of academic and policy concerns. Of particular importance is the growing awareness that to deal with issues such as ageing, it will be necessary to implement concerted efforts on technological, social, institutional or political fronts. Drawing on a number of theoretical perspectives - including socio-technical transitions and embedded state theory - the aim of this paper is to identify and understand different approaches to the governance of such system innovations by comparing state responses to assisted living in two contrasting national systems of care, namely that of the UK and Norway. Its findings highlight that state-supported and funded experimentation projects have been instrumental in designing and implementing system innovation: through their emphasis on co-design and co-creation, these projects demonstrated the value of early implementation pilots to explore the fit' between novel technologies and prevailing practices and institutional structures in national systems of care. Still, competition, biases or conflicting interests should not be ignored between well-established agents and institutions and experimental solutions whose efficacy remains relatively untested and which involve a combination of new technical, social, organizational and institutional solutions.

Beyond deconstruction. a reconstructive perspective on sustainability transition governance (2017) 🗎🗎

This paper reviews criticisms of sustainability transition studies, using transition management (TM) as a case study. While these criticisms have yielded theoretical progress, underlying epistemological issues remain. Contrasting the TM approach to complexity with other more deconstructive views on complexity, it becomes clear that some criticisms on TM are inherently based on a deconstructive questioning of whether complex systems can be influenced into a desired direction. The authors build on those critiques to argue that TM needs to clarify how (1) TM itself harbours deconstructive power (hitherto insufficiently specified), while (2) at the same time having an explicit ambition to 'go beyond' deconstruction. To that end, this paper proposes a 'reconstructive approach' as an epistemological grounding for transition studies. This reconstructive approach is elaborated on three grounds: (1) a research focus beyond 'is' versus 'ought' towards 'can be', (2) interpretative research and reflexivity, and (3) a 'phronetic' understanding of sustainability. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

FROM DISTANT NEIGHBOURS TO BEDMATES: EXPLORING THE SYNERGIES BETWEEN THE SOCIAL ECONOMY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (2017) 🗎🗎

To introduce this special issue we explore the conceptual and practical synergies between the social economy and sustainable development. New empirical evidence is presented on the emergence of these two research fields and the increasing combination of these fields in the literature. Several avenues through which social enterprises can contribute to the transition towards sustainable development are then identified. This is followed by a discussion of how and why the combination can be particularly fruitful both for the social economy and for sustainability transition movements. We also highlight some important challenges facing the social economy with regard to its contribution to sustainable development. Finally we introduce the papers that constitute this special issue and show how they contribute, individually and collectively, to a better understanding of the increasing linkage between the social economy and sustainable development.

Identifying attributes of sustainable transitions for traditional regional manufacturing industry sectors - A conceptual framework (2017) 🗎🗎

Traditional manufacturing industry is facing significant transformation. Fundamental to this transformation, are the challenges of a changing social, economic, political and environmental future in response to climate change, global competition and limits to finite resources. These challenges have motivated a transition towards a new sustainable trajectory. Within a range of disciplinary fields, scholars have studied and developed conceptual frameworks to explain the processes, outcomes and effectiveness of particular transitions, yet, there remains limited evidence drawing together these conceptual approaches to identify the elements and attributes essential to holistic, practical and long lasting transitions within established manufacturing regions. To address this gap, this paper introduces an interdisciplinary framework, 'Attributes of Sustainable Transitions', by reviewing and integrating four existing conceptual approaches (Advanced Manufacturing, Sustainability Transitions, Spatiality of Regions and Transition Regions) to identify attributes of sustainable transitions within the manufacturing industry sector. In the process, this article also focuses on regions as important spaces for transitions, an emphasis currently missing from traditional economic approaches. Examples from international and Australian case studies are used to support the conceptual analysis, paving the way for future empirical research based on Australian firms. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Gathering around stories: Interdisciplinary experiments in support of energy system transitions (2017) 🗎🗎

This paper explores the creative uses of stories and storytelling to engage groups and individuals with consideration of changes in energy systems across time and place. It summarises three story-based experiments that responded to the theme of ` energy utopias'. These are drawn from the three core strands of a much wider body of work undertaken within the Stories of Change project. This took stories as a central motif and organising device to refresh public and political conversations about energy and decarbonisation. Our hypothesis was that stories could offer a popular and engaging route into thinking about the past and present of humanity's lives with energy and a lively way of imagining possible futures. We also wanted to test the degree to which stories could offer a shared intellectual space that might support both interdisciplinary and co-productive working for a core team that includes social science, humanities, media, computing and design researchers as well as creative and community partners. The paper considers some of the practical, methodological and theoretical considerations and reflects on the strengths and limitations of stories as both motif and technique in supporting action on climate change.

The role of science in sustainability transitions: citizen science, transformative research, and experiences from Samothraki island, Greece (2017) 🗎🗎

We highlight the importance of island research that aims to achieve sustainability transitions. All too often, developmental priorities are largely defined by economic policy imperatives, and island research either ignores or masks such normative connotations. This article reports on ten years of transdisciplinary socioecological research on the Greek island of Samothraki. We sequentially: (i) introduce socioecological thinking and the conceptual framework of social ecology, and show how this is operationalised and applied on this case study, and (ii) highlight the importance of a transdisciplinary research approach, in promoting island sustainability. We conclude with a plea for more transformative research and citizen research in the direction of sustainability within island studies.

A TRANSITIONS STUDIES PERSPECTIVE ON THE SOCIAL ECONOMY; EXPLORING INSTITUTIONALIZATION AND CAPTURE IN FLEMISH "INSERTION' PRACTICES (2017) 🗎🗎

Current persistent challenges of sustainable and equitable development call for systemic technical and social innovations. The ' insertion ' practices of work integration social enterprises (WISEs) can be considered examples of such innovation efforts. The underlying rationales and institutional frameworks have been elaborated extensively in social economy scholarship. However, as WISEs are frequently reported to fall victim to pressures towards isomorphism or capture' by incumbent institutional structures, transitions theory seems worthwhile to invoke in order to develop a dynamic understanding of these processes. As illustrated through case study data on the Flemish social economy, it is highlighted how ' insertion ' displays longitudinal dynamics of institutional capture that are similar to those observed in sustainability transitions more generally. This empirical analysis helps to identify the scope for fruitful paradigmatic interplay between transitions studies and social economy scholarship.

Historical institutionalism and the politics of sustainable energy transitions: A research agenda (2017) 🗎🗎

Improving the understanding of the politics of sustainable energy transitions has become a major focus for research. This paper builds on recent interest in institutionalist approaches to consider in some depth the agenda arising from a historical institutionalist perspective on such transitions. It is argued that historical institutionalism is a valuable complement to socio-technical systems approaches, offering tools for the explicit analysis of institutional dynamics that are present but implicit in the latter framework, opening up new questions and providing useful empirical material relevant for the study of the wider political contexts within which transitions are emerging. Deploying a number of core concepts including veto players, power, unintended consequences, and positive and negative feedback in a variety of ways, the paper explores research agendas in two broad areas: understanding diversity in transition outcomes in terms of the effects of different institutional arrangements, and the understanding of transitions in terms of institutional development and change. A range of issues are explored, including: the roles of electoral and political institutions, regulatory agencies, the creation of politically credible commitment to transition policies, power and incumbency, institutional systems and varieties of capitalism, sources of regime stability and instability, policy feedback effects, and types of gradual institutional change. The paper concludes with some observations on the potential and limitations of historical institutionalism, and briefly considers the question of whether there may be specific institutional configurations that would facilitate more rapid sustainable energy transitions.

Conceptual and empirical advances in analysing policy mixes for energy transitions (2017) 🗎🗎

Energy transitions face multiple barriers, lock-in, path dependencies and resistance to change which require strategic policy efforts to be overcome. In this regard, it has been increasingly recognised that a multiplicity of instruments - or instrument mixes - are needed to foster low-carbon transitions. In addition, over the past few years a broader conceptualization of policy mixes for sustainability transitions has emerged which we adopt in this special issue. Such a broader perspective not only examines the interaction of instruments, but also captures corresponding policy strategies with their long-term targets and pays greater attention to the associated policy processes. It also encompasses the analysis of overarching policy mix characteristics such as consistency, coherence or credibility, as well as policy design considerations. Furthermore, it embraces the analysis of actors and institutions involved in developing and implementing such policy mixes. To explicitly consider these further aspects of policy mixes, this special issue includes fifteen papers with different analytical perspectives drawing on a range of social science disciplines, such as environmental economics, innovation studies and policy sciences. It is our hope that the conceptual and empirical advances presented here will stimulate diverse future research and inform policy advice on policy mixes for energy transitions.

Frame envy in energy policy ideology: A social constructivist framework for wicked energy problems (2017) 🗎🗎

This article deals with the nexus between energy policymaking and ideology. The article builds and expands upon a theoretical social constructivist analytical strategy, or framework, put forth for the purposes of conducting energy policy analysis. It then addresses criticism that this strategy constitutes "postmodern mush" that has no place in energy analysis before concluding with a review of why social constructivism has a significant role to play in building consensus and enhancing understanding between competing energy policy perspectives. The main contribution made by this paper stems from application of this ontological construct to the analysis of policies targeting wicked energy problems. The study cuts to the core about how energy problems are defined, interpreted, communicated, planned for, and potentially implemented via policy. Put another way, our study offers a timely critique or a call for reconceptualizing the process and practice of energy policy itself.

Everyday experimentation in energy transition: A practice-theoretical view (2017) 🗎🗎

Research on sustainable practices has attracted increasing interest as a way to understand energy demand and transitions towards sustainability. In this paper we elaborate on how practice theories can inform the discussion of experimentation. Practice theory suggests that the everyday life of people appears recalcitrant. Practices are robust, resilient and have multiple, historically formed constituents and are thereby difficult to destabilize and change quickly. The making and breaking of links inside and between practices is highlighted, as is the need for enduring, multi-sited change efforts. Practice theory further helps us to better understand the constitution of new, levelled forms of expertise, the distributed nature of experimentation and the enrolment of citizens as active participants in sustainability transitions. We have operationalized and examined these suggestions in a Finnish research project related to climate change mitigation and energy use in detached houses. We report specific modes of experimentation and innovation, including user innovations, and the shared resources of situated expertise, the collective and shared processes of empowerment and the ways in which normality is challenged by ruptures in everyday life. Based on the results, we derive suggestions for effective policy interventions. We also bring forward a set of generic suggestions for more sensitive, appreciative and effective public policies on sustainability transitions and cast experimentation in a particular and partial role in such policies. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Moving beyond the heuristic of creative destruction: Targeting exnovation with policy mixes for energy transitions (2017) 🗎🗎

Scholars looking at policy mixes for the energy transition and seeking to facilitate a move away from fossil-based structures are increasingly addressing the opposite side of innovation. To describe this, the article introduces the concept of exnovation, referring to attempts to end fossil-based technological trajectories in a deliberate fashion. It applies a framework that encompasses innovation and exnovation alike in order to investigate the policy mix of the German energy transition. Beside finding that energy transition policy mixes need to emphasize regulatory instruments more in order to bring about decarbonization, the article also describes some general aspects of the policy mix design required to govern the innovation-exnovation nexus.

Agreeing on What ? Creating Joint Accounts of Strategic Change (2017) 🗎🗎

This paper addresses a fundamental conundrum at the heart of meaning making: How is agreement to change achieved amid multiple, coexisting meanings? This challenge is particularly salient when proposing a new strategic initiative as it introduces new meanings that must coexist with multiple prevailing meanings. Yet, prior literature on meaning-making processes places different emphases on the extent to which agreement to a new initiative requires shared meaning across diverse organizational members. We propose the concept of a joint account as the means through which an agreement to change may be achieved that accommodates multiple, coexisting meanings that satisfy diverse constituents' vested interests. Based on the findings from an ethnographic study of a university's strategic planning process, we develop a framework that demonstrates two different patterns in the microprocesses of meaning making. These patterns extend our understanding about the way vested interests enable or constrain the construction of a joint account. In doing so, we contribute to knowledge about resistance, ambiguity, and lack of agreement to a proposed change.

Institutional change to support regime transformation: Lessons from Australia's water sector (2017) 🗎🗎

Institutional change is fundamental to regime transformation, and a necessary part of moving toward integrated water management. However, insight into the role of institutional change processes in such transitions is currently limited. A more nuanced understanding of institutional frameworks is necessary, both to advance understanding of institutional change in the context of transitions toward improved water management and to inform strategies for guiding such processes. To this end, we examine two contemporary cases of transformative change in Australia's urban water sector, exploring the evolution of institutional change in each city. This paper offers insights into regime transformation, providing guidance on types of institutional structures and the ways structure-change initiatives can be sequenced to support a transition. The results reveal the importance of regulation in embedding regime change and suggest that engagement with structural frameworks should begin early in transition processes to ensure the timely introduction of supporting regulation. Our findings also highlight the inextricable link between culture-based and structure-based change initiatives, and the importance of using a diverse range of institutional change mechanisms in a mutually reinforcing way to provide a strong foundation for change. These findings provide a foundation for further scholarly examination of institutional change mechanisms, while also serving to inform the strategic activities of transition-oriented organizations and actors.

Ways forward for resilience thinking: lessons from the field for those exploring social-ecological systems in agriculture and natural resource management (2017) 🗎🗎

Resilience thinking appears to offer a holistic approach that can be used by social researchers to interpret past and contemporary conditions and identify possible futures for social-ecological systems (SES). Resilience thinking is shaping contemporary environmental policy and its implementation in Australia, Europe, and North America. At the same time, social researchers have raised concerns about the limitations of resilience thinking, particularly in its handling of human agency, power relationships, social thresholds, and the social construction of SES definitions. We argue for a reflexive turn in resilience thinking as a way to address these concerns. We draw on lessons from three Australian case studies where a reflexive application of resilience thinking generated insights for research and practice. We propose six areas for reflexive inquiry: (1) focal scale and level, (2) SES definition, (3) narratives of change, (4) processes of knowledge production, (5) social transition trajectories, and (6) social thresholds. In so doing, the assumptions of resilience thinking are politicized and problematized, which improves its theoretical analytical utility, and in practice generates new insights into social processes. Reflexivity offers opportunity for greater cross-disciplinary dialogue between resilience thinking and the social sciences, while allowing methodologies with differing ontologies and epistemologies to be applied in a complementary manner.

Approaches for Transitions Towards Sustainable Development: Status Quo and Challenges (2017) 🗎🗎

With the aim of facilitating the long-term transformation towards a sustainable future, the research field of sustainability transition has gained growing attention. A number of approaches have been proposed to understand or even manage the complex societal transition processes towards sustainable development. There are four popular approaches for sustainability transitions, i.e. the multi-phase concept, multi-level perspective, strategic niche management and transition management. However, there is a lack of studies to systematically review and critically reflect on these various approaches in this emerging field. This paper presents a holistic review of the four most common approaches, and more importantly identifies four critical challenges for the future studies on transition approaches. Consequently, the associated future research agenda is presented. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Discontinuation of the automobility regime? An integrated approach to multi-level governance (2017) 🗎🗎

The case study at hand investigates a largely neglected phenomenon: the discontinuation of incumbent socio-technical regimes by means of deliberate governance. Comparing actor constellations and policy measures in four different countries (the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands) and on the EU level, we identify strategies and measures that have been applied to challenge the automobility regime. Instead of creating a new analytical framework for studying the governance of discontinuation, we propose to use three existing concepts, namely the multi-level perspective (MLP), multi-level governance (MLG) as well as actor-centred approaches, combining them into one integrated concept labelled "multi-level governance of socio-technical regimes". From this perspective, the European Union is the most active actor in attempts to restrict automobility, especially exerting pressure at the landscape level. However, in spite of various challenges, the automobility regime still remains considerably stable. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Power in Sustainability Transitions: Analysing power and (dis)empowerment in transformative change towards sustainability (2017) 🗎🗎

This paper conceptualizes power and empowerment in the context of sustainability transitions and transition governance. The field of transition studies has been critically interrogated for undermining the role of power, which has inspired various endeavours to theorize power and agency in transitions. This paper presents the POwer-IN-Transition framework (POINT), which is developed as a conceptual framework to analyse power and (dis)empowerment in transformative social change, integrating transition concepts and multiple power and empowerment theories. The first section introduces transitions studies and discusses its state-of-the-art regarding power. This is followed by a typology of power relations and different types of power (reinforcive, innovative, transformative). These notions are then used to reframe transition concepts, in particular the multi-level perspective, in terms of power dynamics. The critical challenges of (dis)empowerment and unintended power implications of discourses on and policies for sustainability transitions' are discussed. The paper concludes with a synthesis of the arguments and challenges for future research. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Energy justice and controversies: Formal and informal assessment in energy projects (2017) 🗎🗎

In this paper we develop a framework for understanding how justice-related claims play a role in the dynamics of controversy in energy projects. We do so by distinguishing two interacting trajectories of assessment: a formal trajectory that is embedded in the legal system and an informal trajectory that is mainly embedded in public discourse. The emergence of an informal assessment trajectory can be seen as a response to a (perceived) lack of attention to particular concerns or values in the formal trajectory, i.e. 'overflowing'. The emerging informal assessment may subsequently lead to adaptations in the formal trajectory, which we refer to as `backflowing'. Based on insights from case studies on Dutch energy projects and literature on energy justice we identify three justice-related attributes that facilitate understanding of the emergence of controversies. These attributes are based on differences between the two trajectories in terms of 1) the way in which values are expressed, 2) the dimension of energy justice that is taken as a starting point, and 3) the democratic legitimization of assessment trajectories. In order to allow for legitimate and effective energy policy, overflowing and backflowing need to be addressed as interrelated rather than as separate processes.

Towards a conceptualization of power in energy transitions (2017) 🗎🗎

The field of sustainability transitions has recently benefitted from efforts by multiple scholars at better conceptualizing power and politics, and integrating insights from other fields. This article argues for an understanding of power as relational, productive, contingent and situated. I conceptualize power to the aim of understanding and explaining how and where power relations become de/stabilized in energy transitions in poor rural communities. An understanding of power as a relational capacity to act is integrated with a sociotechnical and relational understanding of constitutive power, which enables us to explore the co-production of social relations, technology and nature. The resulting conceptualization is applied to a case of mini-hydropower electrification in Tanzania. I find that electrification simultaneously reinforces social inequality and enhances social mobility. I identify material, symbolic and discursive domains that work as sources of de/stabilization of social hierarchies, producing effects on the system configuration and relations of class and gender. (C) 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.

Telling tomorrows: Science fiction as an energy futures research tool (2017) 🗎🗎

Any sociological discussion of energy consumption must necessarily deal with not only the social practices underpinning that consumption, but also the complex sociotechnical assemblages through which such consumption is enabled. Likewise any sociological discussion of climate change must necessarily deal with not only radically different contexts, but also the inherent uncertainty that accompanies any exploration of times yet to come. There are many ways in which one might narrate and/or critique such futures, but few which can handle all of the challenges mentioned above. Such work requires a medium and methodology which can: represent the social alongside the technological; move fluidly between micro, meso and macro scales; reconcile historical trajectories with extrapolated trends and speculative leaps; and - perhaps most importantly-speak across ( and beyond) the disciplinary and administrative silos of both the state and the academy. This paper makes a case for the utility of prose science fiction both as a methodological tool of representation and portrayal for energy futures research which meets these criteria, and as a storehouse of tools and strategies for the critique of energy futures.

Towards more eclectic understandings of energy demand and change-A tale of sense-making in the messiness of transformative planning (2017) 🗎🗎

Progressive planning interventions can be characterized as actively seeking to reconfigure bundles of practices. This represents a different strategy for creating momentum for change (in energy demand) compared to prevailing interventions with emphasis on regulation and information. In this article, we explore theoretical understandings of practices and translations as a means to illustrate how certain engagements with strategic work aimed at reconfiguring bundles of practices enable a different approach to establishing momentum for change through planning interventions. We illustrate how the strategic work carried out in a particular case of energy renovation seems to have involved: 1) acknowledgment of the need for reconfiguring bundles of practices, 2) actively enrolling different actors in the reconfiguring of bundles of practices, and 3) basing new practice arrangements on the identification of hidden potentials in prevailing practice architectures. Presented through storytelling, we discuss why an eclectic theoretical interpretation of new forms of planning interventions is important in order to understand and bridge the gap between theoretical insight and planners' or practitioners' performance.

Reflecting on personal and professional energy stories in energy demand research (2017) 🗎🗎

As researchers involved in projects to reduce energy demand within buildings we may differ in our discipline, approach and epistemology; however we all share in common our experiences of energy demand within our own homes and workplaces. This paper centres on our status as 'insiders' in the research we conduct, exploring its potential impact on the stories of energy we tell through our research. The paper considers ways in which we may craft more creative stories of energy demand by being reflexive researchers, seeking out the 'productive moment of friction' where universalising science meets particular personal experiences. Perspectives on the value of so-called 'anecdote', along with issues of representativeness are discussed. Ultimately the paper argues for greater recognition of and more explicit attention to the relationship between the stories of energy we experience in our own lives, and those we tell through our research. It does so in the hope of encouraging an acceptance of the partiality of all knowledge, a practice of pluralism, and thus opportunities to move beyond dominant discourses in policy, industry and academia of what is necessary in order to reduce the demand for energy in our buildings.

Using stories, narratives, and storytelling in energy and climate change research (2017) 🗎🗎

Energy and climate change research has been dominated by particular methods and approaches to defining and addressing problems, accomplished by gathering and analysing the corresponding forms of evidence. This special issue starts from the broad concepts of stories, narratives, and storytelling to go beyond these analytic conventions, approaching the intersection of nature, humanity, and technology in multiple ways, using lenses from social sciences, humanities, and practitioners' perspectives. The contributors use stories as data objects to gather, analyse, and critique; stories as an approach to research an inquiry; narrative analysis as a way of crystallising arguments and assumptions; and storytelling as a way of understanding, communicating, and influencing others. In using these forms of evidence and communication, and applying methods, analytical stances, and interpretations that these invite, something new and different results. This essay is a brief introduction to how, in our view, stories and their kin fit in energy and climate change research. We outline the diversity of data, approaches, and goals represented in the contributions to the special issue. And we reflect on some of the challenges of, and possibilities for, continuing to develop 'stories' as data sources, as modes of inquiry, and as creative paths toward social engagement.

Exploring the governance and politics of transformations towards sustainability (2017) 🗎🗎

The notion of 'transformations towards sustainability' takes an increasingly central position in global sustainability research and policy discourse in recent years. Governance and politics are central to understanding and analysing transformations towards sustainability. However, despite receiving growing attention in recent years, the governance and politics aspects of transformations remain arguably under-developed in the global sustainability literature. A variety of conceptual approaches have been developed to understand and analyse societal transition or transformation processes, including: socio-technical transitions, social-ecological systems, sustainability pathways, and transformative adaptation. This paper critically surveys these four approaches, and reflects on them through the lens of the Earth System Governance framework (Biermann et al., 2009). This contributes to appreciating existing insights on transformations, and to identifying key research challenges and opportunities. Overall, the paper brings together diverse perspectives, that have so far remained largely fragmented, in order to strengthen the foundation for future research on transformations towards sustainability. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license

USES, RESISTANCES AND ACCEPTANCE OF EMERGENT HOUSEHOLD ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES The case of the wood-burning stove exchange program in Temuco, Chile (2017) 🗎🗎

During recent years, there has been a growing sociological interest for studying transitions to pro-environmental energy systems. Against this backdrop, this article presents the main empirical findings of a case study that qualitatively addresses a policy of replacing stoves in the City of Temuco, Chile. The article uses two complementary theoretical approaches, the Multilevel perspective (MLP) and the Theory of Social Practices (TPS) to describe the existence of lock-in mechanisms for sustainable transition processes, both at institutional level and at the level of social practices through which heating is organized. The articles relies on 23 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders of an stove replacement process and 23 participant observation exercises aimed at describing the heating practices of Temuco households. Based on this evidence, the paper reinforce the need to address different theoretical lenses in order to better account for the different scales and actors that constitute energy transitions. Such an approach can facilitate greater sensitivity to the difficulties that constitute pro environmental energy transition processes.

Moral entrepreneurship: Thinking and acting at the landscape level to foster sustainability transitions (2017) 🗎🗎

This research contributes to an important yet overlooked theme in sustainability transitions scholarship: the role of normative deliberation in large-scale systemic change. We adopt the term "moral entrepreneur" to describe the deliberate efforts to change institutionalized moral norms, and thus foster sustainability transitions. We adopt an interdisciplinary approach and, by drawing on the institutional lens, synthesize the multi-level perspective from sustainability transitions studies with the scholarship on discursive action from organization and management studies to explore the mechanisms by which moral entrepreneurs contribute to transformative change. Based on an analysis of the creation of the American national parks in the early 20th century and specifically John Muir's role therein, we argue that moral entrepreneurs trigger landscape level changes by gradually disassociating rules and practices from their moral foundations through engaging in a macro-systemic discourse. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Actor roles in transition: Insights from sociological perspectives (2017) 🗎🗎

To date, the field of transition research lacks a suitable vocabulary to analyse the (changing) interactions and relations of actors as part of a sustainability transition. This article addresses this knowledge gap by exploring the potential of the concept of 'roles' from social interaction research. The role concept is operationalized for transition research to allow the analysis of (changing) roles and relations between actor roles as indicative of changes in the social fabric and shared values, norms and beliefs. It also allows considering the use of roles as a transition governance intervention. This includes creating new roles, breaking down or altering existing ones and explicitly negotiating or purposefully assigning roles, as well as the flexible use of roles as resources. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.

Ordering theories: Typologies and conceptual frameworks for sociotechnical change (2017) 🗎🗎

What theories or concepts are most useful at explaining socio technical change? How can - or cannot - these be integrated? To provide an answer, this study presents the results from 35 semi-structured research interviews with social science experts who also shared more than two hundred articles, reports and books on the topic of the acceptance, adoption, use, or diffusion of technology. This material led to the identification of 96 theories and conceptual approaches spanning 22 identified disciplines. The article begins by explaining its research terms and methods before honing in on a combination of fourteen theories deemed most relevant and useful by the material. These are: Sociotechnical Transitions, Social Practice Theory, Discourse Theory, Domestication Theory, Large Technical Systems, Social Construction of Technology, Sociotechnical Imaginaries, Actor-Network Theory, Social Justice Theory, Sociology of Expectations, Sustainable Development, Values Beliefs Norms Theory, Lifestyle Theory, and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. It then positions these theories in terms of two distinct typologies. Theories can be placed into five general categories of being centered on agency, structure, meaning, relations or norms. They can also be classified based on their assumptions and goals rooted in functionalism, interpretivism, humanism or conflict. The article lays out tips for research methodology before concluding with insights about technology itself, analytical processes associated with technology, and the framing and communication of results. An interdisciplinary theoretical and conceptual inventory has much to offer students, analysts and scholars wanting to study technological change and society.

Community-led initiatives' everyday politics for sustainability - Conflicting rationalities and aspirations for change? (2017) 🗎🗎

Community-based initiatives are widely seen to play an essential role in a societal move towards a low carbon, sustainable future. As part of this, there is often an assumption that such initiatives share expectations (i.e. a guiding vision) of large-scale change and that their activities contribute to this change. Here, we ask to what extent this assumption reflects members' own perspectives on and interpretations of the aims and ambitions of their community initiative, and what this implies for a larger vision of sustainability transitions. In doing so, we respond to calls for a better understanding of the 'everyday politics' of what could be seen as processes of societal transitions in practice. We conducted qualitative interviews with members of five community initiatives in Italy, Finland and the UK. In each of these initiatives, we found a range of aspirations (i.e. outcome-related aims) and rationalities (i.e. procedural guiding principles). While some of these aims and ways of working were compatible with each other, we identified three major tensions that could be found across our study initiatives. These tensions centred on (i) the degree of politicisation of the initiative, (ii) the extent to which financial aims should take priority and (iii) questions of organisational form. We interpret these tensions as conflicting expressions of larger, societal-level discourses, and argue that this diversity and resulting conflicts need to be acknowledged - both in transition research and at the practical level - to avoid co-optation and disenfranchisement.

Navigations and governance in the Danish energy transition reflecting changing Arenas of Development, controversies and policy mixes (2017) 🗎🗎

The article discusses transition dynamics towards a Danish low-carbon society based on studies of energy production and consumption. This article shows how the Arena of Development and policy mix approaches may inform the analysis of system transition to a low carbon society. The Arena of Development approach is an actor-centred approach that focuses on how path dependencies of socio-technical systems may be challenged when controversies and matters-of-concern produce 'arenas' where established governance configurations and policies of a socio-technical system are challenged. Re-organising actor-constellations are constitutional for arenas and define their boundaries and the policies employed. We discuss the historic transitions in relation to four focal areas of Danish attempts to become independent of fossil energy: wind-power integration in the energy system, energy savings, biomass and sustainable mobility. The analysis demonstrates the conflicts and mixes of policy measures that have moved transition processes forward, but sometimes also stalling them. The analysis shows how changing controversies, arena configurations and policy mixes move forward the energy transition process.

Potential for knowledge in action? An analysis of Korean green energy related K3-12 curriculum and texts (2017) 🗎🗎

While understanding green energy development and what drives it are important, there is increasing consensus that sustainability transitions concerning usage need to be viewed in terms of the place specific contexts, including education, that critically mold them. In order to support sustainability transitions, information and knowledge building are not enough; knowledge must be turned into action. This research examines the potential efficacy of Korea's efforts in this regard via an analysis of K3-K12 geography education curriculum and texts vis-a-vis green energy content. There is scant disconnect between the curriculum and the texts analyzed, and, aside from the small shortcomings unearthed, analyses suggest that Korea is cogent of the ability of geography education and education for sustainable development to turn knowledge into action, thereby empowering civil society to drive its green energy transitions going forward.

Sustainability Transitions Research: Transforming Science and Practice for Societal Change (2017) 🗎🗎

The article describes the field of sustainability transitions research, which emerged in the past two decades in the context of a growing scientific and public interest in large-scale societal transformation toward sustainability. We describe how different scientific approaches and methodological positions explore diverse types of transitions and provide the basis for multiple theories and models for governance of sustainability transitions. We distinguish three perspectives in studying transitions: socio-technical, socio-institutional, and socio-ecological. Although the field as a whole is very heterogeneous, commonalities can be characterized in notions such as path dependencies, regimes, niches, experiments, and governance. These more generic concepts have been adopted within the analytical perspective of transitions, which has led three different types of approaches to dealing with agency in transitions: analytical, evaluative, and experimental. The field has by now produced a broad theoretical and empirical basis along with a variety of social transformation strategies and instruments, impacting disciplinary scientific fields as well as (policy) practice. In this article, we try to characterize the field by identifying its main perspectives, approaches and shared concepts, and its relevance to real-world sustainability problems and solutions.

Pathways: An emerging concept for the theory and governance of low-carbon transitions (2017) 🗎🗎

The concept of "pathways" has increasingly come to frame the challenge of transitioning to low-carbon societies. It also shows promise as a bridging concept, encouraging constructive dialogue among the diverse perspectives and constituencies evoking its use. However, its interpretations and attributes are rarely explicit and have yet to be subject to serious scrutiny. This raises important questions for both theory and governance as the way in which a problem is framed shapes how it is understood and addressed, structuring the possibilities considered and privileging certain responses. Therefore, this study explores the concept of pathways in the context of low-carbon transitions, exposing its conceptions, maturation, and implications. Based on a survey of the relevant climate change mitigation literature, this analysis uncovers three core conceptions of pathways in the context of low-carbon transitions: (1) biophysical, (2) techno-economic, and (3) socio-technical. Constituted by diverse perspectives and approaches, each of these three core conceptions emphasize different yet interconnected dimensions of the decarbonization challenge. This analysis also points to several key attributes and functions of the concept of pathways. Yet, while the concept may possess a variety of features that recommend its use as a critical problem frame for low-carbon transitions, it also raises issues that suggest a need for further reflexivity. If the concept is cast too strongly in terms of individual core conceptions, there may be a tendency to emphasize certain dynamics while paying somewhat less attention to others, inadvertently diminishing the complexity of the decarbonization challenge. Beyond this, there are other facets of the concept that have to date received more limited attention, including the implications of choices at critical junctures and the evolving character of social practices. So, there is room for the concept of pathways to engage more fully with the range of complexities embodied by low carbon transitions. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Interactive Knowledge Generation in Urban Green Building Transitions (2017) 🗎🗎

Knowledge coproduction between practitioners and scientists offers promising opportunities for the emerging research field of the geography of sustainability transitions. Drawing on experiences from an international research project on urban green building transitions, this article explores the potentials and challenges of interactive and collaborative knowledge generation methods in understanding sustainability transitions. Our results show that ongoing engagement with local experts and practitioners through interactive World Cafe workshops and follow-up exchanges allows for a better understanding of the research context and knowledge exchange to all participants involved in the research process.

Future green economies and regional development: a research agenda (2017) 🗎🗎

Future green economies and regional development: a research agenda. Regional Studies. The past 30 years have seen an explosion of interest and concern over the detrimental impacts of economic and industrial development. Despite this, the environmental agenda has not featured substantially in the regional studies literature. This paper explores a range of options for regional futures from a clean-tech' economy and the promise of renewed accumulation through to more radical degrowth concepts focused on altering existing modes of production and consumption, ecological sustainability and social justice. In so doing, it investigates the potential role of regions as drivers of the new green economy, drawing on research into sustainability transitions.

"Just" ecopreneurs: re-conceptualising green transitions and entrepreneurship (2017) 🗎🗎

Economic, environmental, and social limits of the current capitalist mode of production have led to a rethinking and reconceptualisation of economic processes and models including the role of businesses in sustainable development. While green economies and more specifically green entrepreneurs have been identified as agents of change that can challenge the mainstream and seek to induce environmental, social, and ethical transformation of society, much research has stayed within existing models of thinking predominantly rooted in technocratic approaches (e.g. ecological modernisation and more recently transition studies). This paper seeks to offer an alternative understanding of green entrepreneurship that breaks open these discussions using an environmental justice frame that focuses on the role of extra-economic discourses in shaping the social relations of economic systems. By drawing on an exemplary case study of "just" entrepreneurship from Boston, Massachusetts, USA, the paper seeks to start a conversation around the ideas of green entrepreneurship and environmental justice as vehicles to deliver potentially broader system changes and explores both conceptual and practical aspects of green development. As such, it offers (1) evidence of a just green economy that can be realised within existing capitalist structures as well as (2) a different conceptual entry point to understanding green entrepreneurship.

Game-changers and transformative social innovation (2017) 🗎🗎

This editorial introduces the special feature on the role of game-changers, broadly conceptualized as macro-trends that change the "rules of the game," in processes of transformative social innovation. First, the key concepts are introduced together with the academic workshop that brought together 25 scholars, from across a wide range of disciplines, to discuss the role of game-changers in transformative social innovation, resulting in the 9 contributions in this special feature. Second, the differing conceptualizations of the role of game-changers in transformative social innovation across the set of articles are discussed. Third, an overview is provided of the different empirical examples of game-changers and transformative social innovations addressed; examples were drawn from different geographical contexts across Europe, North America, South America, Africa, and Asia. Fourth, the differing epistemological approaches used to explain social change are noted, and lessons for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research on social change discussed. Finally, a synthesis is provided of the main insights and contributions to the literature.

Standing on the shoulders of giants: Understanding changes in urban water practice through the lens of complexity science (2017) 🗎🗎

Scholars assert that traditional approaches to urban water management need reforming.These debates have identified the need to move toward systemsand complexity thinking. The literature offers limited insight into the utility of complexity theory in enhancing urban water policy and practice.This paper aims to address this gap by: (i) synthesizing the intellectual history of complexity science, (ii) identifying key principles of complexity theory and (iii) providing insights into how complexity theory can contribute to twenty-first century urban water management. We reveal how Newtonian logic isdeeplyembedded in contemporary Western urban water policy and practice. We identify three insights from complexity science that could potentially yield better urban water policy and practice outcomes: system boundaries; agents and networks; and far from equilibrium. These theoretical insights offer an important contribution to scholarlydebates as embedded normative frameworks need to be recognized, understood and addressed beforetransformative change can materialize.

Information-sharing in services for military personnel in transition to civilian life (2017) 🗎🗎

An analysis of policy and practice documents on information-sharing in the transition of military personnel into civilian life finds (1) a complex transition pathway along which the responsibility for co-ordination of transition shifts from service providers to those in transition; (2) a lack of attention to operationalizing information-sharing for different service circumstances; (3) the potential for developing a framework for managing information-sharing; and (4) a need for further research to draw on the evidence of transitions and information-sharing in other policy sectors.

Electronic HRM: four decades of research on adoption and consequences (2017) 🗎🗎

Despite the existence of a number of recent reviews of e-HRM research, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of the factors affecting the adoption and consequences of e-HRM. This paper therefore provides a review of four decades of research in this area with the aim to provide a summary and integrative framework as a basis for future research. We found that the factors affecting the adoption of e-HRM can be divided into three areas: technology; organization; and people - we refer to this as the TOP' framework. In line with we divide consequences into those that are operational, relational and transformational. We also found that there has been a shift both in the goals for e-HRM, from efficiency to improved HR service provision and the strategic reorientation of HR departments; but also that the type of consequences that the literature focuses on has also changed from operational effects, to relational and then transformational outcomes. The paper discussed these shifts in some detail, along with the implications for future research and practice.

Agroecology to Promote Just Sustainability Transitions: Analysis of a Civil Society Network in the Rwenzori Region, Western Uganda (2017) 🗎🗎

Agroecology is gaining ground within the debate on how to address systemic social and environmental problems in agriculture. However, it remains marginalized in agricultural research and development plans around the world. This paper analyzes agroecology as a socio-technical niche in Uganda, where its emergence in part can be seen as an unintended consequence of neoliberalist development. The case studied is a civil society network that links farmer groups and non-governmental organizations across different levels. Through the analytical lens of regime dimensions, we find that agroecology is practiced as a smallholder-centric approach that champions collective action, locally appropriate technologies, participatory methods in research and extension, and calls for more active state guidance of agricultural change along specific principles. However, two major concerns are raised; the niche converges with the dominant discourse around commercialization, and policy advocacy is hampered by the apolitical history of NGOs and an increasingly tense political climate. These two areas are critical for agroecology to contribute to just sustainability transitions, and civil society organizations with strong links to smallholder farmers need to be included in the growing scholarly debate both to inform it and to receive guidance from it. Transition frameworks can help facilitate the development of viable institutional designs and explicitly transformative strategies, but we also point towards the need for engagement with theories on civil society collective action and political mobilization.

The role of knowledge in climate transition and transformation literatures (2017) 🗎🗎

Rooted in different theories and focusing on different elements of the socio-ecological fabric, climate transitions and transformations are conceived to have various forms. Although these literatures recognize the significance of learning and boundary spanning, systematic reviews of the role of knowledge in climate transitions are lacking. We review how targets of transformation, functions, types, and intermediaries of knowledge are conceptualized in five types of literature. We highlight that knowledge has a role as: the motor of transition in Transition Management literature, a consultant supporting transition in Transformational Climate Adaptation literature, an emancipator of transition in Transform Political and Economic Systems literature, the beacon guiding transition in Social-Ecological Transformation literature, and an Ad Hoc Committee motivating transition in Grassroots Transitions literature.

Learning our way out of environmental policy problems: a review of the scholarship (2018) 🗎🗎

In acknowledgement of the complexity of environmental challenges, research on learning in environmental policy has grown substantially over the past two decades across a range of disciplines. Despite this growth, there are few comprehensive assessments of the literature on learning in environmental policy. This article fills this gap by providing insights on the overall coherence and impact of this body of scholarship. To do so, we analyze a sample of 163 articles from 2004 to 2014 using a standardized coding framework. The results provide an in-depth assessment of the status of the literature on learning in the context of environmental policy, as well as the quality of the literature. We demonstrate that despite the diversity in research questions and goals, the literature is lacking with respect to diversity in cases and context, theoretical development, clear conceptualization and operationalization of learning, and advancements in empirical approaches to study learning. From these insights, we discuss the challenges and opportunities for scholars in studying learning and provide recommendations for building the theoretical and methodological rigor of the field.

Beyond frontier technologies, expert knowledge and money: New parameters for innovation and energy systems change (2018) 🗎🗎

Many people agree on the need for energy system change, and that innovation is a pivotal component in attaining these changes. For this reason, a flurry of activity exists - by scholars, policy makers and practitioners - about how to realize these changes most effectively. Emerging concepts and activities underway on the ground point to systemic changes afoot. By contrast, policy makers and their advisors often rely on outdated assumptions when espousing advice about policy, investment and markets. Through an examination of a number of sustainable energy experiences, this paper argues that conventional ways of approaching innovation are inadequate at effectively understanding innovation systems; by doing so, we miss important sources of innovation. This is important because to realize these transitions further alignment between these scholars, policy makers and practitioners is required. We must look beyond frontier technologies, experts and money by taking a broad view of innovation that also attempts to capture less orthodox innovation sources. To do so we must apply a comprehensive approach to energy system change; one that acknowledges that aspects such as culture, social, environmental, and political issues can play as important roles in understanding change as economic and technical aspects.

A diagnostic framework of strategic agency: Operationalising complex interrelationships of agency and institutions in the urban infrastructure sector (2018) 🗎🗎

In developed cities legacy infrastructures tend to lock future development pathways and investment decisions into perpetuating itself, presenting barriers for sustainability transformations. In contrast, the lack of physical infrastructures in developing cities hints at greater opportunities for fast-tracking transformations. To examine the potential capacity for overcoming barriers and exploiting opportunities for transformations, a more nuanced operationalisation of strategic agency than is currently offered in sustainability scholarships is needed. Mainstream perspectives provide quasi-evolutionary explanations of system transformation, which, to date, tend to emphasise agency as a capacity to navigate niche-regime interactions specifically by charting institutional works along a functional model of socio-technical innovation or transition trajectory. Against this background, this paper sets out to develop a diagnostic framework of strategic agency that contributes to the under-explored question of how agency might lead transformation in various contexts by fine-tuning their works to windows of opportunities. More specifically, the framework adopts a practice lens to reveal the (a) type of interaction dynamics that agency can give rise to in reproducing and, by extension, transforming institutions, and (b) reflexive capability as entwined with the exercise of power. In doing so, it facilitates a balanced inquiry that interrogates actions to expose their various embodied forms and patterns within a set of real-world contexts. The framework draws from new-institutionalist studies and practice theory, which lend perspectives for unpacking actions as embedded and institutions as mutable. It operationalises this duality by taking institutional reproduction processes as the core unit of the diagnostic. The framework is illustratively applied to an example case from the developing Indonesian water sector.

The influence of institutions, governance, and public opinion on the environment: Synthesized findings from applied econometrics studies (2018) 🗎🗎

We synthesize the empirical contributions from the existing applied economics literature examining the influence of institutions and governance on environmental policy, environmental performance, and green investment. The literature on the influence of populism and public opinion on environmental policy adoption is also reviewed in line with the special issue. First, the paper describes how the relationship between institutions, environmental performance and environmental policy have been conceptualized and operationalized in the literature and summarizes the main findings. The second part of the paper outlines avenues for future research with specific attention to the energy transition and climate change literature. With respect to the positivist worldview adopted by this paper, we highlight various opportunities for empirical work that have recently emerged with the growing availability of data in the field of green investments, climate, and energy policy. Expanding the current empirical literature towards these research topics is of both scientific and policy relevance and can provide important insights on the broader field of sustainability transition and sustainable development. Regarding the alternative, non-positivist worldviews, future research could explore ways to connect the richer approaches such as complex adaptive systems and socio-technical transition studies with applied econometric methods, as well as future-oriented studies.

Mobilizing innovation for sustainability transitions: A comment on transformative innovation policy (2018) 🗎🗎

The topics addressed in this paper concern the (much-needed) transition to sustainability and what role (innovation) policy can play in speeding up such changes. In their Discussion Paper Schot and Steinmueller (2018) argue that the existing theorizing and knowledge bases within the field of innovation studies are "unfit" for this task and that a totally new approach is required. This paper takes issue with this claim. Policy advice, it is argued, needs to be anchored in the accumulated research on the issue at hand, in this case, innovation. The paper therefore starts by distilling some important insights on innovation from the accumulated research on this topic and, with this in mind, considers various policy approaches that have been suggested for influencing innovation and sustainability transitions. Finally, the lessons for the development and implementation of transformative innovation policy are considered. It is concluded that the existing theorizing and knowledge base in innovation studies may be of great relevance when designing policies for dealing with climate change and sustainability transitions.

Agroecological transitions: What can sustainability transition frameworks teach us? An ontological and empirical analysis (2018) 🗎🗎

Transitioning toward more sustainable agricultural development paths requires extensive change and not simply marginal technical adjustments, as suggested by a strong conception of agroecology. To deal with transition, we believe that agroecology can be enriched by a deep analysis of sustainability transition frameworks and, conversely, that preexisting theories can be questioned in light of the specificities of agroecological transitions (AET). We first examine some of the main sustainability transition frameworks (resilience of social-ecological systems, institutional analysis and development of social-ecological systems, and socio-technical transition). We identify their ontologies to question their ability to be combined without deep adjustments. In a second step, we analyze how these frameworks have been used and questioned by researchers from the life sciences or social sciences in four AET studies. We find that each framework is relevant in its systemic and dynamic approach to change, but also that there are limits concerning the balance between the various dimensions. The scales and processes linked to AET must be taken into account, as well as the way to jointly consider ecological, socioeconomic, and technological aspects. Moreover, it is clear that problems in dealing with agency are common to these approaches, which influences the way to model change. More broadly, sustainability transition frameworks need to account better for ecological and technological materialities and processes, the importance of emergent organizations in singular situations, and learning processes and the diversity of knowledge dynamics. Doing so is challenging because it requires regrounding theories in empirical observations as well as questioning disciplinary frontiers and ontologies.

The implications of how climate funds conceptualize transformational change in developing countries (2018) 🗎🗎

The search for globally coordinated mitigation strategies that could contribute effectively towards bridging the gap between current emissions reduction efforts and a rapidly closing 2 degrees C climate target remains contentious. The participation of developing countries through Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) is emerging as a crucial feature to attain this goal. Against this background, two of the major NAMA funding agencies have embraced transformational change (TC)' and paradigm shifts' as policy concepts. Yet, their operationalization within aid management approaches has not been fully justified. Concurrently, academic interest in theories of sustainability transitions has been growing, out of which the Transition Management (TM) approach provides the theoretical inspiration to study, and eventually promote, systemic TCs. However, there is still limited knowledge with which to contextualize the steering of such transitions to different settings. This article engages in these debates by reviewing the theoretical grounding behind the Green Climate Fund and the NAMA Facility's conceptualizations of TC through NAMA interventions against the corresponding theoretical assumptions of TM. Based on a critical review of relevant literature, it is argued that the logical framework-based approach adopted by the funds contains implicit assumptions of causality, which do not adequately cater for the uncertainties, non-linearity and feedback loops inherent in transition processes. The incorporation of more adaptive and reflexive elements is proposed as an alternative. This paper contributes to existing knowledge by critically reflecting on the applicability of TM towards governing sociotechnical transitions in the developing world and by exposing the limitations behind the current thinking underpinning NAMA funding. In conclusion, the systems perspective adopted in sustainability transition theories is thus recommended as a more rewarding approach towards understanding how attempts at transforming paradigms through support to climate policies and actions in developing countries are played out.

Bridging socio-technical and justice aspects of sustainable energy transitions (2018) 🗎🗎

Sustainable energy transitions necessarily comprise both socio-technical aspects as well as important implications for social justice. However, in existing scholarship, these are mainly treated as distinct phenomena. The purpose of this paper is to outline a comprehensive approach that pulls together critical aspects of both socio-technical development and energy justice in understanding sustainable transitions. Drawing on the strengths of both sets of literature, we argue that a comprehensive approach requires analyses to account for the co-evolution of institutional change, material change and relational change, with a cross-cutting concern for multiple spatialities and normative implications. We then illustrate this approach through three brief case studies of multi-scalar solar uptake in Portugal, bringing out how justice considerations are intricately involved in the practices and politics of these concrete, broadly representative instances of sustainable energy transitions.

Making energy cultures visible with situational analysis (2018) 🗎🗎

This article introduces situational analysis a recently developed method in qualitative empirical research, which enables researchers to investigate complexity, multiplicity and mess in the social study of energy. Complexity is understood in its relation to processes of simplification, that occur in the research field, but are also produced by the scientists. The decision in favour of a specific method is understood as a political decision, which influences our capacity not only to examine dominant perspectives and processes, but also to explore invisible and silenced elements, actors and positions in energy cultures. The critical question under investigation is how transformation processes of the way we produce, use and distribute energy can be initiated that entail political as well as scientific practices and processes in which diversity, complexity and modes of reflection are inscribed? Based on the example of energy research governance in the European Union, the article explores how situational analysis with its distinct mapping tools supports the researcher to debate and reflect on simplifications, complexity and power relations, while simultaneously critically asses the problems and challenges of the method.

Global Cybersecurity: New Directions in Theory and Methods (2018) 🗎🗎

This thematic issue advocates a range of novel theoretical and methodological directions applicable to cybersecurity studies. Drawing on critical International Relations theory, Science and Technology Studies, participant observation, quantitative political science, and other social science methods and theory, the contributors advance modes of invigorating the exploration of cybersecurity as an assemblage of sociotechnical practices. In so doing, this issue seeks to enhance understanding of the politics and strategies of cybersecurity, one of the most complex and diverse technical and political challenges of our contemporary world.

Energy justice and sustainability transitions in Mozambique (2018) 🗎🗎

This paper advances the debate on energy justice by opening up a dialogue with postcolonial critiques of development. There is an imperative to develop energy justice theory fit to address the complex demands of a global energy transitions in poorer countries of the Global South. Delivering transformative change in contexts where energy systems are underdeveloped requires assessing energy justice principles from multiple situated perspectives, adjusted to the conditions that shape the possibilities for action. However, current theorizations of energy justice tend to build upon universalist notions of justice within a western tradition of thought which may not be entirely appropriate to deliver policy in postcolonial contexts. This paper offers a situated, particularistic analysis of energy transitions in Mozambique - a country which faces massive energy access challenges - to open a dialogue between theories of energy justice and postcolonial critiques. The paper focuses on three aspects of the energy transition occurring in Mozambique: the logics and impacts of off-grid innovation, the situated transformations occurring in the electricity network, and how transitions in energy fuels shape household experiences of energy access. The conclusion proposes two recommendations as key agendas for future research. The first is a methodological need for research methods to examine energy justice challenges from within specific, situated understandings of energy delivery. The second entails a call for emancipatory notions of energy justice that integrate concepts such as energy sovereignty at their core to emphasise the dimension of self-determination as a complementary aspect of energy justice.

Scale limits to sustainability: Transdisciplinary evidence from three Danish cases (2018) 🗎🗎

Scale has risen to greater prominence in the study of sustainable transitions, as efforts to understand the diffusion of innovation seeks to take account of place-specific effects. Long a contested concept in geography, a transdisciplinary account of scale focuses greater attention on ways in which conditions emerge as limits to transitions when considered vertically. This article advances such an account and demonstrates the importance of the approach through three case studies in Denmark: the municipally and island of Samso, Copenhagen, and the Danish nation as a whole. The rise of these locales as global leaders in environmentalism obscures unsolved problems and under-emphasized caveats that in some instances appear intractable. Individually, these cases raise a number of factors representing insights from different disciplinary concerns; together, the cases suggest that scale effects impose more severe constraints and even limits on the development of sustainability transitions.

Orchestrating households as collectives of participation in the distributed energy transition: New empirical and conceptual insights (2018) 🗎🗎

Building on recent dialogue between sustainability transition theories and Science and Technology Studies (STS), this article conceptually and empirically studies and analyses the orchestration of households as collectives of participation in the process of distributed energy transition. Synthesising across past studies, we explore three types of what we call 'collectives of orchestration', relatively durable collectives that work to orchestrate participation at a distance in space and time. These are: a) collectives of policy production and regulation, b) collectives of research, development and innovation, and c) collectives of technology design. We explore how these collectives enroll households, and the ways in which they mediate participation through different strategies and techniques, producing conditions for various modes of participation. We proceed to discuss the co-production of participation in and by households, including ways in which households can re-configure issues around which research and demonstration projects are set up. Through this exercise, we identify four distinct processes through which orchestration is enacted: 1) the production of visions, expectations and imaginations, 2) network construction and re-configuration, 3) scripting and 4) domestication.

Of temporality and plurality: an epistemic and governance agenda for accelerating just transitions for energy access and sustainable development (2018) 🗎🗎

The complementarity of sustainable energy transitions and energy access provision are one of the key characteristics of both the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change. In this perspective piece, we offer an epistemic and governance agenda to advance the imperative of speed in meeting both ambitions and to acknowledge the plurality of disciplines, actors, and institutions involved. Recognizing that the processes required to achieve these global goals entail navigating tensions, we suggest that shifts in ways knowledge is produced and transitions are governed could be based on a justice framework.

Shaping norms. A convention theoretical examination of alternative food retailers as food sustainability transition actors (2018) 🗎🗎

Changing the shared rules and norms underpinning dominant regimes is seen as one driver of sustainability transitions, yet relatively little attention has been paid to exactly how actors seek to change these. In this study, we focus on the norm-shaping work performed by alternative food retailers, a potentially influential alternative food network actor, as a potential element of food system sustainability transitions. We use convention theory as a novel framework for examining this. Convention theory focuses on shared rules and norms in economic coordination and offers a framework for examining how actors negotiate what is right and desirable. By this theory, actors are considered to engage with a plurality of universally accepted notions of worth, organised into different worlds of justification, and to use specific strategies of justification or negotiation to propose and justify different configurations of ideals and their manifestations. The analysis shows how the retailers, by engaging with the different worlds of justification through different strategies of negotiation, promoted four overarching ideals of food production-consumption. Although we must be cautious of overstating the change-making potential of very marginal actors, the view opened by the convention theory perspective is one of active, strategic negotiation taking place in the margins of the dominant food regime, with potentially interesting interactions with the growing landscape pressures to take the food system in a more sustainable direction.

Sustainability: A tool for governing wine production in New Zealand? (2018) 🗎🗎

Governance mechanisms facilitate sustainability transitions by ensuring that people are engaging in socially and environmentally sound practice. This paper analyses the history of the New Zealand wine industry over the past twenty years to trace how agricultural actors handle regulatory and voluntary modes of environmental governance and navigate between them. The empirical basis for the paper comprises 22 semi-structured interviews with industry actors addressing the 'Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand' programme. This qualitative methodology facilitated the collection of historical data as well as the interrogation of the meanings interviewees attributed to particular events, practices or behaviours. A narrative analysis examined how interviewees situated themselves in relation with the sustainability programme and their wider environment. The research identifies the key moments that lead the industry to ground its environmentalism in markets, and to coordinate wine production practice through associated auditing. The historical development of the programme suggests that this was achieved through the industry's wholesale adoption of what had been a voluntary programme. The analysis also reveals that diverse actors involved in New Zealand wine production refer to similar intertwining narratives about the programme that demonstrate a shift from a voluntary to a de facto compulsory scheme. We argue that actors have acquiesced to the expansion of the programme, allowing it to shape wine production in New Zealand. In this context, winegrowers and winemakers relate to the sustainability programme as simultaneously a regulatory and a market-motivated form of governance. The findings provide insight to how collective market strategies paired with sustainability assessments can create a new kind of governance mechanism that bridges economic and social spheres. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The practices of collective action: Practice theory, sustainability transitions and social change (2018) 🗎🗎

Developing theory for understanding social transformation is essential for environmental sustainability, yet mainstream accounts of collective action neglect the dynamics of daily life. Theories of practice have proved generative for the study of sustainable consumption but struggle to accommodate the roles of collective actors, strategic action and purposive collective projects in social change. In response, this paper develops a practice theoretical account of collective action pertinent to processes of large scale social change, with specific focus on transitions towards sustainability. We consider three ideal types of collectivebureaucratic organisations, groupings and latent networksand, drawing on existing social theoretical resources that are ontologically compatible with a practice account, explore the kinds of practices and arrangements which compose them. Processes concerning strategy, bureaucracy, management, social worlds and collective identity are identified as important combinations of practices and arrangements. We suggest a key contribution of practice theory has been to identify a type of collective action we call dispersed collective activity, and we suggest how this type of activity may give rise to collectives. We conclude by suggesting further development for the realisation of the project's contribution to the analysis of sustainability transitions.

Role of psychology in sociotechnical transitions studies: Review in relation to consumption and technology acceptance (2018) 🗎🗎

In the sustainability transitions literature, social phenomena have mostly been examined in relation to - and at the level of - collective forms of action. Here our focus is on psychological, primarily individualistic approaches to understanding action as behaviour, with particular attention to consumption and technology acceptance. We document and discuss the ways in which the psychology of agents or actors has been described and theorised in these contexts within the sociotechnical transitions literature to date, both implicitly and explicitly. A review of the latter literature shows that while actor motivation and behaviour are often implicitly referred to, these are rarely theorised explicitly using psychological concepts. Reasons for the limited use of individual-level, psychological constructs are discussed and suggestions for how these may be more closely connected to structural and collective processes are made.

Do policy makers tell good stories? Towards a multi-layered framework for mapping and analysing policy narratives embracing futures (2018) 🗎🗎

Faced with major global problems, public policies increasingly embrace narratives of systemic transition towards desired future. This article introduces a conceptual and analytical framework designed to reconstruct and analyse historical and prospective policy discourses on emerging societal challenges. The proposed Policy Narrative Framework Analysis (POLiFRAME) is novel in integrating frame analysis with the notion of theory of change connecting historical and prospective dimensions of policy narratives. The framework adds an emphasis on the selection and interpretation of empirical evidence to support policy narratives. Application of the framework is illustrated with a case study on frames and reframing of EU resource efficiency policy.

Shifting modes of governing municipal waste - A sociology of translation approach (2018) 🗎🗎

In this study, we investigate the shifting of modes of governing municipal waste, from disposal (waste-to-landfill) to waste as a resource (sustainable recycling). To this end, we frame this study combining the modes of governing approach developed by Bulkeley, Watson and Hudson with Bruno Latour's sociology of translation approach (or Actor-Network Theory). Within this double framework, we investigate practices that emerge from the attempts made by multiple stakeholders to shift modes of governing waste. This study contributes to the modes of governing waste in particular and, to environmental policy implementation studies in general. We posit that shifting governing modes involves (i) the construction of human-non-human networks that support the stabilization of a particular governing mode; (ii) consideration of the role of non-humans, their agency and materiality and; (iii) the acknowledgement that counter-networks and unintended consequences are likely to emerge. When we add to this view the role of politics, a more complex, dynamic and rich picture of the phenomenon surfaces.

Sustainability transitions and the state (2018) 🗎🗎

Sustainability transitions is an emerging field of research that has produced both conceptual understandings of the drivers of technological transitions, as well as more prescriptive and policy-engaged analyses of how shifts from unsustainable to sustainable forms of production and consumption can be achieved. Yet attention towards the role of the state is underdeveloped in the field. The significance of this neglect has become more apparent in particular due to the heightened urgency around the need to tackle climate change and energy security, where there are increasing calls for an enhanced role for the state. This paper sets out to advance understandings of the multiple and conflicting roles that states play in transitions. It first addresses key weaknesses in the way the state has been examined thus far. Second, it highlights theoretical resources and conceptualisations of the state that can help scholars of transitions open up new and more productive avenues for understanding drivers and barriers to sustainable transitions drawing on examples from different sectors, regions and issue areas.

Developing Boundary-Spanning Capacity for Regional Sustainability Transitions-A Comparative Case Study of the Universities of Augsburg (Germany) and Linz (Austria) (2018) 🗎🗎

The potential of universities to become 'change agents' for sustainability has increasingly been highlighted in the literature. Some largely open questions are how universities get involved in regional sustainability transitions and how that affects their role in these processes. This paper argues that universities need to develop a boundary-spanning capacity, which enables them to transcend disciplinary as well as sectoral boundaries in order to adopt a developmental role in regional sustainability transitions. It is investigated how universities develop this capacity within a particular regional context, using the method of a transition topology. Comparing how the relationships of universities with their surrounding regions developed in Augsburg (Germany) and Linz (Austria), the paper shows why these processes are place-specific. A university's boundary-spanning capacity develops over time and differs according to the actors involved. The primarily bottom-up driven process in Augsburg was thematically quite broad and involved diverse actors. In Linz, the top-down initiated process was fragmented and more narrowly focused. Individual value-driven actors that made use of their personal networks played an important role in both regions.

Towards pragmatic narratives of societal engagement in the UK energy system (2018) 🗎🗎

Issues of societal engagement in the energy system pervade both the study and the doing of energy policy. In both realms, narratives as persuasive 'vehicles of meaning' help us both to make sense of society's role in past and current energy systems, and shape these roles in future energy systems. However, our eagerness to simplify complex histories and unwritten futures means that the narratives we create are often reliant on assumptions. This has implications for the degree to which narratives can find pragmatism, and thus be valuable, to a wide range of stakeholders. Drawing both on historic accounts of societal engagement in energy systems alongside emerging discourses around future energy systems, this paper offers several points of caution for the use of narratives of engagement. In terms of historic narratives, these relate to hindsight bias, predictability, and normative positioning, the combination of which depict histories of engagement as retrospectively obvious, and falsely suggest a controllability of past events. In terms of forward-looking narratives, while optimism and ambiguity play key roles in garnering interest in visions among stakeholders, they also mean that narratives vary in their relevance, and thus value to, different stakeholders. Fundamentally, narratives must find legitimacy in the actors they purport to recruit, and must thus simultaneously attend to regulative, normative and cognitive aspects of energy system engagement.

Harnessing theories of the policy process for analysing the politics of sustainability transitions: A critical survey (2018) 🗎🗎

This paper provides a survey of policy process theories and their usefulness in transitions research. Some research has already used such theories, but often in an ad hoc and relatively cursory way and with little attention to potential alternatives. However, it has been argued that transition scholars need to pay more attention to the politics of policy processes. We argue that a critical stocktaking of policy process theories is a prerequisite for future transition studies that more systematically respond to these challenges. Therefore, we review five prominent policy process theories and their applicability in transition studies. We point to two weaknesses of empirical applications of these approaches that are of particular relevance for transitions research: their focus on single instruments or policy packages, and their neglect of policy outcomes. We conclude by suggesting avenues for research on the linkages between policy processes, policy mixes, and socio-technical change.

The Resilience of Sustainability Transitions (2018) 🗎🗎

Finding ways to understand, analyze, and manage sustainability transitions is a fundamental challenge for sustainability science. In this paper, we show how we can substantially deepen our understanding of factors that determine the success of sustainability transitions by combining two key concepts from the resilience literaturestability and adaptabilitywith a dynamic understanding of the progress of socio-technical transitions. We propose a conceptual perspective for sustainability transitions, the resilience of sustainability transitions (RST) concept, which integrates progress, stability, and adaptability as key dimensions to comprehend the dynamics of sustainability transitions. In a case analysis of the energy transition process in the Austrian region of Weiz-Gleisdorf, we apply the concept. In doing so, we illustrate how RST thinking helps identify and understand crucial elements that influence the dynamics of a sustainability transition process.

Critical choices and the politics of decarbonization pathways: Exploring branching points surrounding low-carbon transitions in Canadian electricity systems (2018) 🗎🗎

Transition pathways have attracted increasing interest as a useful analytical lens through which to capture the interlocking processes, patterns, and directions that might constitute substantial movement toward sustainability. While recent research has elaborated the political character of pathways, there is still room to further scrutinize the role of critical choices and branching points in defining diverging pathways. Contributing to the growing body of research on pathways, this study develops an approach that: (1) elaborates the dynamics that open branching points and (2) illustrates how critical choices help define the direction taken at these openings, giving rise to diverging decarbonization pathways. As part of this, the contested nature of critical choices is examined, revealing how actors struggle to shape possible trajectories. This approach is demonstrated by exploring unfolding low-carbon pathways in Canadian electricity systems, drawing lessons for the practice and theory of pathways. In particular, findings indicate that attending to branching points more explicitly exposes the implications and trade-offs embodied within choices by linking near-term decisions to long-run low-carbon configurations.

Explaining sociotechnical transitions: A critical realist perspective (2018) 🗎🗎

This paper identifies and evaluates the explicit and implicit philosophical assumptions underlying the so-called multilevel perspective on sociotechnical transitions (MLP). These include assumptions about the nature of reality (ontology), the status of claims about that reality (epistemology) and the appropriate choice of research methods The paper assesses the consistency of these assumptions with the philosophical tradition of critical realism and uses this tradition to highlight a number of potential weaknesses of the MLP. These include: the problematic conception of social structure and the misleading priority given to intangible rules; the tendency to use theory as a heuristic device rather than causal explanation; the ambition to develop an extremely versatile framework rather than testing competing explanations; the relative neglect of the necessity or contingency of particular causal mechanisms; and the reliance upon single, historical case studies with insufficient use of comparative methods. However, the paper also concludes that the flexibility of the MLP allows room for reconciliation, and provides some suggestions on how that could be achieved including proposing an alternative, critical realist interpretation of sociotechnical systems.

Beyond the disruption narrative: Varieties and ambiguities of energy system change (2018) 🗎🗎

For many observers we are entering an age of heightened disruption in energy systems - a 'disruption narrative' is now prominent and seemingly widely-shared. The energy disruption narrative often goes beyond the merely descriptive: it is also often used in a normative way, in that system disruption is seen as a necessary and welcome enabler of the shift to more sustainable and more rapidly decarbonised energy systems. While not denying that there are significant changes underway in the operation and governance of energy systems, I reflect here on the assumptions associated with the disruption narrative and its value as a guide to policy and research. I firstly review some theoretical and empirical research on disruptive innovation, consider some empirical evidence on historic energy system change, and then reflect on the value of a disruptive narrative in 'energy futures' research and policy. The disruption narrative is a contestable framing for researchers, across both 'whole systems' analysis and more specific technological and organisational level study, and is a problematic guide for policy. Researchers and policymakers should be sceptical of uniform narratives about change, and seek more balanced attention to both disruptive and continuity-based dynamics of energy system change and sustainable transitions.

Global socio-technical regimes (2018) 🗎🗎

This paper addresses the question why socio-technical transitions follow similar trajectories in various parts of the world, even though the relevant material preconditions and institutional contexts vary greatly between different regions and countries. It takes a critical stance on the implicit methodological nationalism in transition studies' socio-technical regime concept and proposes an alternative 'global' regime perspective that embraces the increasingly multi-scalar actor networks and institutional rationalities, which influence transition dynamics beyond national or regional borders. By drawing on globalization theories from sociology and human geography, we show that socio-technical systems often develop institutional rationalities that are diffused via international networks and thus become influential in various places around the world. In so doing, we shed light on the multi-scalar interrelatedness of institutional structures and actors in socio-technical systems and elaborate on the implications for the conceptualization of transition dynamics. The paper illustrates this with the case study of an unsuccessful transition in the Chinese wastewater sector. Recent studies indicate that key decisions on wastewater infrastructure expansion were not only influenced by path-dependencies stemming from China's national context, but equally (or even more critically) by the dominant rationality of the water sector's global socio-technical regime. We conclude by discussing the contours of a new research agenda around the notion of global socio-technical regimes.

The Power of Analogies for Imagining and Governing Emerging Technologies (2018) 🗎🗎

The emergence of new technologies regularly involves comparisons with previous innovations. For instance, analogies with asbestos and genetically modified organisms have played a crucial role in the early societal debate about nanotechnology. This article explores the power of analogies in such debates and how they could be effectively and responsibly employed for imagining and governing emerging technologies in general and nanotechnology in particular. First, the concept of analogical imagination is developed to capture the explorative and anticipatory potential of analogies. Yet analogies do not simply stimulate imagination, they also restrict it by framing emerging technologies in specific ways. Thus, second, the article argues that tracing the rhetorical and persuasive power of analogical arguments is essential for understanding how analogies are constructed to legitimise assessments, funding policies, and governance approaches. Third, the article addresses factors that account for the persuasiveness of analogies in debates about emerging technologies. The article concludes with reflections on how analogical imagination and an enhanced analogical sensibility for framing and persuasive effects can foster responsible research and innovation (RRI).

Three frames for innovation policy: R&D, systems of innovation and transformative change (2018) 🗎🗎

Science, technology and innovation (STI) policy is shaped by persistent framings that arise from historical context. Two established frames are identified as co-existing and dominant in contemporary innovation policy discussions. The first frame is identified as beginning with a Post-World War II institutionalisation of government support for science and R&D with the presumption that this would contribute to growth and address market failure in private provision of new knowledge. The second frame emerged in the 1980s globalising world and its emphasis on competitiveness which is shaped by the national systems of innovation for knowledge creation and commercialisation. STI policy focuses on building links, clusters and networks, and on stimulating learning between elements in the systems, and enabling entrepreneurship. A third frame linked to contemporary social and environmental challenges such as the Sustainable Development Goals and calling for transformative change is identified and distinguished from the two earlier frames. Transformation refers to socio-technical system change as conceptualised in the sustainability transitions literature. The nature of this third framing is examined with the aim of identifying its key features and its potential for provoking a re-examination of the earlier two frames. One key feature is its focus on experimentation, and the argument that the Global South does not need to play catch-up to follow the transformation model of the Global North. It is argued that all three frames are relevant for policymaking, but exploring options for transformative innovation policy should be a priority.

Sustainability Transitions and the Spatial Interface: Developing Conceptual Perspectives (2018) 🗎🗎

Sustainability transitions research lacks a crucial perspective: the spatial dimension. The interrelations between space and sustainability transition processes are thus underexposed. The spatial dimension is, of course, implicitly addressed in transition research but it often remains unclear which spatial concept is used and how the spatial conditions are embedded in the transition processes. This paper approaches the problem in two steps: (1) analysing the various understandings of transitions research and their implications for different spatial concepts relating to spatial sustainability transition; and (2) focusing on different spatial concepts (from a positivist mode to relational and socio-cultural approaches) and their reflections in different disciplines of social, natural and technical sciences as well as in practice. By identifying the links between sustainable transition approaches on the one hand and spatial conceptualizations on the other hand, this paper aims at deepening both the spatial perspective and the understanding of sustainable transition research. The results of this paper are three conceptual perspectives wherein space or spatial conceptualizations can provide added value for sustainability transition research in inter- and transdisciplinary modes. These three perspectives include (1) space as a bridging concept, (2) space as a normative concept, and (3) space as an approach to action.

Lost in Transition? Directions for an Economic Geography of Urban Sustainability Transitions (2018) 🗎🗎

Socio-technical transitions towards more sustainable modes of production and consumption are receiving increasing attention in the academic world and also from political and economic decision-makers. There is increasing demand for resource-efficient technologies and institutional innovations, particularly at the city level. However, it is widely unclear how processes of change evolve and develop and how they are embedded in different socio-spatial contexts. While numerous scholars have contributed to the vibrant research field around sustainability transitions, the geographical expertise largely has been ignored. The lack of knowledge about the role of spatial contexts, learning processes, and the co-evolution of technological, economical, and socio-political processes has been prominently addressed. Bridging approaches from Transition Studies and perspectives of Economic Geography, the paper presents conceptual ideas for an evolutionary and relational understanding of urban sustainability transitions. The paper introduces new perspectives on sustainability transitions towards a better understanding of socio-spatial contexts.

Multiple dimensions of disruption, energy transitions and industrial policy (2018) 🗎🗎

In this perspective article, we critically explore 'disruption' in relation to sustainability transitions in the energy sector. Recognising significant ambiguity associated with the term, we seek to answer the question: What use has 'disruption' for understanding and promoting change towards low carbon energy futures? First, we outline that different understandings and dimensions of 'system disruption' exist with different linkages to institutional and policy change. This variety points out a need to research in more detail the particular effects of differing lowcarbon innovations in terms of their disruptive consequences for whole socio-technical systems. Thus, disruption can be utilised as a useful conceptual tool for interrogating in more detail the ways in which energy systems are changing in particular contexts. Second, we reflect on the relationship between 'green industrial policy' and disruption. In some contexts 'energy disruption' has been facilitated by green industrial policy, and it would seem that the profound changes said to be on the horizon in terms of disruption are also a motivator of green industrial policy. New industrial policy can be an important way in which the negative consequences of disruptive change, such as job losses, can be managed and facilitated.

Transdisciplinarity in Research about Agrifood Systems Transitions: A Pragmatist Approach to Processes of Attachment (2018) 🗎🗎

The much-needed transformations of agrifood systems call for novel approaches that are able to bring together a diversity of actors' and institutions' knowledge and visions. While within the literature about participatory research and transdisciplinarity, many articles have discussed the issue of actor involvement, few have addressed it regarding agrifood system transitions, which are the focus of this paper. Inspired by recent work suggesting a pragmatist approach to stakeholder involvement and collective processes of problem framing and solving, this study (based on a reflexive analysis of six different projects involving different approaches to stakeholder involvement) developed an actor-oriented approach focused on what the motivations to enroll actors and for them to be enrolled are, and on the analysis of the diverse visions and controversies at play. The main outcome of this analysis is that a key issue regarding stakeholder involvement appears to be whether the diverse stakeholders and researchers involved share the sense of being part of a "community of fate" that makes them feel individually "affected" but also collectively "attached" to a shared problem and possibly to a shared future. This is not fixed and stable but can be reinforced through the research-action process itself, which should produce this collective attachment.

Conditions for Transformative Learning for Sustainable Development: A Theoretical Review and Approach (2018) 🗎🗎

Continued unsustainability and surpassed planetary boundaries require not only scientific and technological advances, but deep and enduring social and cultural changes. The purpose of this article is to contribute a theoretical approach to understand conditions and constraints for societal change towards sustainable development. In order to break with unsustainable norms, habits, practices, and structures, there is a need for learning for transformation, not only adaption. Based on a critical literature review within the field of learning for sustainable development, our approach is a development of the concept of transformative learning, by integrating three additional dimensionsInstitutional Structures, Social Practices, and Conflict Perspectives. This approach acknowledges conflicts on macro, meso, and micro levels, as well as structural and cultural constraints. It contends that transformative learning is processual, interactional, long-term, and cumbersome. It takes place within existing institutions and social practices, while also transcending them. The article adopts an interdisciplinary social science perspective that acknowledges the importance of transformative learning in order for communities, organizations, and individuals to be able to deal with global sustainability problems, acknowledging the societal and personal conflicts involved in such transformation.

Questioning the implementation of smart specialisation: Regional innovation policy and semi-autonomous regions (2018) 🗎🗎

This paper considers the recent developments in regional innovation policy pertaining to the smart specialisation agenda from the perspective of a peripheral and semi-autonomous region - Wales in the UK. Through a case study of innovation policy developments in Wales over the past 20 years, and also a consideration of extant literature pertaining to regional innovation policy and smart specialisation, this paper finds a number of issues or shortcomings in the current predominant smart specialisation approach. These are traced back to the strong regional innovation system logic existing in European policy; a number of unresolved theoretical problems that could undermine the efficacy of innovation policy are identified. Both conceptual and rhetorical issues with the concept of the region are highlighted, and questions are asked about the applicability and tenability of smart specialisation approaches in semi-autonomous, cross-border regions, and for policymakers operating in circumstances of multi-level governance. This paper illustrates how such regions provide us with a lens or alternative perspective through which to reconsider our predominant theoretical and practical policy approaches, and highlights a number of potential problems with smart specialisation as it is applied in a diverse range of regional settings.

Integrating techno-economic, socio-technical and political perspectives on national energy transitions: A meta-theoretical framework (2018) 🗎🗎

Economic development, technological innovation, and policy change are especially prominent factors shaping energy transitions. Therefore explaining energy transitions requires combining insights from disciplines investigating these factors. The existing literature is not consistent in identifying these disciplines nor proposing how they can be combined. We conceptualize national energy transitions as a co-evolution of three types of systems: energy flows and markets, energy technologies, and energy-related policies. The focus on the three types of systems gives rise to three perspectives on national energy transitions: techno-economic with its roots in energy systems analysis and various domains of economics; socio-technical with its roots in sociology of technology, STS, and evolutionary economics; and political with its roots in political science. We use the three perspectives as an organizing principle to propose a meta-theoretical framework for analyzing national energy transitions. Following Elinor Ostrom's approach, the proposed framework explains national energy transitions through a nested conceptual map of variables and theories. In comparison with the existing meta-theoretical literature, the three perspectives framework elevates the role of political science since policies are likely to be increasingly prominent in shaping 21st century energy transitions.

Dynamic elements in regional development: an explorative genealogical analysis of the region of Southwest Finland (2018) 🗎🗎

The paper suggests an explorative interpretative approach for conceptualizing regional change based on Foucault's theory of genealogy. The theoretical outline is built on two key concepts of Foucault's genealogy, (descent) and (emergence). The paper conceptualizes the heuristic notion of 'adaptive element' on the basis of descent, and the notion of 'disruptive element' on the basis of emergence. The paper demonstrates the use of these concepts in a brief case study of Southwest Finland from 1985 to 2001.

Imaginaries of Invention Management: Comparing Path Dependencies in East and West Germany (2018) 🗎🗎

The ways in which societies and institutions institutionalize and practice invention management reflects not only how new ideas are valued, but also imaginaries about the role of science and technology for societal development. Often taking the US Bayh-Dole-Act as a model, many European states have recently implemented changes in how inventions at academic institutions are to be handled to optimize their societal impact. We analyze how these changes have been taken up-and made sense of-in regions with different pre-existing infrastructures, practices and semantics of invention management. For doing so, we build on a comparative analysis of continuities and changes in infrastructures, practices and semantics of invention management in North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW, a former Western state) and Saxony (a former GDR state) to reflect on how academic institutions have been handling inventions along transforming socio-political contexts. Building on document analysis and qualitative interviews with research managers, we discuss ongoing differences in practices of invention management and the semantic framing of the societal value of inventions in NRW and Saxony, and discuss how this can be understood before the background of their ideological, political and economic separation until reunification in 1990. Joining the conceptual perspectives of path dependencies and sociotechnical imaginaries, we argue that two critical incidents in the history of these states (the reunification in 1990 and a legal change in 2002) allowed for wide-ranging institutional alignments, but also allowed path dependencies in practices and semantics of invention management to prevail.

Humanizing sociotechnical transitions through energy justice: An ethical framework for global transformative change (2018) 🗎🗎

Poverty, climate change and energy security demand awareness about the interlinkages between energy systems and social justice. Amidst these challenges, energy justice has emerged to conceptualize a world where all individuals, across all areas, have safe, affordable and sustainable energy that is, essentially, socially just. Simultaneously, new social and technological solutions to energy problems continually evolve, and interest in the concept of sociotechnical transitions has grown. However, an element often missing from such transitions frameworks is explicit engagement with energy justice frameworks. Despite the development of an embryonic set of literature around these themes, an obvious research gap has emerged: can energy justice and transitions frameworks be combined? This paper argues that they can. It does so through an exploration of the multi-level perspective on sociotechnical systems and an integration of energy justice at the model's niche, regime and landscape level. It presents the argument that it is within the overarching process of sociotechnical change that issues of energy justice emerge. Here, inattention to social justice issues can cause injustices, whereas attention to them can provide a means to examine and potential resolve them.

Space and energy transitions in sub-Saharan Africa: Understated historical connections (2018) 🗎🗎

Sub-Saharan Africa is seeing an influx of international interest and investment in energy projects designed to address the energy poverty and climate agendas. Often missing from these energy initiatives is an acknowledgement that bringing about energy transitions will require more than just the creation of efficient energy markets and technological leapfrogging. This article explores how we may begin to add an historical dimension to the spatial analysis of contemporary energy systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on the seminal article by Bridge et al. (2013) on the spatial dimensions of energy transitions, on energy geographies literature and on various strands of social science research on Africa, the article examines the usefulness of a historical and spatial perspective to researching how energy systems in sub-Saharan Africa came to be the way they are today. This historical and spatial understanding of energy systems is necessary if we are to make sense of future energy transitions, yet the connections between past, present and future remain understated in current policy interventions.

Disruption and low-carbon system transformation: Progress and new challenges in socio-technical transitions research and the Multi-Level Perspective (2018) 🗎🗎

This paper firstly assesses the usefulness of Christensen's disruptive innovation framework for low-carbon system change, identifying three conceptual limitations with regard to the unit of analysis (products rather than systems), limited multi-dimensionality, and a simplistic ('point source') conception of change. Secondly, it shows that the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) offers a more comprehensive framework on all three dimensions. Thirdly, it reviews progress in socio-technical transition research and the MLP on these three dimensions and identifies new challenges, including 'whole system' reconfiguration, multi-dimensional struggles, bi-directional niche-regime interactions, and an alignment conception of change. To address these challenges, transition research should further deepen and broaden its engagement with the social sciences.

Sustainability transitions in the developing world: Challenges of socio-technical transformations unfolding in contexts of poverty (2018) 🗎🗎

The transitions to sustainability approach has proved to be useful for academics, policy makers and practitioners to understand and promote socio-technical transformations, often aiming at climate change alternatives in European countries. However, little attention has been paid to the limitations of using frameworks such as the Multi-level perspective and the Strategic Niche Management approach in the developing world. Here, countries exhibit a mixture of well- and ill-functioning institutions, in a context of market imperfection, clientelist and social exclusive communities, patriarchal households and patrimonial and/or marketised states. In order to explore such limitations, we have used an institutional framework documented in the development studies literature, which describes three types of institutional settings: 'welfare', 'informal security' and 'insecurity'. This institutional analysis shows that (1) the context for innovation in developing countries is a loose scenario where the concepts of 'pockets' or 'layers' can be useful; (2) the characteristics of the institutional setting shape in several ways the quality of the niche structuration processes that create and unfold. Our rationale and illustrations call for bringing the poverty alleviation agenda into sustainability transitions studies in developing countries. We propose areas of further reflection attempting to inspire future research pathways.

Transformation Is 'Experienced, Not Delivered': Insights from Grounding the Discourse in Practice to Inform Policy and Theory (2018) 🗎🗎

Calls for transformation, transformative research, and transformational impact are increasingly heard from governments, industry, and universities to recast a course towards sustainability. This paper retraces a social, qualitative, and interpretive research endeavor to contribute to broadening the conceptual base of transformation. Drawing on perspectives of practitioners involved in working with communities to bring about change in how land and water are managed, the objective of the research was to elicit a range of practice-based encounters of transformation to inform policy and theory. In identifying precursors and processes for change, the findings bring into view the often unseen internal and experiential dimensions of transformation. As such, the research provides insights on where transformation takes place, what the first step of transformation might look like, and what might be deemed transformational. The paper also builds on social practice theory to produce an explanatory model of transformational capacity that is enabled and constrained by structures, processes, understanding, and authority that impact on social practices of knowledge generation (including science) and land and water decision-making.

Thinking complex interconnections: Transition, nexus and Geography (2018) 🗎🗎

More than ever is Geography surrounded by interdisciplinary movements claiming expertise with regard to the interconnections among nature, society and technology. These movements ask questions from Geography and geographers about if and how they can contribute to those movements and what form collaboration might take. This paper analyses Human Geography's interactions with research on sustainability transitions since the early 2000s to think through future interactions between Geography and research on the water-energy-food nexus. It shows that concepts, ideas, logics and methods have travelled from Human Geography into Transition Studies but that exchange between them has so far been partial and asymmetrical. Arguing that common ideas about how interdisciplinarity can be encouraged might be insufficient to change this situation, the paper develops ideas from Stengers, Whitehead, Foucault and others to explain the relations between Human Geography and Transition Studies in terms of modes of abstraction in an evolving ecology of power relations. It makes a case for slowing down modes of abstraction and proposes some ideas for slow collaborative research on sustainability transitions in contact zones. Implications for how Geography and geographers might engage with interdisciplinary nexus research are outlined.

Information stabilisation and destabilisation as potential usable concepts in practice theoretical approaches (2018) 🗎🗎

Introduction. The aim of the paper is to suggest two concepts, information stabilisation and information destabilisation, as usable in describing processes of information constructing. Method. The paper has chosen two core premises representing the panoply of practice approaches as a guiding principle for analysing selected studies and for suggesting the two concepts mentioned. Analysis. First, a reading is made of three studies to give examples of how to understand the two concepts proposed. Second, a critical view is given of the ways in which three selected studies from the field of LIS look at processes of information constructing in their analyses of information practices. Third, a discussion is taken of the benefits of using the two concepts. Findings. Using the two concepts seems to strengthen the concept of information practice by opening up for empirical investigation both stability and changes in information activities as well as in networks. Conclusion. The contribution of this paper is conceptual. The two concepts suggested are considered as potentially usable when describing processes of information constructing seen as evolving network of actors. The concepts are based on theoretical assumptions about collectives of agencies in general and active agency of material objects in particular.

The politics of accelerating low-carbon transitions: Towards a new research agenda (2018) 🗎🗎

Meeting the climate change targets in the Paris Agreement implies a substantial and rapid acceleration of low carbon transitions. Combining insights from political science, policy analysis and socio-technical transition studies, this paper addresses the politics of deliberate acceleration by taking stock of emerging examples, mobilizing relevant theoretical approaches, and articulating a new research agenda. Going beyond routine appeals for more 'political will', it organises ideas and examples under three themes: 1) the role of coalitions in supporting and hindering acceleration; 2) the role of feedbacks, through which policies may shape actor preferences which, in turn, create stronger policies; and 3) the role of broader contexts (political economies, institutions, cultural norms, and technical systems) in creating more (or less) favourable conditions for deliberate acceleration. We discuss the importance of each theme, briefly review previous research and articulate new research questions. Our concluding section discusses the current and potential future relationship between transitions theory and political science.

Reconfiguration, Contestation, and Decline: Conceptualizing Mature Large Technical Systems (2018) 🗎🗎

Large technical systems (LTS) are integral to modern lifestyles but arduous to analyze. In this paper, we advance a conceptualization of LTS using the notion of mature phases, drawing from insights into innovation studies, science and technology studies, political science, the sociology of infrastructure, history of technology, and governance. We begin by defining LTS as a unit of analysis and explaining its conceptual utility and novelty, situating it among other prominent sociotechnical theories. Next, we argue that after LTS have moved through the (overlapping) phases proposed by Thomas Hughes of invention, expansion, growth, momentum, and style, mature LTS undergo the additional (overlapping) phases of reconfiguration, contestation (subject to pressures such as drift and crisis), and eventually stagnation and decline. We illustrate these analytical phases with historical case studies and the conceptual literature, and close by suggesting future research to refine and develop the LTS framework, particularly related to more refined typologies, temporal dimensions, and a broadening of system users. We aim to contribute to theoretical debates about the coevolution of LTS as well as empirical discussions about system-related use, sociotechnical change, and policy-making.

2050-An Energetic Odyssey: Understanding 'Techniques of Futuring' in the transition towards renewable energy (2018) 🗎🗎

After the Paris agreement on climate change (2015) climate change politics is no longer about raising awareness but about shaping the sustainability transition itself. It requires us to rethink the role of scientific knowledge, shifting from a tradition of "expected futures" to an approach focusing on "desirable futures" and ways to get there. We argue the sustainability transitions scholarship tends to see constructions of the future (visions, scenarios, predictions etc.) as explanans (that what explains) while constructions of the future are rarely seen as explanandum (that what should be explained). The article introduces the concept of 'Techniques of Futuring' defined as practices bringing together actors around one or more imagined futures and through which actors come to share particular orientations for action, to get a grip on the actual acts of Iuturing'. The empirical focus is on `2050 An Energetic Odyssey', a process centred around an elaborate multimedia installation, introducing large scale exploitation of the North Sea for harvesting off shore wind energy taking place in 2015 and 2016. We examine the Odyssey as example of a Technique of Futuring. We conclude with a reflection what the Odyssey teaches us about effective Techniques of Futuring to further the sustainability transition.

Structure reconsidered: Towards new foundations of explanatory transitions theory (2018) 🗎🗎

The most prominent framework for studying socio-technical transitions to date is the multi-level perspective (MLP). While appreciated for its flexibility and usefulness for studying socio-technical transitions it has not been without its critics. In this paper we focus on the ontological foundations of the MLP and its (in)ability to explain transitions and how they come about. The purpose is to initiate development of an explanatory theory for socio-technical transitions, by carrying out an immanent critique of the ontological foundations of the MLP together with a methodological critique. We show that the ontological foundations of the MLP to a large extent inhibits explanatory capacity. The argument is fourfold: since structure and agency are understood as inseparable, (i) the causal influence of material properties are undervalued, and (ii) different degrees of structural constraint and freedom of actors are ignored. As a consequence (iii) transitions are reduced to shifts in the maturity and spread of socio-cognitive rules, without analysis of systemic change. Moreover, (iv) mechanisms are reduced to recurring patterns of events which cannot explain why some transitions fail while others succeed. To remedy these limitations we outline alternative critical realist foundations for transitions theory.

Governing socio-technical change: Orchestrating demand for assisted living in ageing societies (2018) 🗎🗎

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in innovation studies towards grand challenges, and in how demand-side policy instruments can supplement traditional supply-side policy measures. To contribute to an improved understanding of how demand-side policy requires new governance responses, this article presents a case study of trialling assisted living technologies to address the grand challenge of demographic ageing. The article departs from an innovation policy framework that incorporates theorising on transformational system failures, governance modes, and policy mixes. This framework serves as an entry point to explore how different modes of governance condition the ways in which demand for assisted living in healthcare is orchestrated across multiple stakeholders. The case study is embedded in a wider system shift from a reactive to a proactive system of healthcare provision, enabling the elderly to live independently at home longer and thus avoiding or postponing institutionalised care.

How does institutional embeddedness shape innovation platforms? A diagnostic study of three districts in the Upper West Region of Ghana (2018) 🗎🗎

Innovation platforms have emerged as a way of enhancing the resilience of agricultural and food systems in the face of environmental change. Consequently, a great deal of theoretical reflection and empirical research have been devoted to the goal of understanding the factors that enhance and constrain their functionality. In this article, we further examine this enquiry by applying the concept of institutional embeddedness, understood as encompassing elements of platform design, structure, and functions as well as aspects of the broader historical, political, and social context to which platforms are connected. We present a case study of sub-national platforms established in three districts of the climatically-stressed Upper West Region of Ghana and charged with facilitating climate change responses at the local level and channelling community priorities into national climate change policy. A different kind of organization - the traditional chief council, the agricultural extension service, and a local NGO - was chosen by members to convene and coordinate the platform in each district. We examine platform members' accounts of the platform formation and selection of facilitating agent, their vision for platform roles, and their understandings of platform agenda and impacts. We analyse these narratives through the lens of institutional embeddedness, as expressed mostly, but not solely, by the choice of facilitating agents. We illustrate how the organizational position - and related vested interests - of facilitating agents contribute to shaping platform agendas, functions, and outcomes. This process hinges on the deployment of legitimacy claims, which may appeal to cultural tradition, technical expertise, community engagement, and dominant scientific narratives on climate change. 'institutional embeddedness is thereby shown to be a critical aspect of agency in multi-actor processes, contributing to framing local understandings of the climate change and to channelling collective efforts towards select response strategies. In conclusion, we stress that the institutional identity of facilitating agents and their relationship to members of the platform and to powerholders in the broader context provides a useful diagnostic lens to analyse the processes that shape the platform's ability to achieve its goals.

A proposed theoretical framework for actors in transformative change (2018) 🗎🗎

In this opinion piece we suggest a number of theoretical innovations related to the representation and conceptualisation of actors and agency in transitions studies. The research field has gained significant academic and policy popularity and reached a degree of maturity that belies its youth. Despite the ongoing advances and sophistication however, we argue that major lacunae remain regarding actors and agency. Because transitions are reaching advanced stages with more prominent roles for actors, addressing this issue is a prerequisite for progress in transition research something which is widely acknowledged in the field. Rather than the archetypical way of conceptualising a transition as some kind of systemic fight between alternative systems (niches) and dominant systems (the regime), we present a transition as a fluid unfolding of network activities by diverse actors aligned with a particular stream, resulting in a transformed system. We emphasize that our framework is a proposition to stimulate debate and suggest avenues of further research. The ideas in this framework have yet to prove themselves, empirically and theoretically as regards their merits for transitions research, but at least they provide a different conceptualisation of transitions with a central role for actors and agency.

Mobile transitions: a conceptual framework for researching a generation on the move (2018) 🗎🗎

This paper argues for a renewed research agenda on the transnational mobility of young people across both youth studies and migration studies. We review key literature across these fields, before arguing for a new conceptual framework that helps to further extend the emerging interdisciplinary space of youth mobility studies' (Raffaeta, Baldassar and Harris 2016). Our central proposition is that mobility has become an important marker and maker of transitions for youth in many contexts globally. We argue that a conceptual advance is required to understand the unique circumstances of a generation on the move' as they navigate diverse and non-sequential social, civic and economic practices of adulthood', and propose the conceptual framework of mobile transitions as a timely new agenda. Mobile transitions' describes transition pathways under conditions of mobility but also emphasises two key claims around the further development of transnational youth mobility research. The first is the importance of an orientation towards spatio-temporal complexity, multiplicity and fragmentation of both youth transition' and migrancy' as scholarly concepts and lived experiences. The second is an argument for understanding mobile transitions' in relation to three intersecting domains - economic opportunities, social relations and civic practices - rather than through linear notions of the achievement of economic and social autonomy.

Agency and structure in a sociotechnical transition: Hydrogen fuel cells, conjunctural knowledge and structuration in Europe (2018) 🗎🗎

Despite each level of the multilevel perspective of sociotechnical transitions reflecting a different degree of structuration, structuration perspectives have been little used to help explain sociotechnical change and stasis. Here we show how 'strong structuration' can be used to theorise the role of agency in sociotechnical systems in a way that brings together psychological and sociological perspectives. Strong structuration gives weight not only to actors' practices, but also to their experiences. Practices and structures are viewed as mutually influencing, as in Giddens' original conception, but the role of situated, subjective experience is also explicitly acknowledged. Applying this perspective, we show how individual attitudes and beliefs in relation to a niche energy technology are influenced by experience of national economic and innovation policy environments, with in turn implications for expectations of action by self and others. The overall aim is to illustrate a framework that connects individual psychology to practice, with implications for sociotechnical structure. For this purpose we draw on case study data of European R & D stakeholder opinion of stationary hydrogen fuel cell applications for heat and power, focusing particularly on the contrasting situations of the UK, Germany and Spain.

Sustainability transitions in developing countries: Stocktaking, new contributions and a research agenda (2018) 🗎🗎

An increasing number of studies have analysed the scope for, and the barriers to, transitions toward sustain ability in the context of developing countries building on analytical perspectives from the sustainability transitions literature. This paper introduces a special issue on sustainability transitions in developing countries, which takes stock of this emerging field of research and presents new empirical research that contributes to further advancement of our understanding of the conditions in which sustainability transitions are likely to take place in developing countries and what is involved in these transformative processes. This introductory paper presents the five papers contained in the special issue. The first paper comprises a review of the existing literature on the subject, and the other four papers present new empirical research. The key findings of the papers are discussed in relation to previous research in the field specifically related to four crosscutting themes: (i) global-local linkages and external dependencies; (ii) stability and non-stability of regimes; (iii) undemocratic and non-egalitarian nature of regimes; and (iv) nurturing the development of niches versus the execution of individual projects. The introductory paper concludes by presenting a research agenda, which aims to provide promising avenues for future research on sustainability transitions in developing countries.

An exploration of the boundaries of 'community' in community renewable energy projects: Navigating between motivations and context (2018) 🗎🗎

A range of actors involved in energy transitions are increasingly interested in 'community renewable energy' (CRE) for a multitude of reasons. Energy Policy has published articles exploring CRE since 2008, including seminal pieces by Walker and Devine-Wright (2007) and Seyfang et al. (2013). CRE has proven to be a diverse field: having emerged in different contexts and having been driven by a range of motivators, it encapsulates a diversity of technological, organisational, economic and social features. Developing a working definition and delineating what can legitimately be considered CRE is difficult given its varied forms. Drawing on interviews and document analysis with 25 case studies, we analyse the influence of context and motivations through the development process to understand the diversity of forms that lay claim to the 'CRE' title. Rather than a single definition, we propose a set of conceptual tools for thinking about this nuanced field. The tools analyse what constitutes 'community' RE, enabling proponents to expose the motivations and choices layered into different enactments of CRE in policy and practice. This article contributes to developing a language and practice that can explicitly articulate what is meant by CRE, what forms of activity are pursued and why.

Attentive, speculative experimental research for sustainability transitions: An exploration in sustainable eating (2019) 🗎🗎

The critical role of everyday practices in climate change mitigation has placed experimental approaches at the top of the environmental policy agenda. In this paper we discuss the value of behavioural approaches, practice theories, pragmatic tinkering and speculative thinking with respect to experimentation. Whereas the first two have been much discussed within sustainability science and transition research, the notions of pragmatic tinkering and speculative thinking radically broaden the scope of experimental research and its contribution to sustainable everyday practices. Pragmatism brings to the fore the need to coordinate multiple practices and understandings of good eating, as these may clash in practice. Through this lens, the value of experimental research lies in revealing frictions that need to be resolved, or tinkered, in practice. Speculative experimentation, in turn, refers to the power of experiments to challenge the experimental setting itself and force thinking about new possibilities and avenues. We investigate the value of all four approaches in relation to our experiments with sustainable eating in the Finnish and Nordic context. Our elaboration justifies the need to broaden the conception of experimental research in order to capture the multiplicity of sustainable eating. Hence, we call for attentive, speculative experimental research aimed not only at testing solutions for sustainable everyday practice, but also at reflecting on the practice of experimentation itself. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

An agenda for sustainability transitions research: State of the art and future directions (2019) 🗎🗎

Research on sustainability transitions has expanded rapidly in the last ten years, diversified in terms of topics and geographical applications, and deepened with respect to theories and methods. This article provides an extensive review and an updated research agenda for the field, classified into nine main themes: understanding transitions; power, agency and politics; governing transitions; civil society, culture and social movements; businesses and industries; transitions in practice and everyday life; geography of transitions; ethical aspects; and methodologies. The review shows that the scope of sustainability transitions research has broadened and connections to established disciplines have grown stronger. At the same time, we see that the grand challenges related to sustainability remain unsolved, calling for continued efforts and an acceleration of ongoing transitions. Transition studies can play a key role in this regard by creating new perspectives, approaches and understanding and helping to move society in the direction of sustainability.

A critical review of discursive approaches in energy transitions (2019) 🗎🗎

This article critically reviews the use of discursive approaches in studies of sustainable energy transitions. The review is motivated by calls to further incorporate social scientific methodologies into energy research and assess their contribution to policy. We strive to answer three questions: (1) which discursive approaches have been used to study sustainable energy transitions; (2) what thematic topics and issue areas have been covered and (3) what is the added value of discursive research designs? Our analysis is based on a review of 77 articles from the years 2004-2016. Our findings show that discursive approaches were mostly used to analyse institutional change and policy strategies at the national level and to examine energy choices through political ideology and the perceptions of publics. Nuclear power received most coverage, while renewable energy technologies were mainly studied through conflicts and opposition. We demonstrate discursive research designs to examine four distinct policy areas and discuss the added value of these approaches for energy policy and research. Discursive methodologies enable scholars to enrich policy discussions through accounting for transitions as complex and dynamic processes of change.

Understanding the role of values in institutional change: the case of the energy transition (2019) 🗎🗎

The current transition towards low-carbon energy systems does not only involve changes in technologies but is also shaped by changes in the rules and regulations (i.e., the institutions) that govern energy systems. Institutional change can be influenced by changes in core values-normative principles such as affordability, security of supply, and sustainability. Analyzing this influence, however, has been hindered by the absence of a structured framework that highlights the role of values in institutional change processes. This paper presents an interdisciplinary framework explicating how values influence institutional change in the case of the energy transition. We build on a dynamic framework for institutional change that combines the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework with the concept of social learning. This basic analytical framework is expanded by conceptualizations of values in moral philosophy, institutional economics, and social psychology. Our framework offers researchers and policy makers an analytical tool to identify how values are embedded in infrastructure and existing regulation and how values shape communities and behavior. It explains how value controversies can trigger social learning processes that eventually can result in structural change. Thus, this framework allows analyzing institutional change over time as well as comparing change patterns across spatial and temporal contexts.

Linking socio-technical transition studies and organisational change management: Steps towards an integrative, multi-scale heuristic (2019) 🗎🗎

While the role of agency is widely acknowledged in socio-technical transition research, there remains a research gap on agency in transitions and a call for studies using an actor-centred approach to transition studies. In response to this call, this paper addresses the role of actors and, particularly, organisations in transitions. It examines the role of organisational change in socio-technical sustainability transitions and, more specifically, how transition initiatives may trigger and support these changes in organisations and systems. For this purpose, the paper draws on literature from both transition studies and organisational change management (OCM) to build a multi-scale, integrative theoretical heuristic. This addresses drivers and barriers for organisational change as an integral part of transition processes, connecting the micro level of the individual, the meso level of the organisation and the macro level of the broader system in which the organisation is located. With the goal of illustrating the links between OCM and transition studies, this paper empirically examines the impact of Region 2050, a large, multi-organisation transition initiative in Sweden, in terms of creating change within the organisations involved. The main focus is on how the organisations acquire the new knowledge and capabilities required for improving regional planning for sustainability. The empirical study identifies leverage points at the micro-, meso- and macro-levels, which may be used in order to change strategic planning processes. Three different theoretical concepts from transition studies and OCM that could help to foster long-term planning are also identified: (1) the macro level of institutional plurality and its connection to the meso- (organisational) level; (2) collaboration as a key success factor on the organisational level; and (3) at the micro-level, the roles of individuals as change agents and boundary spanners. Overall, the case highlights the merits of the OCM literature for transition studies and their emphasis on understanding interacting processes operating at multiple scales. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Transformative social innovation and (dis)empowerment (2019) 🗎🗎

This article responds to increasing public and academic discourses on social innovation, which often rest on the assumption that social innovation can drive societal change and empower actors to deal with societal challenges and a retreating welfare state. In order to scrutinise this assumption, this article proposes a set of concepts to study the dynamics of transformative social innovation and underlying processes of multi-actor (dis)empowerment. First, the concept of transformative social innovation is unpacked by proposing four foundational concepts to help distinguish between different pertinent 'shades' of change and innovation: 1) social innovation, (2) system innovation, (3) game-changers, and (4) narratives of change. These concepts, invoking insights from transitions studies and social innovations literature, are used to construct a conceptual account of how trans formative social innovation emerges as a co-evolutionary interaction between diverse shades of change and innovation. Second, the paper critically discusses the dialectic nature of multi-actor (dis)empowerment that underlies such processes of change and innovation. The paper then demonstrates how the conceptualisations are applied to three empirical case-studies of transformative social innovation: Impact Hub, Time Banks and Credit Unions. In the conclusion we synthesise how the concepts and the empirical examples help to understand contemporary shifts in societal power relations and the changing role of the welfare state.

A heuristic for conceptualizing and uncovering the determinants of agency in socio-technical transitions (2019) 🗎🗎

There has been a growing interest in transition studies on the role of agency in bringing about disruptive change. Previous studies have examined how actors perform institutional work to create legitimacy and transform institutions. In doing so, they have provided insights into specific practices and strategies that actors follow. This paper seeks to complement existing studies by elucidating the foundations of agency that transforms institutions through institutional work. Drawing on institutional sociology and organizational studies, resources, discourses and networks of actors are identified as key elements enabling institutional work practices. The agency of each actor is conceived of as dependent on the configurations it possesses with respect to these elements. A heuristic is presented that helps to determine the configurations associated with a strong agency in empirical settings and use Swiss waste management as an illustrative case example. The heuristic enables a systematic analysis of agency across different organizational fields.

The role of crowdfunding in moving towards a sustainable society (2019) 🗎🗎

Crowdfunding presents many opportunities for moving towards a sustainable society, with specific interest for sustainable entrepreneurs and innovators. In order to examine the potential role of crowdfunding in this context, we position this Special Issue (SI) within the larger stream of sustainability transitions literature, and in particular in relation to one of the field's key frameworks, i.e. the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP). We argue that crowdfunding represents a novel socio-technical practice with the potential of upscaling and transforming financial and - potentially-sustainability regimes. This introductory article contains an overview of the articles, described by using the MLP typology. Some authors describe the role of crowdfunding in enabling user-producer and user-consumer interaction at an early stage; others focus on crowdfunding as a tool for user-legitimators and user-citizens. In terms of future research, the novelty of the phenomenon leaves a wide range of areas open for further research, with the current literature primarily focused on uncovering the antecedents of funding success and failure, something that is also apparent in this SI. To help the field move forward, we identify five areas as the most relevant for future research.

Actors in transition: shifting roles in Swedish sustainable housing development (2019) 🗎🗎

In planning for a future that fulfils sustainability goals, there is a need to explore how roles taken in socio-ecological transitions are perceived among different types of actors. Empirical insights from interviews with diverse actors involved in Swedish housing development are presented, addressing the roles, conflicting logics and power relations between different sectoral categories of actors and at different organizational levels. Key aspects that emerge relate to the shift from state to market in contemporary Swedish housing development, where private companies emphasize their role in shaping societal development as inherent to working with sustainability. Conflicting logics can be found between short-term economic interests and long-term planning and policy, as well as intra-organizational differences in competency and leadership. Conclusions point to that the role of third sector or community actors in pushing agendas and norms to bring about transitions could be acknowledged further. Yet there is a need to examine the power relations currently reproduced, and how these could be challenged in future housing development. This includes critically assessing the potential for new types of actors and cross-sectoral collaborations, but also instigating more fundamental discussions of the kind of society strived for, and the radical transitions needed.

Discourse analysis of environmental policy revisited: traditions, trends, perspectives (2019) 🗎🗎

Since the mid-1990s, discourse analysis has become an increasingly established framework in environmental policy analysis. The field has diversified in terms of conceptual approaches, methods, topics, and geographies. This special issue revisits trends and traditions regarding theoretical and methodological approaches, 'old' and 'new' discourses, and our knowledge about discursive effects. We contextualize and discuss the twelve contributions to this special issue against the broader trajectory of the field over the past 25 years. Our analysis reveals an abundance of theoretical approaches with limited cross-fertilization, a plethora of rich case studies but few attempts at meta-analysis, and subtle accounts of discursive effects on discourse, policy and practice without an overarching framework. We suggest seven directions for the field's future evolution: a need for more comparative and multiple-case studies, theoretical cross-fertilization, pro-active integration of non-English-speaking research contexts, development of methodological capabilities to capture discursive developments across larger numbers of publics and policy arenas, a more explicit conceptualization of agency, power and materiality, a stronger collaboration with transdisciplinary approaches, and a reflexive engagement with the 'critical' ambition of discourse analysis.

Design for Sustainability Transitions: Origins, Attitudes and Future Directions (2019) 🗎🗎

Sustainability transitions have formed a vast body of literature on theory and practice of transforming socio-technical systems to achieve sustainability over the past few decades. Lately, a new area has been emerging in the design for the sustainability field, where sustainability transitions theories are integrated with design theory, education and practice. This emerging area is referred to as design for sustainability transitions or transition design. In order to build an understanding of the emergence and growth of this area, this article presents an overview of origins, development and current status of design for sustainability transitions drawing on key contributions. We also provide a comparative analysis of these key contributions in regards to their theoretical underpinnings, definitions of sustainability, conceptual framings for the roles of design(ers) and premises of methods and applications.

What enables just sustainability transitions in agrifood systems? An exploration of conceptual approaches using international comparative case studies (2019) 🗎🗎

The paper introduces a special issue on the timely question of 'What enables just sustainability transitions in agrifood systems?' which emerged from an explicitly international comparative and collective writing project. The special issue gives central attention to addressing and interlinking the key issues of power relations, food justice, change mechanisms at meso-level, and the diversity of sustainability visions, by exploring a range of revisited and new conceptual approaches which are blended with rich empirical cases. Especially as the second decade of the 21st century closes, we argue that we need to open up this conceptual vector and invite scholars to engage, debate, and combine new and well-established approaches. This will allow to analyse and progress with the urgently needed transition processes in agrifood systems. Six cross-national contributions are introduced which provide starting points for this endeavour.

Redefining power relations in agrifood systems (2019) 🗎🗎

Reconfiguration of power relations is crucial to transformations in agro-food systems. In this paper, we propose a conceptual basis for understanding this relation, building on the approaches to power of transition studies and other strands of studies. We explore the conditions for reconfigurations to occur by analysing three cases, concerning participatory plant breeding in Italy, public food procurement in France and diversification of agrifood chains in Wales. We highlight the critical importance of creating enabling relational environments, where power reconfiguration can occur. Within this new configuration, new, diverse sources of power are mobilized and new practices and institutions are co-constructed and legitimised, establishing the conditions for new socio-technical trajectories to emerge and for further transformative potential to develop. Our results show that a more variegated and dynamic configuration of power relations is needed. Transformations of agrifood systems depend on the variety of interactions that, in a multi-scale and dynamic dimension and through the play of the different forms of power, may develop among the actors involved. Understanding these processes and the implications that they show in terms of governance is critical.

Deep transitions: Theorizing the long-term patterns of socio-technical change (2019) 🗎🗎

The contemporary world is confronted by a double challenge: environmental degradation and social inequality. This challenge is linked to the dynamics of the First Deep Transition (Schot, 2016): the creation and expansion of a wide range of socio-technical systems in a similar direction over the past 200-250 years. Extending the theoretical framework of Schot and Kanger (2018), this paper proposes that the First Deep Transition has been built up through successive Great Surges of Development (Perez, 2002), leading to the emergence of a macro-level selection environment called industrial modernity. This has resulted in the formation of a portfolio of directionality, characterized by dominant and durable directions and occasional discontinuous shifts in addition to a continuous variety of alternatives sustained in niches or single systems. This historically-informed view on the co-evolution of single socio-technical systems, complexes of systems and industrial modernity has distinctive implications for policy-making targeted at resolving the current challenges.

Roots, Riots, and Radical ChangeA Road Less Travelled for Ecological Economics (2019) 🗎🗎

In this paper, we put forward a new research agenda for ecological economics, based on three realisations. We then show how these can be connected through research and used to generate insights with the potential for application in broader, systemic change. The first realisation is that the core ambition of ecological economics, that of addressing the scale of human environmental resource use and associated impacts, often remains an aspirational goal, rather than being applied within research. In understanding intertwined environmental and social challenges, systemic approaches (including system dynamics) should be revitalised to address the full scope of what is possible or desirable. The second realisation is that the focus on biophysical and economic quantification and methods has been at the expense of a comprehensive social understanding of environmental impacts and barriers to changeincluding the role of power, social class, geographical location, historical change, and achieving human well-being. For instance, by fetishising growth as the core problem, attention is diverted away from underlying social driversmonetary gains as profits, rent, or interest fuelled by capitalist competition and, ultimately, unequal power relations. The third realisation is that ecological economics situates itself with respect to mainstream (neoclassical) economics, but simultaneously adopts some of its mandate and blind spots, even in its more progressive camps. Pragmatic attempts to adopt mainstream concepts and tools often comfort, rather than challenge, the reproduction of the very power relations that stand in the way of sustainability transitions. We consider these three realisations as impediments for developing ecological economics as an emancipatory critical research paradigm and political project. We will not focus on or detail the failings of ecological economics, but state what we believe they are and reformulate them as research priorities. By describing and bringing these three elements together, we are able to outline an ambitious research agenda for ecological economics, one capable of catalysing real social change.

What can energy research bring to social science? Reflections on 5 years of Energy Research & Social Science and beyond (2019) 🗎🗎

Energy Research & Social Science (ERSS) emerged in response to an identified lack of social science energy scholarship. The first publication in this journal asked 'What can the social sciences bring to energy research?'. Since then, ERSS has become a home for articles that have explored this question in a multitude of ways. In this Perspective we want to reflect, and stimulate debate, on the question we see as the other side of the coin: 'What can energy research bring to the social sciences?' We develop our reflection, first, by exploring energy's unique features: what a focus on energy makes visible and thinkable that other entry points do not. We subsequently introduce a 'menu of possibilities': areas of scholarship where a focus on energy has enabled or could enable different ways of understanding the world. We conclude with the suggestion that by changing the object of analysis, energy scholars can develop both new conceptual insights, and emphasise our connections with issues explored outside of energy scholarship.

Studying transitions: Past, present, and future (2019) 🗎🗎

The domain of transition studies has been drawing more and more scholarly attention and, as a result, its body of knowledge is rapidly growing. This raises new challenges as well as opportunities, not the least regarding the methodological and philosophical underpinnings of research in this domain. In this respect, transition research, as a relatively young field of inquiry, has been little concerned with methodological investigation and reflection. We propose a framework that enables this reflection: the so-called 'transition research onion'. Subsequently, we utilize this framework to systematically assess 217 peer-reviewed papers in the field of transition studies, to distill key methodological patterns and trends of the field. The findings suggest that the methodology of transition studies, in terms of depth and diversity, is underdeveloped. These insights serve to guide future research on transition processes.

Justice in energy transitions (2019) 🗎🗎

This paper argues that transitions research more broadly needs to take more account of justice in its analysis. This paper draws primarily from environmental and energy justice literature to engage with the concept of justice in transitions research, as it seeks justice for people, communities, and the non-human environment from negative environmental impacts. This is achieved through different forms of justice: distributive, procedural, and recognition. Our paper concludes with reflections upon the application of a justice approach to sustainability transitions research and offer insights into a potentially new research agenda.

Deliberation and the Promise of a Deeply Democratic Sustainability Transition (2019) 🗎🗎

Ecological economics arose as a normative transdiscipline aiming to generate knowledge and tools to help transition the economy toward a scale which is sustainable within the bounds of the earth system. Yet it remains unclear in practice how to legitimize its explicitly normative agenda. One potential means for legitimation can be found in deliberative social and political theory. We review how deliberative theory has informed ecological economics, pointing to three uses: first, to support valuation of non-market goods and services; second, to inform environmental decision-making more broadly; third, to ground alternative theories of development and wellbeing. We argue that deliberation has been used as problem-solving theory, but that its more radical implications have rarely been embraced. Embracing a deliberative foundation for ecological economics raises questions about the compatibility of deeply democratic practice and the normative discourses arguing for a sustainability transition. We highlight three potential mechanisms by which deliberation may contribute to a sustainability transition: preference formation; normative evaluation; and legitimation. We explore each in turn, demonstrating the theoretical possibility that deliberation may be conducive in and of itself to a sustainability transition. We point to a series of challenges facing the scaling up of deliberative systems that demand further empirical and theoretical work. These challenges constitute a research agenda for a deeply democratic sustainability transition and can inform the future development of ecological economics and other normative, critical transdisciplines.

System dynamics modelling and simulation for sociotechnical transitions research (2019) 🗎🗎

Sociotechnical transitions is an emerging research area that uses several methods, amongst which case study and simulation models are often applied. This paper focuses on system dynamics modelling and simulation research and its potential contribution to transition research. Current system dynamics work comes from a wide range of disciplines and spans across the micro, meso, and macro levels which transitions are predominantly analysed along. This overlap carries considerable potential as a conceptual and theoretical basis for transition research. The paper explores this potential and provides a cursory exposition of system dynamics research and exemplary work that is directly relevant to transition research. It raises a number of points that indicate the potential of system dynamics for transition research in terms of methodology and case study research, the behavioural aspects of transitions, and particular subject areas that lie at the organizational field level: technology platforms, business models and organizational change.

From Transition to Domains of Transformation: Getting to Sustainable and Just Food Systems through Agroecology (2019) 🗎🗎

The acceleration of ecological crises has driven a growing body of thinking on sustainability transitions. Agroecology is being promoted as an approach that can address multiple crises in the food system while addressing climate change and contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. Beyond the more technical definition as, "the ecology of food systems", agroecology has a fundamentally political dimension. It is based on an aspiration towards autonomy or the agency of networks of producers and citizens to self-organize for sustainability and social justice. In this article, we use the multi-level perspective (MLP) to examine agroecology transformations. Although the MLP has been helpful in conceptualizing historic transitions, there is a need to better understand: (a) the role of and potential to self-organize in the context of power in the dominant regime, and (b) how to shift to bottom-up forms of governance-a weak point in the literature. Our review analyzes the enabling and disabling conditions that shape agroecology transformations and the ability of communities to self-organize. We develop the notion of 'domains of transformation' as overlapping and interconnected interfaces between agroecology and the incumbent dominant regime. We present six critical domains that are important in agroecological transformations: access to natural ecosystems; knowledge and culture; systems of exchange; networks; discourse; and gender and equity. The article focuses on the dynamics of power and governance, arguing that a shift from top down technocratic approaches to bottom up forms of governance based on community-self organization across these domains has the most potential for enabling transformation for sustainability and social justice.

Research on agro-food sustainability transitions: A systematic review of research themes and an analysis of research gaps (2019) 🗎🗎

Agro-food sustainability transitions refer to fundamental changes necessary to move towards sustainable agriculture and food systems. The young field of research on sustainability transitions in agro-food systems is still largely ill-defined. In order to delineate its contours, this paper provides a critical review of the main research themes and highlights research gaps. A search carried out on Scopus in January 2018 yielded 549 records and 111 research articles were included in the systematic review. Research gaps were identified through an analysis of the alignment of the research field with the research agenda of the Sustainability Transitions Research Network (STRN) and its research themes i.e. implementation strategies for managing transitions; power and politics; civil society, social movements and culture in transitions; role of industries and firms in transitions; transitions in everyday life and practice (sustainable consumption); geography of transitions; and modelling transitions. The strand of research on agro-food sustainability transitions is multifaceted and diverse; it addresses all the themes of the STRN's research agenda. However, it focuses on transition management and sustainable consumption, while it largely underserves the themes dealing with the role of civil society and firms in transitions as well as the geography of transitions. Therefore, research on agro-food sustainability transitions should fill research gaps relating to agency (cf. role of social movements and civil society, firms and industries, etc.) and spatiality/geography in transitions. The paper suggests that these two research topics should be addressed in an articulated research agenda that accommodates the peculiarities of sustainability transitions processes in the agro-food system. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exploring the normative turn in regional innovation policy: responsibility and the quest for public value (2019) 🗎🗎

The perceived ineffectiveness of traditional innovation policies in solving societal challenges such as poverty, ageing, climate change as well as problems of regional economic restructuring has motivated a recent 'normative turn' in innovation policy. This has shifted the debate on the rationales for intervention from market and system failures to accommodate more transformative views but also other approaches rooted in the notion of public value and has led innovation scholars to question not just the how and how much of innovation but also key issues of directionality, legitimacy and responsibility. By engaging the processes through which actors 'know, investigate and perform innovation', we argue that the concept of responsible research and innovation (RRI) offers a potentially useful lens for re-casting our understanding of innovation-related decision making. We apply RRI to assessing the opportunities and challenges of public procurement as an instrument of challenge-oriented and transformative innovation policy. More specifically, we look at how local authorities in the UK are using the Social Value Act to define priorities and articulate demand around social, environmental and community needs as well as coordinate different processes and actors, policy levers and processes.

Sustainability through institutional failure and decline? Archetypes of productive pathways (2019) 🗎🗎

Although current literature on sustainability governance and institutions is preoccupied with innovation, novelty, success, and "best practice," there is an emergent tendency to consider decline and failure as opportunities and leverage points to work toward and to achieve sustainability. However, although failure, crisis, and decay have been treated extensively, the link toward their productive potential has remained underdeveloped in the literature. Using a systems perspective, we described five archetypical pathways through which crisis, failure, deliberate destabilization, and active management of decline may facilitate sustainability transformation through adaptation, learning, providing windows of opportunity, and informed choices regarding stability versus change. We sought to provide a basis for further conceptual and empirical inquiry by formulating archetypical pathways that link aspects of failure to productive functions in the sense of sustainability. We started out by describing five archetypical pathways and their conceptual underpinnings from a number of different literatures, including evolutionary economics, ecology, and institutional change. The pathways related to (1) crises triggering institutional adaptations toward sustainability, (2) systematic learning from failure and breakdown, (3) the purposeful destabilization of unsustainable institutions, (4) making a virtue of inevitable decline, and (5) active and reflective decision making in the face of decline instead of leaving it to chance. These archetypical pathways were illustrated by a number of sustainability-related empirical case studies. In developing these archetypes, we have sought to move forward the debate on sustainability transformation and harness the potential of hitherto overlooked institutional dynamics.

Towards a typology of intermediaries in sustainability transitions: A systematic review and a research agenda (2019) 🗎🗎

Intermediary actors have been proposed as key catalysts that speed up change towards more sustainable sociotechnical systems. Research on this topic has gradually gained traction since 2009, but has been complicated by the inconsistency regarding what intermediaries are in the context of such transitions and which activities they focus on, or should focus on. We briefly elaborate on the conceptual foundations of the studies of intermediaries in transitions, and how intermediaries have been connected to different transition theories. This shows the divergence and sometimes a lack of conceptual foundations in this research. In terms of transitions theories, many studies connect to the multi-level perspective and strategic niche management, while intermediaries in technological innovation systems and transition management have been much less explored. We aim to bring more clarity to the topic of intermediaries in transitions by providing a definition of transition intermediaries and a typology of five intermediary types that is sensitive to the emergence, neutrality and goals of intermediary actors as well as their context and level of action. Some intermediaries are specifically set up to facilitate transitions, while others grow into the role during the process of socio-technical change. Based on the study, as an important consideration for future innovation governance, we argue that systemic and niche intermediaries are the most crucial forms of intermediary actors in transitions, but they need to be complemented by a full ecology of intermediaries, including regime-based transition intermediaries, process intermediaries and user intermediaries.

Expanding the Conceptual and Analytical Basis of Energy Justice: Beyond the Three-Tenet Framework (2019) 🗎🗎

Energy justice is now an established research topic in the field of energy policy. Despite the growing popularity of energy justice research, however, conceptual and analytical frameworks used in the field have remained limited. This paper reviews the prevailing three-tenet framework of energy justice which has shaped the current discourse based on the three dimensions-distributional, procedural, and recognition justice. As an effort to contribute to expanding the research agenda of energy justice problems, we propose a new understanding of the production of energy injustice by characterizing three institutionalized tendencies of dominant modern energy systems: (1) preference for large-scale technical systems and distancing of system designs from local decision-making processes, (2) centralization of energy production and concomitant distancing of supply from users, and (3) widespread 'risk-taking' tendencies portrayed by designers and proponents of current energy supply systems as a necessary 'price to pay' for technological innovation and social progress. We then connect these three tendencies to political, economic, and technical ideologies of modernism that often provide justifications for energy inequity: (1) top-down political and economic decision-making systems, (2) technical interpretation of sustainability, (3) specialist understanding of fairness, and (4) path dependency in the modern energy paradigm. Finally, we present an illustration of how this new conception of systemic energy injustice can be applied in practice using the case of South Korea's nuclear power system and Seoul's One Less Nuclear Power Plant Initiative.

Reinterpreting urban institutions for sustainability: How epistemic networks shape knowledge and logics (2019) 🗎🗎

Long term urban resilience demands a transition to a low-carbon society but poses a dilemma: the institutions that stabilise and perpetuate sociotechnical systems must become agents of radical change. The possibility of alternative futures challenges the logics and values central to institutional identity. 'Sustainability transitions' thus raise questions of institutional reinterpretation. The extent of such reinterpretation hinges on the everyday 'institutional work' of actors who bring diverse understandings to bear on their roles and responsibilities. These understandings derive not only from actors' professional roles but also from their engagement in wider epistemic networks. Based on case studies of three urban organisations in northern England, this paper examines the impact and influence of epistemic networks in validating or challenging approaches to sustainability transitions. The research found such networking a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for institutional reinterpretation. Epistemic networks serve five functions: they inspire, legitimise and facilitate potential transitions, and challenge slow progress - but they can also limit transitions. From these findings, it is argued that epistemic networks are central to the identification and development of nascent 'transition arenas' (Loorbach, 2010) where more sustainable, and ultimately more resilient, futures may be tested and trialled.

Opening up the feasibility of sustainability transitions pathways (STPs): Representations, potentials, and conditions (2019) 🗎🗎

Addressing sustainability and low carbon objectives calls for radical departures from existing socio-technical trajectories. The substantial implementation gap between sustainability objectives and current unsustainable paths justifies a continued search for more ambitious system transformations and clarity as to how they can be realised. The aim of this article is to unpack the feasibility of such sustainability transitions pathways (STPs), by identifying the analytical dimensions that need to be considered to address challenges for transitions governance and specifying how they can inform comprehensive evaluation efforts. We aim to offer practical examples of how multiple forms of knowledge can be mobilised to support strategic decision-making, and so complement traditional modelling-based scenario tools. We base our evaluation of STPs on a broad understanding of feasibility and elaborate a frame to mobilise what we see as three 'facets' of STPs: representations for exploring sustainability transitions potentials, as well as the conditions under which STPs may have greater chances of becoming realised. The resulting evaluation frame allow us to generate specific prescriptions about STPs feasibility that can focus interdisciplinary research on the relevance of mobilising a plurality of forms of knowledge in evaluation efforts, a more detailed understanding of the potential of a given solution or pathway, and more detailed assessment of different key dimensions. We end by discussing how the notion of STPs feasibility can help open up decision making processes and what tangible types of interventions are relevant.

A Dynamic Model of Embeddedness in Digital Infrastructures (2019) 🗎🗎

Digital infrastructures are a result of individual yet interdependent systems evolving in relation to each other. In this paper, we identify three processes by which individual systems become embedded into digital infrastructures. First, there are parallel processes, in which systems become embedded independently of each other. Second, there are competitive processes, in which the embeddedness of one system increases at the expense of another. Finally, there are spanning processes, in which bridges are built between different embedded systems. The three processes, synthesized into a dynamic model of digital infrastructure embeddedness, offer much-needed conceptual clarity to the area of digital infrastructure evolution. They also provide insight into the emergence of three forms of digital infrastructures: silofied, regenerated, and unified. Reflecting an interconnection view, our research further facilitates an understanding of infrastructure inertia and its associated consequence.

Leading the way with examples and ideas? Governing climate change in German municipalities through best practices (2019) 🗎🗎

Radical uncertainties associated with climate change require cognitive, symbolic, and material resources to make responses manageable and governable. Best practices are often considered to provide answers to these challenges. At the national and international levels, it is usually taken for granted that the replication of best practice examples can lead to a policy change. However, this assumption lacks empirical evidence, as best practices feature sticky and place-bound characteristics. This limits their use for the diffusion of their content and the transition to a low-carbon society. This article critically investigates the main functions (enabling, lobbying, place-marketing, and replication) of best practices in the daily governance of climate change in municipalities. It draws on in-depth insights resulting from expert interviews, participatory observation, and documentary analysis of a set of German municipalities. Understanding the practicalities on the ground explains why the expectations about best practices and their actual effects differ significantly. This article illustrates that this mismatch can be understood not as a simple failure of a governing technique, but rather, as a result of the inherently conflict-laden interplay of rationalities and technologies of government.

The theoretical foundations of sociotechnical systems change for sustainability: A systematic literature review (2019) 🗎🗎

This paper provides a critical literature overview of the foundations of the concepts of sustainability and sociotechnical systems change. This review covers the analysis of 182 scientific articles through a combination of bibliometric analysis, snowballing, content analysis and problematization. Our results identify and discuss 14 unique ontological and normative foundations shaping how we understand sociotechnical system change for sustainability. These influence both what system change is perceived as desirable and as attainable; as well as how to navigate between all the coexisting pathways, trade-offs, and complexities of the three dimensions of sustainability. By identifying the theoretical foundations, we illustrate the most up-to-date theoretical developments and concomitantly pinpoint a few opportunities for future contributions that improve, refute or complement them, hence shedding light on various research questions to develop the literature further. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Policy mixes for sustainability transitions: New approaches and insights through bridging innovation and policy studies (2019) 🗎🗎

There has been an increasing interest in science, technology and innovation policy studies in the topic of policy mixes. While earlier studies conceptualised policy mixes mainly in terms of combinations of instruments to support innovation, more recent literature extends the focus to how policy mixes can foster sustainability transitions. For this, broader policy mix conceptualisations have emerged which also include considerations of policy goals and policy strategies; policy mix characteristics such as consistency, coherence, credibility and comprehensiveness; as well as policy making and implementation processes. It is these broader conceptualisations of policy mixes which are the subject of the special issue introduced in this article. We aim at supporting the emergence of a new strand of interdisciplinary social science research on policy mixes which combines approaches, methods and insights from innovation and policy studies to further such broader policy mix research with a specific focus on fostering sustainability transitions. In this article we introduce this topic and present a bibliometric analysis of the literature on policy mixes in both fields as well as their emerging connections. We also introduce five major themes in the policy mix literature and summarise the contributions made by the articles in the special issue to these: methodological advances; policy malting and implementation; actors and agency; evaluating policy mixes; and the co-evolution of policy mixes and socio-technical systems. We conclude by summarising key insights for policy making.

Lost in translation: How legacy limits the OECD in promoting new policy mixes for sustainability transitions (2019) 🗎🗎

The OECD has a strong legacy in shaping innovation policy mixes. The purpose of this paper is therefore to provide a better understanding of how the OECD is currently shaping new policy mixes for sustainability transitions. It provides a detailed account of the uptake of system innovation thinking, a key concept in transition studies, at the OECD. It takes an ethnographic approach combining desk research with participant observation, allowing to study 'discourse in the making'. The paper traces the different translation and inscription strategies pursued. It finds that despite purposeful efforts, system innovation has not been institutionalised in the core activities of the organisation, thus can be considered 'lost in translation'. It concludes that legacy effects created a number of sticking points that can be categorised under three main categories: (1) institutional, arising from previous ways of working; (2) cognitive, arising from ways of framing and knowing and (3) political, arising from pre-existing power relations. Suggestions are made for both innovation policy academics and practitioners interested in promoting a transformative innovation agenda.

Delineating policy mixes: Contrasting top-down and bottom-up approaches to the case of energy-storage policy in California (2019) 🗎🗎

In the light of pressing societal challenges such as climate change and resource scarcity, scholars are increasingly interested in studying policy mixes in the context of sustainability transitions. However, despite numerous conceptual advances and empirical insights, researchers still lack universal criteria or accepted heuristics for delineating policy mixes in these complex policy spaces. We address this gap by conducting an extensive review of the literature, synthesizing best practices, and developing an analytical framework that provides researchers with two archetypical methodological approaches. The top-down approach builds on the idea that the elements of a policy mix originate from an overarching strategic intent. By contrast, the bottom-up approach starts from the definition of a focal impact domain that is affected by a range of policy instruments. For each approach, we outline a systematic analytical procedure, then implement it to scrutinize how policy affects the emerging technological domain of energy storage in California. We find that each approach has particular advantages that render it useful for certain policy mix analyses. Discussing how researchers may choose between the two approaches or leverage their complementarities, we seek to provide the basis for a consistent research program building on the policy mix framework.

Integrating sustainability transitions and food systems research to examine consultation failures in Canadian food policymaking (2019) 🗎🗎

Researchers have called for further integration of sustainability transitions theory into food scholarship. The objective of this paper is to integrate these bodies of literature by examining a Canadian case study, Growing Forward 2 (GF2) through the multi-level perspective. I argue that this framework is a valuable tool for explaining why Canadian policy consultation processes are consistently viewed as failures by civil society organizations (CSOs), and provide clarity on the barriers to CSO consultation in food policy development. Using qualitative analysis on expert witness statements in GF2 committee meetings, I found two key barriers within GF2. First, expert witnesses were predominantly from industry and producer groups, with limited and strategic CSOs invited to voice their suggestions. Second, witnesses were invited to speak on particular topics, resulting in policy based on pre-determined goals in support of the regime. I argue that these barriers provide voice to industry groups, and exclude CSOs from having their voices heard, suggesting that Canada will not transition towards a sustainable food system - as defined by CSOs - through existing policy channels. This article also contributes to analyses on the conflict between sustainable intensification and food sovereignty as it plays out in Canadian policy.

Transformative innovation policy: Addressing variety in an emerging policy paradigm (2019) 🗎🗎

This paper presents an analytical framework for assessing the emergence of a new policy paradigm labelled "transformative innovation policy", which can be seen as layered upon, but not fully replacing, earlier policy paradigms of science and technology policy and innovation systems policy. The paper establishes conceptual diversity in this emerging policy paradigm. Despite a common agenda for transformative change, there are notable differences concerning the understanding of the innovation process. Two global initiatives to promote such new innovation policies, Mission Innovation and the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, are used to illustrate how different articulations of transformative innovation policy are expressed in practice. These may be seen as a positive expression of the breadth of the emerging policy paradigm. While there are grounds for such a positive reading, this paper ends with a caution by stressing the political nature of paradigm change and the strong legacy of an economic, firm-centred and technology-oriented tradition in innovation policy. It makes a plea for more emphasis on a broader conceptualization of transformative innovation, and suggests that a socio-technical understanding of innovation provides several appropriate analytical concepts that can help to shape our thinking and understanding of transformative innovation policy.

Radical change and deep transitions: Lessons from Europe's infrastructure transition 1815-2015 (2019) 🗎🗎

Schot and Kanger (2016) argue that the shift from an unsustainable to a sustainable society requires radical historical change in the form of a Deep Transition: "a series of connected transitions in many socio-technical systems [e.g. energy, mobility, food] towards a similar direction [e.g. sustainability]." They call for more research. In response, this paper discusses a historical Deep Transition. It tracks the connected histories of Europe's mobility, food supply, warfare, and ecological systems, all of which experienced a transnational infrastructure transition in the 19th and 20th centuries. Studying these connected histories as a 'deep' infrastructure transition highlights important dynamics of radical historical change. This paper also adds to Schot and Kanger's research agenda, highlighting: (1) the importance of studying actors in Deep Transitions-particularly 'system entanglers' who interweave various sociotechnical systems and thereby connect transitions; (2) how such actors produced convergence, but also divergence across connected transitions; (3) the extreme unpredictability of Deep Transitions due to such divergences; and (4) the need for reflexivity regarding the analyst's role in delineating Deep Transitions, so as to avoid essentialism and the uncritical reproduction of contemporary preoccupations.

Financial Markets and the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy: Challenging the Dominant Logics (2019) 🗎🗎

Financial markets play a major role in contributing to the transition to a low-carbon economy. Although many initiatives and developments are taking place, this is just the beginning. In this article, we argue for a theory of change-a theory rooted in logics that will help financial markets play a key role in the transition to a low-carbon economy. We argue that the current dominant logics in finance-short-termism, predictability of the future based on ex-post data, price efficiency, and risk-adjusted returns-impede the effective integration of climate considerations in financial markets. We suggest four alternative logics that can enable and foster a change toward the low-carbon economy: long-termism, systems interconnectedness, carbon price dynamics, and active ownership.

Let's focus more on negative trends: A comment on the transitions research agenda (2020) 🗎🗎

Much has been written on sustainability transitions, yet all around us unsustainable developments remain rife, and threaten to offset the progress made in other areas. This viewpoint argues that transitions scholarship should widen its scope to consider unsustainable trends, which it has tended to neglect to date. We argue that there is merit in applying the transitions lens to these developments, not least because of its systemic approach, which could help highlight the dynamic relationships between sustainable and unsustainable trends. We sketch some high-level questions for future transitions research including: how unsustainable trends emerge, who drives them, and how research could help to curtail harmful socio-technological changes before they become entrenched. We conclude by arguing that investigating unsustainable trends would benefit transitions research by making it more plural and more radical.

Understanding transition pathways by bridging modelling, transition and practice-based studies: Editorial introduction to the special issue (2020) 🗎🗎

This paper presents an introduction to and overview of the papers in this Special Issue of Technological Forecasting & Social Change on 'Transition Pathways' is presented. Each of these papers are an output of the PATHWAYS project (EC FP7-funded, 2013-2017) which looked into ways to integrate alternative approaches for analysing sustainability transitions. Methods to bridge across scenario-modelling, socio-technical transition, and practice-based action research approaches (Turnheim et al. 2015; Geels et al., 2016) were implemented in eight empirical and modelling studies reported here. A variety of approaches to bridging emerged in practice, with differing methodological strategies employed, analysing transitions processes across different sectors, at a range of scales, and separately, comparatively or in a fully integrated way. This paper suggests a framework for understanding different approaches to bridging and shows how policy- and decision-making can be enriched by theoretically- and empirically-informed bridging approaches to transitions analysis.

Resisting renewables: The energy epistemics of social opposition in Mexico (2020) 🗎🗎

Previous studies have examined the research practices and their normative roles in various areas of energy transitions (ETs). However, non-economic social research is not usually perceived as influential in ETs, thus receiving less attention. I argue that social research plays a central role in some components of ETs, and when these areas concern an unequal dispute between different interests and visions, then the production of knowledge, its outcomes, and its use can have vast energy justice implications. This issue is illustrated by the controversy over the social effects of renewable energy projects in Mexico. These projects have caused significant social opposition and even conflicts in indigenous communities, which have generated growing social research. Researchers have addressed this issue through different understandings of human interactions with projects and methodological choices, shaping critical aspects of knowledge-making, such as the voices and agendas of the included social groups. In their outcomes, these research practices have offered competitive interpretations of the causes of social opposition and the alternatives to solutions, which propose different material and symbolic roles to communities (e.g., downstream policy fixes for addressing social externalities vs. communitarian involvement in the decisions, management, and benefits of projects). Through a subject of controversy characterized by the lack of domestic regulation and experience and limited institutional capacity, social research has exceeded the academic domain, providing critical insights into the activism, the policy formation, and the practices of governmental and private actors. This research extends energy epistemics to social research practices, providing critical insights about their effects on how societies build energy futures and their interplay with local environments.

How a Strategic Scoping Canvas Can Facilitate Collaboration between Partners in Sustainability Transitions (2020) 🗎🗎

The loosely applied concepts of transformations and transitions often result in unarticulated different visions and expectations among stakeholders regarding the orientation and ambition of a particular initiative related to system transitions/transformations. In this paper, a strategic scoping canvas and an associated facilitation process are presented as a way of enhancing shared understanding among stakeholders. Illustrations are provided of initial application in three cases related to food system transitions in Peru, Ethiopia, and Bangladesh, exploring the connectivity with approaches commonly used in the context of system transformations, including the Multi-Level Perspective on sustainability transitions, the Leverage Points approach, Capability Approach, and the theory of Large System Change. We conclude that the canvas and associated facilitation approach has proved useful in different contexts, offering opportunities for complementing existing methodologies, and potentially enhancing their efficacy in facilitated multi-stakeholder processes.

Beyond techno-utopia and its discontents: On the role of utopianism and speculative fiction in shaping alternatives to the smart city imaginary (2020) 🗎🗎

In recent years, the osmart city' has become established in policy and planning discourse, embedding visions of an urban future where ubiquitous technology offers efficient solutions to the pathologies of the contemporary city. In response, a rapidly growing social-scientific literature is critically exploring how the smart city imaginary (SCI) promotes otechno-utopian' fantasies, ignoring the risks of a technologically determined future. In this paper we begin by considering SCI as emblematic of the colonization of contemporary (urban) futures by vested interests, arguing for the need for diverse and plural imaginaries and thus for a re-engagement of the social sciences. We explore how critical social scientific contributions to shaping futures might be deepened through further engagement with utopian theory and speculative fiction, two traditions of future-orientated thinking that seek to combine critique with constructive thinking about alternatives. We therefore contribute to o50 + 50 Theme 2: Framing Futures in 2068-the limits of and opportunities for futures research' by 1) extending critique of contemporary claims about (smart urban) futures, and; 2) exploring how utopianism and fiction can expand ways of thinking, imagining and knowing futures.

Problems, solutions, and institutional logics: Insights from Dutch domestic energy-efficiency retrofits (2020) 🗎🗎

This paper analyzes the logics that underlie two distinct approaches to energy-efficiency retrofits in the Netherlands. It is explained how these logics lead to differing viewpoints on problems and solutions on the road to scale-up of such retrofits. For this, the paper makes use of the institutional logics approach. The institutional logics approach can be used to understand the reasoning that lies behind material practices and is here applied to two renovation approaches. Institutional logics theory can also explain why actors focus their attention on certain problems and solutions, namely, they focus on the ones consistent with the institutional logics that guide them. The thorough understanding of the empirical domain hereby achieved facilitates the policy formulation process and helps to set suitable system boundaries within frameworks for analyzing technological change processes.

Not more but di ff erent: A comment on the transitions research agenda (2020) 🗎🗎

The sustainability transitions research network research agenda reflects the impressive growth and diversity of sustainability transitions scholarship, premised on an ethos of interdisciplinarity and openness to other research traditions and informed by increasingly diverse empirical case studies. Nonetheless, an inclination to integrate concepts, ideas and logics from elsewhere into foundational core sustainability transitions research (STR) frameworks (e.g. Multi-Level Perspective, Technological Innovation Systems) can be observed. This potentially constrains the development of new concepts, ideas and logics within transition research. We therefore stress the importance of theoretical pluralism and in particular of starting the analysis of transition processes from within alternative frameworks and working through transition processes with those frameworks on their own terms. The risks and opportunities of more radical theoretical pluralism in STR are considered, and preliminary examples are presented from Foucauldian and post/decolonial traditions.

Neglected systems and theorizing: A comment on the transitions research agenda (2020) 🗎🗎

The new Sustainability Transitions Research Network agenda (Kohler et al., 2019) is an ambitious attempt to establish the frontiers of transitions studies. In this comment I propose two ways to broaden it in terms of thematic focus and the role of theory.

Engaging with multi-system interactions in sustainability transitions: A comment on the transitions research agenda (2020) 🗎🗎

As sustainability challenges and the transformative changes they necessitate stretch well beyond the boundaries of individual socio-technical systems, there is a pressing need to generate more sustained interest in the dynamics occurring across rather than within systems. In response, this viewpoint takes stock of existing work on multi-system dynamics and sketches the contours of a multi-system perspective, which conceptualizes the interactions among systems as diverse, layered, and evolving. A multi-system perspective draws attention to: the present functional and structural couplings that link systems of interest; emerging sites of interaction that could bring systems further into contact; along with the patterns marking system interactions and their implications for sustainability transitions. Attending more carefully to multi-system dynamics complements several promising directions of inquiry identified by the agenda for sustainability transitions research, including recent efforts to broaden the scope of analysis, capture the pervasiveness of change, and consider opportunities for acceleration.

Thinking about individual actor-level perspectives in sociotechnical transitions: A comment on the transitions research agenda (2020) 🗎🗎

The 2019 STRN research agenda identifies connecting the different 'levels' of transitions processes as a worthwhile line of work. Individual actor-level processes are an example of those at the 'micro' level that are lost through the aggregation involved in high level sociotechnical transitions concepts. This short commentary discusses ways of connecting individual actor level processes to transitions concepts, where 'individual' refers to individual human actors. For this purpose, the commentary draws on social psychology and shows how this particular discipline is relevant to more than simply consumption and technology acceptance. The commentary also identifies more general strategies relevant to the bridging of levels, beyond psychology, namely: (i) the use of concepts that inherently bridge the individual and the social; and (ii) the use of multi-stage, sequenced studies that track the influence of different types of processes through particular sociotechnical systems.

Geographies of transition-From topical concerns to theoretical engagement: A comment on the transitions research agenda (2020) 🗎🗎

This viewpoint takes stock with the 'geography of sustainability transitions' (GOST) as it is presented in the transitions research agenda. GOST has been a relatively recent addition to transition theorizing, addressing the need for greater sensitivity and attention to the scales, spatialities, and context-specific factors that shape transitions. In our view, the agenda represents a rather narrow perspective on GOST, which is geared to two empirical themes, namely urban transitions and transitions in developing countries. While these are relevant and topical issues, the section lacks sufficient acknowledgement of the increasing engagement of geographers with transitions studies and the theoretical approaches they have brought to bear on the field. This short commentary thus aims at complementing the agenda paper by outlining a theoretical research agenda that is emerging in this field, framed around the conceptualization of scales, places and spaces in which transitions unfold.

Mind the gap: Advancing evolutionary approaches to regional development with progressive empirical strategies (2020) 🗎🗎

Explaining the persistently uneven spatial patterns of development remains a central goal of economic geography and regional science. Recognizing that regional development is a process of ongoing change, many scholars now approach the topic from an evolutionary perspective that identifies knowledge recombination processes and institutions as key drivers of change. However, research has not yet fully integrated the various theoretical perspectives and empirical data streams that characterize evolutionary approaches. The present contribution identifies how an evolutionary approach centered on knowledge and institutions can be integrated with complementary forms of evidence gathered from a variety of sources to advance our understanding of regional development. Expanding and integrating the evidence base used to study regional change has important implications for making effective and responsive policy instruments.

The future in sustainability transitions - Interlinkages between the multi-level perspective and futures studies (2020) 🗎🗎

This article focuses on a key framework of sustainability transition studies, the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions (MLP), and its potential and relationships with futures studies. We propose that there are various co-benefits in creating convergence between the two fields of study. Out of established frameworks in sustainability transition studies we focus on MLP due to its popularity and flexibility in analysing the dynamics of societal changes. Our analysis shows that there are various conceptual, content-based and methodological connections between MLP and futures studies that have been under-represented in both fields of literature. There are considerable similarities between scenarios and development pathways; weak signals and niche innovations; megatrends and landscape pressures. So far, MLP has been underutilized to analyse the variety of alternative futures. The MLP framework gives a structure on the systemic dynamics in societal change and futures studies provide apt methods to construct alternative pathways to societal transitions. We conclude that futures studies and the MLP framework, along with other theories and approaches in transition studies and management, have a high joint potential and thus contribute to better understanding of the dynamics of change for more sustainable futures. Realization of this potential requires further convergence of the approaches.

The study of institutional entrepreneurship and its implications for transition studies (2020) 🗎🗎

Innovations accompanying transitions often prompt institutional change if they do not match with existing institutions. Transition studies started to incorporate institutional dynamics into their research, but efforts hitherto remain underdeveloped. In this paper, we systematically review the institutional entrepreneurship literature. Based on a reading of 153 empirical cases, we identify trends and biases in the literature and we distil a number of insights for transition studies to engage with.

Relating financial systems to sustainability transitions: Challenges, demands and design features (2020) 🗎🗎

The Paris Climate Agreement, Sustainable Development Goals and Addis Ababa Action Agenda call for the financial system to be "consistent and integrated" in its response to the sustainability and climate breakdown. Sustainability transitions research (STR) and orthodox finance literature are failing to engage with these calls. This paper offers three contributions to address this issue. Firstly, it scopes the sustainability-related finance literature and finds broad but fragmented research strands with limited critical analysis and little cross-engagement with STR. Secondly, the paper draws on insights from STR and international climate and sustainable development agreements to propose a transition demand framework that characterises the explicit demands that sustainability transitions place on the financial system (understood as intermediaries, markets and infrastructure). Thirdly, the paper considers essential design features for financial systems to meet the specific demands of sustainability transitions and identifies critical questions for broadening research in this area.

Anchoring innovations in oscillating domestic spaces: Why sanitation service offerings fail in informal settlements (2020) 🗎🗎

A persistent conundrum for practitioners and researchers in the development context is that, often, newly provided and improved basic services are not maintained by users despite seemingly superior functionality and user convenience. We argue that one major reason for this is an insufficient understanding of the context in which users have to manage their daily lives. We therefore propose an approach to analysing the embedding of basic services that focuses on the users' daily practices. We do so by borrowing insights from 'socio-technical transitions' and 'practice theory' in developing our concept of oscillating domestic spaces. The concept reflects the need for people to constantly respond to quickly changing and precarious circumstances by rearranging their daily practices in time and space and developing a multiplicity of alternative options and partial solutions. We illustrate the analytical approach in a case study of sanitation access in informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya. The analysis shows how the introduction of a container-based toilet resulted in partial embedding. The innovation anchored to only a part of the oscillating domestic spaces and was in disarray with the needs of users most of the time. The conceptual approach contributes to the understanding about how users take part in sustainability transitions as well as the added value of the time-space dimension in analysing practices in highly complex contexts. We conclude by reflecting on the potential applicability of the analytical approach to transition cases in the Global North.

Six policy intervention points for sustainability transitions: A conceptual framework and a systematic literature review (2020) 🗎🗎

Recent literature has turned considerable attention to the role of policy mixes in shaping socio-technical systems towards sustainability. However, the identification of relevant policy intervention points has remained a relatively neglected topic. This is a potentially significant oversight given that such intervention points constitute a mid-step between means (particular policy instruments) and overall goals (change in the directionality of sociotechnical systems). By complementing existing work on policy mixes with additional insights from transitions literature, this paper formulates a conceptual framework of six policy intervention points for transformative systems change. The coding scheme developed on the basis of this framework is used to review current literature on policy mixes in sustainability transitions. It is shown that the latter has so far primarily focused on niche-regime dynamics while largely neglecting the broader context of these interactions. We argue that adopting a wider perspective on intervention points can aid future work on policy mixes by enabling the identification of root causes and critical problems of ongoing transitions, and to spot gaps in existing policy activities. The case of the Estonian energy system is used to briefly illustrate these possibilities. Methodologically, we demonstrate the value of combining theory-based concept-formation with a systematic literature review, enabling not only a provision of a summary of existing literature but also highlighting systematic gaps in that literature.

Fumbling to the future? Socio-technical regime change in the recorded music industry (2020) 🗎🗎

In this paper, I draw on the institutional entrepreneurship and sociotechnical imaginaries literature to develop a prospective and actor-centric approach to understanding technological transitions. Empirically, I examine the initiatives that newcomers and incumbents engaged in between 1990 and 2005 to transition the socio-technical regime associated with recorded music. My account reveals the limited ability of these actors to effectively migrate the regime despite initiating several efforts to do so - a pattern of behavior I term the fragility of institutional entrepreneurship. I identify underlying factors for why this is the case and suggest that these can contribute to a regime remaining in a state of flux for an extended period of time. I also demonstrate the emergence of provisional regimes or temporary settlements between actors that either gain traction or are themselves transformed over time. In specifying the micro-processes that unfold as part of such transitions, I provide a complementary perspective to the current theorizing around socio-technical regime migration, and contribute fresh insights to the institutional entrepreneurship and sociotechnical imaginaries literature.

Opposing Energy Transitions: Modeling the Contested Nature of Energy Transitions in the Electricity Sector(sic)(sic)(sic)Palabras clave (2020) 🗎🗎

Energy transitions are fiercely contested. The incumbents of the fossil- and nuclear-based energy systems have much to lose from a transition to a sustainable and decentralized energy system. They therefore employ their material and political resources to reverse, halt, or slow down this transition. They also attempt to stop and reverse the decentralization of energy production. This article provides a framework that can be used to analyze the contestation that surrounds energy transitions. The analytical framework breaks apart the macro paths of energy transitions, and differentiates between three meso-paths (political, economic-technological, and legitimation), emphasizes the feedback processes between these paths, and acknowledges the crucial role that actors play in engendering these feedback processes. It uses Germany as a case study to illustrate the analytical model. It also provides hypotheses that will be tested in the subsequent contributions to this special issue.

Transformative Energy Transition from the bottom-up: exploring the contribution of grassroots innovations in the Spanish context (2020) 🗎🗎

Energy transition is attracting increasing attention in academic, activist and policy debate. Although there is a recognition of the urgency of achieving a more sustainable model, and a small body of scholars contend the need for a systemic transition, very little research has specifically been conducted on the changes and proposals promoted by grassroots innovations. This paper explores why energy grassroots initiatives are key spaces of interest in the process of energy transition, and proposes an exploratory characterisation of a "Transformative Energy Transition." To this end, a qualitative analysis is carried out and a framework developed that connects ideas from socio-technical transitions theory, grassroots innovation literature and the human development approach. The results suggest five broad arguments to justify why the initiatives studied are relevant, and the paper concludes that "Transformative Energy Transition" must be aligned with values of equity, sustainability, participation and diversity.

Transforming the capacity of impact assessment to address persistent global problems (2020) 🗎🗎

Impact assessment (IA) formally emerged fifty years ago, it evolved, matured but the predominant philosophy did not change much, especially in light of the speed of change the world experiences and the magnitude and persistency of current environmental and social problems. Inspired in the sustainable transitions theory, and the adaptive theory, I reflect in this letter on the need to shift the philosophy underlying current IA rules and practice, to renovate or even reinvent the instrument to become more collaborative, constructive and systemic, driven by learning and co-creation of knowledge. This might mean a paradigm shift, towards a more engaging and persuasive IA, a leverage to enable changing practices in an increasingly complex world, and a positive instrument to help transitions for sustainability and the achievement of sustainable development goals.

Shaping sustainable markets-A conceptual framework illustrated by the case of biogas in Sweden (2020) 🗎🗎

By merging findings from transition studies with recent literature on market-shaping, this paper outlines a conceptual framework that describes the shaping of sustainable markets. The framework comprises three critical processes: enabling exchange practices, proving the system and constructing the narrative. Individually, these processes generate different kinds of value - traded, demonstrated and expected value - and the value output from each process serves as input to the other two processes. Hence the value streams link the processes together. We illustrate the framework by analyzing market-shaping processes for biogas in Sweden. The case analysis shows how public and private actors have engaged in a multitude of activities that have built up the market-shaping processes. The analysis highlights the recursive nature of sustainable market-shaping, showing how key actors must repeatedly respond to tensions resulting from growth and aspirations of growth.

The Energy Futures Lab: A case study of justice in energy transitions (2020) 🗎🗎

While the concept of 'just transitions' has become more and more prominent in academic and popular discussions of sustainability transition, these conceptions are often framed in purely economic terms, and focus on the economic impact on communities, regions, and nation-states. We argue that a broader conception of justice in transitions, and in particular energy transitions, is required. Questions such as who will win and who will lose as society transitions to more sustainable future, who decides what the transition will look like, how are those historically excluded from decision making recognized, and how are the interests of non-humans and future generations included are important to answer in order to ensure that concepts of justice are included in transitions processes. Answering these questions is critical in "ensuring that system transitions are not only more sustainable, but also more just" (Williams and Doyon, 2019, p. 144). In this paper, we apply the justice and system transition framework (Williams and Doyon, 2019) to the Energy Futures Lab (EFL). We find that while the EFL has made great strides towards justice in transition, the EFL is also a demonstration of the challenges of incorporating justice such as addressing issues of power dynamics and conceptions of diversity and inclusion. We also find that the justice and system transitions framework proves to be a valuable tool in assessing justice in transitions projects. Going beyond the common 'just transition' approach that focuses on distributive justice gives a richer conception of justice and ensures that procedural and recognition approaches are included.

Exploring the role of failure in socio-technical transitions research (2020) 🗎🗎

In this paper, we offer a comprehensive and interdisciplinary review of 'failure' in transitions research. What is meant by failure, and is the community biased against it? How is failure explained through different perspectives? How can failures be addressed more appropriately in transitions studies? We synthesize a large body of evidence spanning transitions studies, innovation studies, science and technology studies, organisation and management studies, policy studies and the history of technology to probe and sharpen these questions. We examine within these literatures the instances and possibilities of success with transitions and discuss why this may be problematic, organising our analysis around four types of bias (selection, cognitive, interpretive, and prescription). In addition, we review three 'families' of framings of failure put forward in and around the socio-technical transitions literature, notably discrete failure events, systemic failings and processual accounts of failure, and discuss how they can be constructively put to work.

Leviathan Awakens: Gas Finds, Energy Governance, and the Emergence of the Eastern Mediterranean as a Geopolitical Region (2020) 🗎🗎

This article explores the role of energy in regionalization processes, assessing the case of natural gas finds in the Eastern Mediterranean (East Med). It makes three observations. First, we show that energy resources are a defining factor in shaping a region by rearranging the interactions and networks of actors involved in regionalization processes. Second, we demonstrate that such "energization" processes are not only-and not even primarily-attributable to security practices pursued by state actors. Regionalization underpinned by energy as the key governance object is characterized by a variety of actors, including governments, but also international energy companies, investors, consumers, and regulators. Third, we posit that regionalization processes cannot be fully understood without appreciating the importance of existing global and regional governance frameworks and the values ascribed to the physical resource by international market forces. The findings call on International Relations to go beyond analyzing the East Med energy region through the prism of security studies, which arguably is a function of both theoretical path dependence and a lack of attention to the insights from energy studies. Instead, a multidisciplinary research agenda promises to strengthen academic inquiry into regionalization dynamics in the East Med and the role of regions in world politics more broadly.

Sociotechnical matters: Reviewing and integrating science and technology studies with social science (2020) 🗎🗎

Theoretical frameworks associated with science and technology studies (STS) are becoming increasingly prominent in social science energy research, but what do they offer? This review provides a brief history of relevant STS concepts and frameworks and a structured analysis of how STS perspectives are appearing in energy social science research and how energy-related research is appearing in social science STS. Drawing from an initial body of 262 journal articles and books with a stratified sample of 68 published from 2009 to mid-2019, the review identifies four major groups of perspectives: (1) STS-related cultural analysis, especially the study of sociotechnical imaginaries; (2) STS-related policy analysis, such as research on the social construction of risks and standards and on the performativity of economic models; (3) STS perspectives on public participation processes, expert-public relations, and mobilized publics; and (4) the study of sociotechnical systems, including large technological systems, the politics of design, and users and actor-networks. Connections among the perspectives and the value for energy social science research are also critically discussed.

Making sustainability transitions research policy -relevant: Challenges at the science-policy interface (2020) 🗎🗎

In this Policy brief, we provide an overview of a recently published report by the European Environment Agency: 'Sustainability transitions: policy and practice', which we co-authored. We discuss the report's context and rationale, namely as part of a knowledge brokering process initiated at the EEA since 2015 and intended to explore the practical implications of transitions research for policy. We outline the report's 10 key messages, which concern core processes, stages and change mechanisms, key cross-cutting themes, and governance-related challenges for steering transition processes. We also reflect on the report's findings and the broader knowledge development process, identifying a number of topics the transitions community could further investigate, and highlighting challenges and opportunities for science-policy interactions.

Transformations to sustainability: combining structural, systemic and enabling approaches (2020) 🗎🗎

The imperatives of environmental sustainability, poverty alleviation and social justice (partially codified in the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs) call for ambitious societal transformations. As such, few aspects of actionable knowledge for sustainability are more crucial than those concerning the processes of transformation. This article offers a brief overview of different conceptualisations of transformation, and outlines a set of practical principles for effective research and action towards sustainability. We review three approaches to transformations, labelled: 'structural', 'systemic' and 'enabling'. We show how different ways of understanding what we mean by transformations can affect what actions follow. But these approaches are not mutually exclusive. We use an international set of examples on low carbon economy transformations, seed systems, wetland conservation and peri-urban development to show how they can be complementary and reinforcing. We describe three cross-cutting practical considerations that must be taken seriously for effective transformations to sustainability: diverse knowledges, plural pathways and the essentially political nature of transformation. Realizing the ambitions of the SDGs, we conclude, requires being clear about what we mean by transformation, and recognizing these basic methodological principles for action.

The post-political nature of marine spatial planning and modalities for its re-politicisation (2020) 🗎🗎

Marine spatial planning (MSP) has become the most adopted approach for sustainable marine governance. While MSP has transformative capacity, evaluations of its implementation illustrate large gaps between how it is conceptualised and how it is practiced. We argue that these gaps arise from MSP being implemented through post-political processes. Although MSP has been explored through post-political lenses, these evaluations are incomplete and do not provide sufficient detail about the complex nature of the post-political condition. Drawing on seminal literature, we conceptualise the post-political as consisting of highly interconnected modalities of depoliticisation, including: neoliberalism; choreographed participation; path dependency; technocratic-managerialism; and the illusion of progressive change. Using these modalities as an analytical framework, we evaluate English MSP and find that it focuses on entrenching neoliberal logic through: tokenistic participation; wholescale adoption of path-dependent solutions; obstructionist deployment of inactive technological solutions; and promising progressive change. We do not, however, view the post-political condition as unresolvable and we develop a suite of suggestions for the re-politicisation of MSP which, collectively, could form the basis for more radical forms of MSP.

Micro-foundations of the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions: Developing a multi-dimensional model of agency through crossovers between social constructivism, evolutionary economics and neo-institutional theory (2020) 🗎🗎

The Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) is a prominent framework to understand socio-technical transitions, but its micro-foundations have remained under-developed. The paper's first aim is therefore to develop the MLP's theoretical micro-foundations, which are rooted in Social Construction of Technology, evolutionary economics and neoinstitutional theory. The second aim is to further identify crossovers between these theories. To achieve these goals, the paper analytically reviews the three theories, focusing on: (1) the relevance of each theory for transitions and the MLP, (2) the theory's conceptualisation of agency, (3) criticisms of each theory and subsequent conceptual elaborations (which prepare the ground for potential crossovers between them). Mobilizing insights from the analytical reviews, the paper articulates a multi-dimensional model of agency, which also provides a relational and processual conceptualization of ongoing trajectories in which actors are embedded. Specific conceptual linking points between the three theories are identified, leading to an understanding of socio-technical transitions as evolutionary, interpretive and conflictual processes.

Transition topology: Capturing institutional dynamics in regional development paths to sustainability (2020) 🗎🗎

A key challenge in sustainability transitions research is to better understand the huge variety and spatial unevenness of transitions paths. Institutions and institutional change have been identified as critical issues, as regional institutional settings significantly influence the pace and scope of sustainability transitions. However, the complex institutional dynamics underpinning Regional Transition Paths to Sustainability' (RTPS) are not well understood. Underexplored is in particular the link between short time gradual changes on the micro-level and long-term transformative change on the system level. In order to add to a more profound understanding of these processes, a focus on organizational change is valuable. The basic argument made in this article is that the emergence of new temporary and more permanent forms of organization has the potential to enable de-institutionalization and new institutionalization processes simultaneously. As we will show, new organizational forms also serve as a means to make institutional dynamics visible. The contribution of this paper is thus twofold: By combining insights from sustainability transition theory, evolutionary economic geography and neoinstitutional organization theory, we develop an original conceptual framework. By developing and applying the methodological approach of a 'transition topology', the potential of this framework for comparative research on actors and processes in different regional transition path to sustainability is revealed.

Scale, history and justice in community wind energy: An empirical review (2020) 🗎🗎

Although there is a clear positive link between community wind energy (CWE) projects and social acceptance, there is still empirical and conceptual ambiguity concerning the details of why. To fill this gap, we revisit foundational papers in this field and then, focusing on empirical case studies between 2010 and 2018 (n = 15), trace how recent research has engaged with existing conceptual frameworks. Most empirical researchers verify the importance of the two key dimensions defined by Walker & Devine-Wright [1]: process and outcome, and then relate this to procedural justice and distributive justice. Meanwhile, the core concept of "community" has been deployed, in both practice and research, in so many different and sometimes ambiguous ways that it remains difficult to assert if, and how, community-based renewable energy policy and siting practice produces high levels of local community acceptance. We suggest that parsing out the scale of investment in wind energy projects and the local historical context of energy transitions add clarity to the Walker & Devine-Wright framework as it relates to CWE; providing important conceptual nuance for guiding policy, developer practices and future empirical research.

Towards a theory of just transition: A neo-Gramscian understanding of how to shift development pathways to zero poverty and zero carbon (2020) 🗎🗎

As a global community, we need to understand better how a just transition can shift development paths to achieve net zero emissions and eliminate poverty. Our past development trajectories have led to high emissions, persistent inequality and a world that is fragmented across multiple contradictions. How can countries shift to development pathways that deliver zero poverty and zero carbon? In developing a theory of just transition, the article begins by reviewing a range of theoretical approaches from different traditions, building in particular on neo-Gramscian approaches. It applies and modifies core components of Gramsci's approach, building a neoGramscian theory of just transitions around concepts of ideology, hegemony, change agents and fundamental conditions. The theory suggests how coalitions of change agents can come together behind a just transition. The coalition needs to gain broader support, establish a new cultural hegemony in support of just transitions and be able to transform the fundamental conditions of the 21st century. The article briefly considers how this better understanding can be applied to the practice of shifting development pathways. The penultimate section reflects on limitations, including that a fuller development of a theory of just transition will require application for detailed concrete examples and a community effort. Together, we might address the multiple challenges of our present conditions to transition to development that enables human flourishing and a healthy planet.

Synthesizing value sensitive design, responsible research and innovation, and energy justice: A conceptual review (2020) 🗎🗎

Many academic approaches that claim to consider the broad set of social and ethical issues relevant to energy systems sit side-by-side without conversation. This paper considers three such literatures: Value Sensitive Design, Responsible Research and Innovation and the Energy Justice framework. We argue that whilst definitions of these concepts appear, on face value, to be united by a common normative goal - improving the social outcomes and mitigating sensitivities at the interface of technological energy systems and human livelihoods -, their existence in academic silos has obscured complementarities, which, once synthesized, might increase their overall academic and practical relevance. This paper fills the emergent gap of critically discussing the concepts and their strengths and challenges as well as how they could contribute to each other. It compares: (1) the things that they claim to tackle, (2) the solutions they claim to provide and (3) the points that clearly distinguish one approach from another (if any at all). Not only does this make this paper the first of its kind, but it also makes it an impactful one. With each concept gaining various degrees of support in academia and practice, our discussion reveals where tensions exist and where positive gains can be made. We identify five opportunities for collaboration and integration with implications for the achievement of energy systems that are acceptable from a societal and ethical perspective.

A systematic review of energy systems: The role of policymaking in sustainable transitions (2020) 🗎🗎

The language of systems can be highly useful when defined clearly. It can help make sense of the interconnectedness of key actors, the 'emergence' of outcomes from large numbers of interactions, and the proposed transformation - by many governments - towards sustainable energy systems. However, 'whole systems analysis' and 'systems thinking' is often too vague to guide this project well. To explore these issues in depth, we show how they arise frequently in UK energy policy research and its impact on policymaking. First, our systematic review shows how researchers present patchy or inconsistent stories, in which the role of policy and policymaking is unclear, when they describe energy systems. Second, UK and devolved governments often use the language of systems to propose paradigmatic energy policy change, but refer to a metaphor rather than academic insights. Third, we outline three ways to make clearer sense of energy transitions and policy with reference to socio-technical, complex, and social-ecological systems.

Land-sea interactions and coastal development: An evolutionary governance perspective (2020) 🗎🗎

Coasts are changing at an impressive speed. Therewith come changes in and challenges to governance that require an empirically-based understanding in order to foster sustainability transitions. New challenges are often not adequately met, so a host of problems arise. The papers in this special issue speak to these problems and consider which governance approaches might be worth exploring. The authors look at a diverse set of governance practices and changes, using the lens of Evolutionary Governance Theory (EGT). This theoretical approach is chosen, because EGT offers a perspective on governance which gives central place to co-evolution. EGT integrates a broad range of theoretical notions, drawing on evolutionary and system theories, institutional economics and versions of post-structuralism. EGT is put to use to analyse what is called in the framing paper 'the coastal condition'. It is argued that governing land-sea interactions and the coastal zones is particularly prone to problems of observation (between land and sea, between centre and coastal margin) and complex interdependencies (between social and ecological systems, between actors managing risk). Governing land-sea interactions requires multi-level governance and new forms of policy integration, which means, an explicitly coastal governance arena, semi-autonomous yet subjected to the checks and balances of a multi-level system. The various papers develop these insights by highlighting problems of coordination in coastal governance, issues of inclusion/exclusion, diverse knowledges and observations. They illustrate how the coastal condition engenders risk and uncertainty, and how it renders policy integration more important, while simultaneously making it harder to achieve.

Studying Industrial Decarbonisation: Developing an Interdisciplinary Understanding of the Conditions for Transformation in Energy-Intensive Natural Resource-Based Industry (2020) 🗎🗎

The ambition to keep global warming well below 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels, as recognised in the Paris Agreement, implies a reorientation towards low-carbon societal development and, ultimately, the decarbonisation of human societies and economies. While climate policy has been geared towards achieving set emission reduction targets, the decarbonisation of key socioeconomic sectors such as energy-intensive natural resource-based industries (ENRIs) has not yet been sufficiently addressed, neither politically nor in science. Decarbonising the ENRIs is a complex societal problem that will require structural transformation technologically as well as socially. Understanding the conditions for transformative change therefore necessitates integrated knowledge from multiple perspectives of different research fields. In this paper, we examine the potential of combining three different research fields and critically scrutinize the challenges to integration for understanding the conditions for industrial decarbonisation: energy system analysis, sustainability transition research and policy studies. We argue that these perspectives are complementary-a fundamental condition for fruitful integration-but not easily compatible since they are sometimes based on different ontological assumptions. The research fields are in themselves heterogeneous, which poses additional challenges to an integrated research approach. Drawing on experiences from a Swedish research project (GIST2050) on industrial decarbonisation, we suggest a modest approach to integrated research that could progressively develop from multidisciplinary exchange towards more integrated forms of interdisciplinarity by means of cross-disciplinary dialogue and understanding.

Transition tensions: mapping conflicts in movements for a just and sustainable transition (2020) 🗎🗎

The concept of a 'just transition' positions justice concerns of workers, front-line communities, and other marginalized groups at the center of sustainability efforts. However, related scholarship has largely neglected conflicts that arise between sustainability and justice goals. A framework is developed to identify three main tensions that planners and activists may encounter in efforts to advance a just transition. First, the 'sustainability-inclusivity' tension involves conflicts between rapid and bold policy action in time-sensitive contexts and inclusive governance processes. Second, the 'sustainability-recognition' tension involves conflicts between sustainability performance and recognition of diverse value systems and rights. Third, the 'sustainability-equity' tension involves conflicts between achieving sustainability performance and equitable distribution of benefits and burdens. Identifying and intentionally responding to such tensions is crucial to advance a just transition in the context of growing domestic and international inequality, the erosion of worker rights, and a warming climate.

Aligning integrated assessment modelling with socio-technical transition insights: An application to low-carbon energy scenario analysis in Europe (2020) 🗎🗎

In this study, we present and apply an interdisciplinary approach that systematically draws qualitative insights from socio-technical transition studies to develop new quantitative scenarios for integrated assessment modelling. We identify the transition narrative as an analytical bridge between socio-technical transition studies and integrated assessment modelling. Conceptual interaction is realised through the development of two contrasting transition narratives on the role of actors in meeting the European Unions' 80% greenhouse gas emission reduction objective for 2050. The first transition narrative outlines how large-scale innovation trajectories are driven by incumbent actors, whereas the second transition narrative assumes more 'alternative' strategies by new entrants with strong opposition to large-scale technologies. We use the multi-level perspective to draw out plausible storylines on actor positioning and momentum of change for several technological and social niche-innovations in both transition narratives. These storylines are then translated into quantitative scenarios for integrated assessment modelling. Although both developed transition pathways align with the European Union's low-carbon objective for 2050, we find that each pathway depicts a substantial departure from systems that are known to date. Future research could focus on further systematic (joint) development of operational links between the two analytical approaches, as well as work on improved representation of demand-oriented solutions in techno-economic modelling.

Econ 101-In need of a sustainability transition (2020) 🗎🗎

Ecological economics was one of the first of a number of scientific communities to develop transdisciplinary understandings of the sustainability challenges faced by society. As a field with economics in its name, ecological economics differs from the other communities and should face the particular task of contributing to the development of a new economics. For economics to promote sustainability transitions, it is not enough to call for more pluralism. A new basic structure of economic knowledge should be developed in order to provide the foundation for a sustainability transition to Econ 101. This paper argues that the performativity of economics needs to change and proposes a way of structuring Econ 101.

Retiring: Role identity processes in retirement transition (2020) 🗎🗎

Retirement transition has become a prolonged process of adaptation, including changes in role identity. However, there is a dearth of research on the process by which retirees cope with the role transition, including how pre-retirement role identities shape the transition, the forms of identity work undertaken by retirees, and the unfolding nature of retirement transition. In an in-depth qualitative examination of the transition process, we identify pre-retirement role identity profiles based on work and nonwork role identities. We then examine how pre-retirement role identities influence the transition process, including the nature of identity work in transition and the transition pathways demonstrated by retirees. Our findings provide insights into strengths and limitations afforded by pre-retirement identities: They facilitate agentic coping in which retirees shed old and adopt new identities but also impose inertia and prolong the transition until identity crises force the retirees to undergo identity exploration and adoption of new identities.

Between straitjacket and possibility: Energy initiatives and the politics of regulation (2020) 🗎🗎

Following critiques that scholarship on socio-technical transitions was overly normative and emptied of politics, a burgeoning stream of literature has begun offering understandings of transition that are more informed by politics. Whilst fruitful, there is a tendency in some of this work to constitute politics as the background or contextual frame in which socio-technical change unfolds, rather than as a process central to its emergence. Collaterally, relatively little attention has been given to how politics emerges in the everyday practices and struggles of energy initiatives. Engaging with recent work in urban studies, this paper explores how political processes unfold on the ground. We argue that one key site for this emergent politics is the institutional and regulatory arrangements that energy initiatives must navigate in carving out their activities. We do not address these simply as an externalised array of norms and procedures that variously impose upon and impede the efforts of energy initiatives. Instead, we explore how initiatives' trajectories are shaped by and entangled with the institutional and regulatory landscapes in which they operate. What we call politics emerges in and is exposed through initiatives' everyday efforts to negotiate and respond to regulatory strictures and opportunities. We explore the regulatory conditions that influence the everyday practices of three differently scaled energy initiatives in Scotland, Spain and Germany, each of which is variously involved in the generation, distribution and sale of energy. Our paper considers not only the ways that institutional arrangements generate obstacles for renewable energy innovation, but also how they may open up certain - albeit limited - possibilities for action, in some cases with larger ramifications for how the production and distribution of energy are governed. However, we note that where such possibilities arise, they are heavily determined by the terms set by existing institutional and regulatory frameworks, pointing to the limited scope for crafting new kinds of energy politics under current conditions.

The role of engineers in the greening of the South-Western Norwegian Maritime Industry: Practices, agency and social fields (2020) 🗎🗎

This article argues that transition studies needs to be informed by practice theory in order to unpack how green transformation takes place. Drawing on a study of the greening of the maritime industry in South-Western Norway, a social field methodology encompassing practice theory is used to nuance the practice of key actors in this industry. In so doing, I analyse how the practice repertoire of engineers relates to transformation. I find that engineers, in addition to 'normal' engineer practices, perform several 'non-engineer' practices important for transformation, and that engineers in their greening efforts are practicing in several social fields of different scale and scope; a global 'engineer discipline' field associated with 'normal' engineer practices, a regional 'industry cluster' field associated with cleantech practices, and a national 'political' field associated with lobbying practices. Accordingly, the practice repertoire of the engineers is mull-scaled and complex, and of great importance for the green maritime industry transformation taking place. Theoretically, the article nuances the multi-actor perspective within transition studies by showing how one actor group engages in several practices contributing to transformation. It also contributes to the recent agency turn, by showing how engineers-as-institutional entrepreneurs engage in both technological- and institution-changing practices. Finally, the social fields and field-dynamics in which engineers take place also exemplifies a 'geography of transformation', which to date remains relatively unexplored within transition studies.

Assessing the state of uranium research: Environmental justice, health, and extraction (2020) 🗎🗎

In this introductory essay for the Special Issue on Uranium, we provide an overview of the state of the research and ways forward for researchers and practitioners. We focus specifically on research and developments in: uranium and social justice, focusing on giving a brief historical overview; the global political-economic context; and environmental and social injustices related to uranium. We conclude with an overview of contributions to this discussion made by articles in the special issue and highlight ways forward for social scientists.

Challenges and opportunities for re-framing resource use policy with practice theories: The change points approach (2020) 🗎🗎

Concerns about the climate crisis and the escalating pace of global consumption are accelerating the pressure on governments to moderate public demand for resources like water, food and energy. Notwithstanding their increasing sophistication, standard behavioural change approaches continue to be criticised for a narrow understanding of what shapes behaviour. One alternative theoretical position comes from practice theories, which draw on interpretive and relational understandings to focus on practices rather than people's behaviour, and hence highlight the complex and distributed set of factors shaping resource use. While practice theories have gained considerable interest from policy institutions within and beyond the UK they so far have had limited impact upon policy. It has even been argued that there are insurmountable challenges in reconciling the ontological commitments of practice theories with the realities of policy processes. This article advances academic and policy debates about the practical implications of practice theories. It works with evidence from transdisciplinary research intended to establish whether and how key distinctive insights from social practice research can usefully be brought to bear on policy. We pursued this through co-productive research with four key UK national policy partners, focusing on effective communication of social practice research evidence on agreed issues. A key outcome of collaboratively negotiating challenging social theory to usefully influence policy processes is the 'Change Points' approach, which our partners identified as offering new thinking on initiatives promoting reductions in people's use and disposal of resources. The Change Points approach was developed to enable policy processes to confront the complexities of everyday action, transforming both how problems are framed and how practical initiatives for effecting change are developed. We discuss the case of food waste reduction in order to demonstrate the potential of Change Points to reframe behaviour change policy. We end the paper by addressing the potential and limitations of informing policy with insights from practice theories based upon the successes as well as the challenges we have met. This discussion has broader implications beyond practice theories to other fields of social theory, and to debates on the relations between academic research and policy more broadly. We argue that, through a co-productive approach with policy professionals, and so engagement with the practices of policy making, it is possible to provide a partial and pragmatic but nevertheless effective translation of key distinctive insights from practice theories and related research, to reframe policy problems and hence to identify spaces for effecting change for sustainability.

How action research can make deliberative policy analysis more transformative (2020) 🗎🗎

Hajer and Wagenaar originally proposed Deliberative Policy Analysis (DPA) as an approach suited to transforming a policy world characterized by complexity, pluralism and unpredictability. Because its transformative ambitions have long remained unfulfilled, DPA has begun embracing a variety of Action Research (AR) approaches committed to generating policy change in a world beset by multiple sustainability crises. However, a systematic assessment of how AR can make DPA more transformative has been absent thus far. We argue that AR can strengthen the transformative ambitions of DPA in three ways. First, it helps clarify the purposes of DPA based on a critical and relational worldview emanating from their shared pragmatist foundations. Second, it unveils the structural challenges of becoming more transformative in the shadow of the hegemonic institutional organization of academic and policy systems. Finally, it provides a heuristic framework for engaging in the critical-relational dynamics of generating policy change and sustainability transitions. We conclude with a number of recommendations, based on AR principles, practices and experiences, that deliberative policy analysts can adopt to help their initiatives become more transformative.

Revealing power dynamics and staging conflicts in agricultural system transitions: Case studies of innovation platforms in New Zealand (2020) 🗎🗎

Innovation platforms (IPs) that support agricultural innovation to enable transition processes towards more sustainable agriculture provide a space where conflicts of interest among actors in the existing agricultural system (the so called incumbent regime) may play out. Sometimes these conflicts over how actors will benefit from an action are not revealed until actors are brought together. However, a barrier to change occurs when IP actors use their existing power to mobilise resources to influence if and how individual and collective interests are aligned. In the context of agricultural innovation and transitions, this paper uses the power in transitions framework (Avelino and Wittmayer, 2016), along with analytical perspectives on conflicts and role perceptions, to understand how consciously staging or revealing conflicts of interest among IP actors changed role perceptions and power relations among these actors. The paper explores this topic in two IPs addressing agricultural production and sustainability challenges in New Zealand's agricultural sector. Conflicts were staged in IPs when one group of actors mobilised resources that enabled them to move existing power relations from one-sided, to synergistic or a mutual dependency. This enabled conflicts to be acknowledged and solved. In contrast, conflicts were not staged when actors mobilised resources to maintain antagonostic power relations. Our cases demontrate that staging conflicts to change actors' role perceptions is an important intermediary step to forming new power relations in the agricultural system. Our findings highlight the need for IP theory to conceptualise power relations in IPs as context specific, dynamic and a force shaping outcomes, rather than solely a force exerted by actors in the incumbent regime over IP actors.

Positioning of systemic intermediaries in sustainability transitions: Between storylines and speech acts (2020) 🗎🗎

How do systemic intermediaries obtain legitimate roles for themselves in innovation systems and transition processes? This is still an understudied question in the study of systemic intermediaries. We start from the observation that roles, or positions, are not given, but emerge in interactions as a negotiated set of rights and obligations. Inspired by positioning theory, which has its roots in symbolic interactionism, we analyse how positions are invoked in the actors' various actions and statements ('speech acts') and how they draw from the mutually constructed narratives ('storylines') that enable and constrain the range of possible positions. We analyse, over time, the positioning of three Dutch systemic intermediaries in agriculture, energy production, and healthcare. We conclude that systemic intermediaries move together with the promise of the field and, as a consequence, have to reposition themselves. In different phases, they both profit and suffer from the dilemma between initiating and sustaining innovative systemic changes.

Governing system transitions in the context of scattered agency: Flexibility, action, and ecologies of epistemic equipment (2020) 🗎🗎

Orchestrating change when agency is scattered among many different actors is a salient challenge affecting the governance of societal systems during transitions. Established normative governance approaches emphasize the cultivation of shared understandings among actors as a premise for coordinated transformative action. The aim of this paper is to outline a more nuanced and less integrated conception of the governance work involved in aligning agencies in pursuit of transformative change. First, we argue that attempts to coordinate agencies must account for the fact that most actors relate to societal systems from specific situated positions and through specific situated practices, rather than from abstract perspectives. From this point of departure, we stipulate that coordination practices are shaped by the techniques employed by actors to interpret the complex environments of societal systems as meaningful and actionable. We conceptualize such techniques for making sense of complexities as epistemic equipment. Based on a case study of flexibility governance in the transition to low carbon energy systems in Denmark, we suggest that identifying, intervening, and reshaping entire ecologies of epistemic equipment constitute critical aspects of transformative system governance. These governance activities configure how situated actors make sense of their own roles within systems, which are experienced through practical everyday actions.

Capturing the micro-level of intermediation in transitions: Comparing ethnographic and interview methods (2020) 🗎🗎

To date, a major portion of sustainability transition research has relied on retrospective methods to generate encompassing macro-level views of transitions. However, such methods may have considerable impacts on the insights generated in the study of intermediation, action and agency by actors on the micro-level of transitions. In this article, we compare retrospective interviews and real-time ethnography to understand how they portray micro-level transition processes and intermediation. The empirical context of our study is energy retrofitting, which we use to illustrate three structural and three process aspects that distinguish the findings from retrospective interviewing and real-time ethnography. Ethnographic methods can provide significant new detail on the uncertainty and complexity of micro-level transition processes while interviews facilitate cross-case comparison and understanding of commonalities in micro-level transition intermediation processes better.

"Making energy transition work": Bricolage in Austrian regions' path-creation (2020) 🗎🗎

In the quest for energy transition pathways, energy regions have become the instrument of choice in peripheralized Austrian regions. This paper unveils why "locked-in" regions usually struggling with systemic change can still create alternative paths. Based on the bricolage concept and the ASID heuristic, we develop a framework to examine the transition processes of three Austrian energy regions (Gussing, Hermagor, Murau). The case studies illustrate the significance of bricolage in mobilizing agential, structural, institutional and discursive resources towards regional path-creation, and show how strategic agents skillfully assemble these resources to mold the transition process in their favor. We thus conclude that (1) the bricolage approach can be a valuable analytical lens for all aspects of regional development in "locked-in" regions, and (2) the energy regions instrument reinforces existing power structures, suggesting why inclusive energy transitions might still fail despite resourceful and robust plans.

Governing technological zones, making national renewable energy futures (2020) 🗎🗎

This article examines linkages between strategies and imagined futures by focusing on one, often neglected facet of governance: science and innovation policy. Using the case of renewable energy imaginaries in Scotland, the article explores how strategies are used to create technological zones and knowledge infrastructures. In creating strategies for low-carbon futures, Scottish nationalists draw on imaginaries of an energy-independent nation in order to enable specific futures. By incorporating these imaginaries into strategic planning documents, nationalists exploit a powerful narrative from which to manifest energy futures. Further, through creating technological zones and knowledge infrastructures, the Scottish Government can work to actualize these futures even though its political power is limited. While it can be tempting to view strategies as a series of steps that implement policies in order to progress toward a desired future, this case demonstrates the nuanced ways in which energy futures and imaginaries of nationhood can be made tractable through science and innovation strategy, illustrating the dynamics through which these sociotechnical strategies enable specific futures and communities. The speed and scale of Scotland's energy transition also raises questions about what might be possible in terms of transitioning other sectors or collectives that are constrained in their political power.

From niche to mainstream: the dilemmas of scaling up sustainable alternatives (2020) 🗎🗎

At the heart of transition research lies the question of how to "scale up" sustainable alternatives from a protected niche to the creation of mainstream practices. While upscaling processes are often seen as an essential element that contributes to societal transformation, upscaling itself remains a fuzzy concept. We argue that some fundamental dilemmas of upscaling can be identified, for example, the different understanding of the concept by researchers and practitioners. The dilemmas should be addressed in a more reflexive way by those from the worlds of science and practice who are involved in collaborative research settings.

Climate Change and Energy Futures-Theoretical Frameworks, Epistemological Issues, and Methodological Perspectives (2020) 🗎🗎

Critically re-imagining our energy systems is a major task for addressing climate change. Technological change or market signals do not automatically create new energy futures. Rather, political priorities and action shape the ambitions behind energy transitions. In response, this special issue is dedicated to re-thinking energy futures related to climate change, with attention to the social values and norms, hierarchical structures, and social imaginaries underlying decision-making in a carbon-constrained world. Three cross-cutting themes run across this special issue. First, the papers identify new ways of envisioning and creating low-carbon energy futures that engage a range of social actors. Second, the papers highlight the need for analyses that bridge the global and local scales. Third, this issue emphasizes the importance of dialogue across disciplinary perspectives to strengthen the role of environmental social science in decision-making and community responses to climate change and energy futures.

The role of inter-sectoral dynamics in sustainability transitions: A comment on the transitions research agenda (2020) 🗎🗎

Building on the chapter "Businesses and industries in sustainability transitions" in the STRN agenda, this viewpoint calls for more attention to how economic and environmental goals can be aligned to enhance the political legitimacy of transitions. This requires, we suggest, a more integrated understanding of the relationship between industrial transformation and sustainability transitions. We provide a tentative articulation of such a perspective by recombining insights from the fields of Industrial Dynamics and Transition Studies. We point to three issues that can serve as starting points for developing such a perspective and argue why those merit more attention in transition studies. These include: (a) attention to the diversity of sectors and firms involved in, and affected by, transitions through inter-sectoral linkages, (b) how existing knowledge bases influence the direction and scope of transitions, and (c) policy challenges associated with parallel transitions in multiple sectors that constitute economy-wide processes of structural change.

Intermediaries in accelerating transitions: Introduction to the special issue (2020) 🗎🗎

Sociotechnical transitions are complex processes that imply far-reaching technological, institutional and cultural changes. Transition intermediaries have emerged as potentially powerful actors and entities to speed up transitions. As much previous literature on intermediaries in transitions has focused on emergence, in this special issue, we focus on intermediaries in the acceleration phase of transitions. The contributions address different domains, with specific focus on different parts of the energy production and consumption system. The contributions cover three themes: intermediary actors in the diffusion of new solutions, in policy change, and systemic intermediaries. We end by making three observations regarding intermediation in the acceleration of sustainability transitions: new types of stakeholders coming into transition processes requiring new forms of intermediation; contestation and tensions becoming stronger, creating new challenges for intermediaries, and; potential confusion within intermediary actors.

The fragility of regional energy transitions (2020) 🗎🗎

Regional energy transitions are dynamic processes. In ideal-typical phase perspectives, transitions undergo 'initiation', 'expansion' and 'consolidation' phases, a linear progression towards increasing stability of the newly introduced institutions and technologies. This paper focuses on the so far underexplored fragility that may occur in the course of this process. Due to their multiscalar embedding regional transitions are highly susceptible to dynamics on the local, regional, national and international level. We systematically explore the conditions underlying this fragility by detailing socio-technical, spatial and phase-oriented aspects of energy transitions. The regional actors' response to fragile conditions is thereby seen as crucial for the continued transition of a region. We draw upon the case of wind sector dynamics in Oldenburg (Germany) and find that, counter to expectations, fragility is not only a characteristic of the early stages, but in this case particularly pronounced in the apparent consolidation of the regional energy transition. The regional actors' strategies in response, however, ensure its likely continuation.

How to change the sources of meaning of resistance identities in historically coal-reliant mining communities (2020) 🗎🗎

This paper explores the sociocultural identity debate surrounding coal mining and coal combustion infrastructures in Aragonese coalfields (Spain) to better understand local and individual resistance to energy transition. Adopting the Touraine-Castells sociological perspective and using an interpretive approach and a qualitative research design with in-depth interviews, this article focuses on cultural attributes that give meaning to resistance and project identities under construction. It also explores how resistance identities are linked to climate and energy policies and proposes an analytical framework to understand and to design decarbonisation pathways from resistance identities to project identities. The following conclusions are drawn from this study: a) the sources of meaning supporting current resistance identities are similar to juxtaposed, legitimising coal-phase identities (occupational, class-belonging and community identities), are reactive and founded on coal dependence, solidarity and justice; and b) resistance can only be overcome by a sustainable territorial project with a social base, which is why the adaptive dilemmas of historically coal-reliant mining communities (HCRCs) must be resolved. This research paper demonstrates the need for innovative governance to promote a transformative transition that addresses the sociocultural identities of HCRCs in the design of ecological transition contracts.

Renovation realities: Actors, institutional work and the struggle to transform Finnish energy policy (2020) 🗎🗎

Transitions research argues that destabilizing current carbon-intensive regimes is necessary for transforming energy systems. In this study, we analyze how both new and established energy policy actors seek to influence energy transitions in a relatively stable institutional context. Our empirical focus is on Finland, where the governance of energy policy has been characterized as closed and stagnant and is increasingly challenged by novel actors. The analysis is based on expert interviews (n=24), completed with existing literature and other documentary material. We examine the different forms of institutional work actors undertake. Our analysis shows how the existing institutional setting conditions actors' choices over the endeavors that are worth pursuing. We show how the institutional work approach adds nuance to studying actors' activities in regime destabilization processes. We find that actors focus on creative institutional work and avoid disruptive activities. While our results confirm a strong commitment to carbon neutrality, the focus on creative institutional work and a lack of disruption point to incremental changes in energy policy and networks.

Sociotechnical agendas: Reviewing future directions for energy and climate research (2020) 🗎🗎

The field of science and technology studies (STS) has introduced and developed a "sociotechnical" perspective that has been taken up by many disciplines and areas of inquiry. The aims and objectives of this study are threefold: to interrogate which sociotechnical concepts or tools from STS are useful at better understanding energy-related social science, to reflect on prominent themes and topics within those approaches, and to identify current research gaps and directions for the future. To do so, the study builds on a companion project, a systematic analysis of 262 articles published from 2009 to mid-2019 that categorized and reviewed sociotechnical perspectives in energy social science. It identifies future research directions by employing the method of "co creation" based on the reflections of sixteen prominent researchers in the field in late 2019 and early 2020. Drawing from this co-created synthesis, this study first identifies three main areas of sociotechnical perspectives in energy research (sociotechnical systems, policy, and expertise and publics) with 15 topics and 39 subareas. The study then identifies five main themes for the future development of sociotechnical perspectives in energy research: conditions of systematic change; embedded agency; justice, power, identity and politics; imaginaries and discourses; and public engagement and governance. It also points to the recognized need for pluralism and parallax: for research to show greater attention to demographic and geographical diversity; to stronger research designs; to greater theoretical triangulation; and to more transdisciplinary approaches.

Four approaches to anticipatory climate governance: Different conceptions of the future and implications for the present (2020) 🗎🗎

In times of accelerating earth system transformations and their potentially disruptive societal consequences, imagining and governing the future is now a core challenge for sustainability research and practice. Much social science and sustainability science scholarship increasingly engages with the future. There is, however, a lack of scrutiny of how the future is envisioned in these literatures, and with what implications for governance in the present. This article analyses these two aspects, building on the concept of "anticipatory governance." We understand anticipatory governance to broadly meangoverning in the present to adapt to or shape uncertain futures. We review perspectives within public policy, futures studies, social-ecological systems, environmental policy and governance, transition studies, science and technology studies, and responsible research and innovation literatures. All these literatures engage explicitly or implicitly with the notion of anticipatory governance, yet from distinct ontological and epistemological starting points. Through our review, we identifyfour approachesto anticipatory governance that differ with regard to (a) their conceptions of and engagement with the future; (b) their implications foractions to be taken in the present; and (c) theultimate endto be realized through anticipatory governance. We then map onto these four approaches a diverse set of methods and tools of anticipation that each engages with. In concluding, we discuss how these four approaches provide a useful analytical lens through which to assess ongoingpracticesof anticipatory governance in the climate and sustainability realm. This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance

A framework for recognizing diversity beyond capitalism in agri-food systems (2020) 🗎🗎

Calls for agri-food system sustainability transitions abound and increasingly draw attention to the need for addressing deeply ingrained social, cultural and economic logics that drive unsustainability, and specifically political economy of the systems of provision. Yet, the analytical conceptualization of diversity with regards to capitalism in agri-food systems remains limited. This paper fills this gap by proposing and illustrating a framework for recognizing capitalist, alternative capitalist, and non-capitalist configurations in enterprises, cooperatives, associations, and other socioeconomic entities in agri-food systems. The framework is informed by poststructuralist theories of capitalism and development, as well as by other analyses and critiques of capitalism rooted in relational understandings of society-in-nature. It entails the following dimensions: (a) ontology: space, time, human nature, logic of relation; (b) economic relations: enterprise, labour, economic transactions, Property, finance; (c) relation with the State: participation in regulation and legitimation; (d) knowledge. The application of the framework to cases of community supported agriculture (CSA) shows the coexistence of capitalist, alternative-capitalist or non-capitalist elements in CSA initiatives. Distinct CSA initiatives show different configurations of the framework's elements. In some cases, configurations changed over time as a result of tensions between actors, or between the CSA and its context. The uncovering of these dynamics proves that the framework can be a valuable tool for recognizing diversity beyond capitalism in a given food initiative.

A framework to explain the role of boundary objects in sustainability transitions (2020) 🗎🗎

Our modern society is characterized by increasing diversity and complexity, leading to overwhelming challenges like climate change or environmental degradation. These problems are posing impracticable ethical dilemmas and conflicts of interest among an expanding range of institutional logics. While this cognitive, ideological, scientific, and political diversity can represent a major barrier for the collaborative work that sustainability transitions require, it is also a necessary resource for innovation and adaptation. It is then natural to wonder how diversity and collaboration among institutional logics can be accommodated and balanced. In this article, we develop a framework to explain the role of boundary objects in sustainability transitions (BOIST framework), which describes how ambiguous artefacts (boundary objects) can be deliberately employed by actors to drive transitions through bridging conflicting logics without constraining their diversity. The applicability of the framework is demonstrated with an in-depth case study of the Copenhagen municipality's transition to more sustainable stormwater management.

Revisiting carbon lock-in in energy systems: Explaining the perpetuation of coal power in Japan (2020) 🗎🗎

Carbon lock-in hampers the realisation of sustainable energy systems. It occurs when carbon-intensive technologies, markets and institutions co-evolve and become wedded to historical trajectories despite environmentally superior technologies being available. Multiple material and non-material causes are discussed in literature on socio-technical or energy transitions and carbon lock-in. However, these are yet to be synthesised into a comprehensive framework to guide the empirical identification of lock-in factors. Also, empirical understanding into how various causes of lock-in can interact is limited. To deepen understanding into the various types of socio-technical lock-in affecting energy transitions, we develop an encompassing analytical framework accounting for material, human, non-material and exogenous factors. In addition to carbon lock-in and path dependency, we synthesise diverse literature encompassing sustainability transitions, energy policy, innovation and firm management, economics and political economy. The resultant framework provides a finer-grained and more comprehensive understanding of lock-in than previous studies. Using Japan as a case study, we then apply this framework with two questions in mind: (i) What factors are contributing to the perpetuation of coal power in Japan? and ii) What opportunities emerge to overcome these? The empirical analysis is informed by triangulated data involving 46 semi-structured interviews and diverse documents. Our findings reveal a wide array of interacting factors that contribute to the perpetuation of coal-power in Japan and several emerging opportunities to tackle these. They also demonstrate our framework's utility as a heuristic that scholars could apply to other cases to increase empirical understanding into the multiple causes of socio-technical lock-in.

Territorial and institutional obduracy in regional transition: politicising the case of Flanders' energy distribution system (2021) 🗎🗎

This case study unravels the ambiguous position of public energy distributor Fluvius in dealing with strategic regional transition challenges. It enriches current understandings of spatial transition dimensions and of public regime actors' role in transitions, by unravelling the territorial and institutional embeddedness of regional energy distribution systems. We disentangle three controversies in Flemish energy distribution, centred around the spatial concepts of density, spatial selectivity and socio-spatial redistribution. This spatial lens reveals the implicit spatial logics and inherently political character of transforming regional distribution systems. We conclude that a fundamental energy transition requires more inclusive governance, and an ambitious spatial transition vision.

A practice approach to understanding the multilevel dynamics of sanitation innovation (2021) 🗎🗎

Although radical innovations are expected to play an increasing role in sustainable development by changing existing (unsustainable) systems, many of them do not succeed. This paper describes one such failure of inno-vation in the sanitation sector and offers insight into how innovators could redirect the innovation process to bring about real change. Drawing on practice theory in combination with the multilevel perspective on sus-tainability transitions, we identify elements of practices associated with a sanitation innovation and analyse how these interact with established practices in the sanitation sector. We establish the factors that facilitated and impeded this innovation?s ability to create change. Based primarily on interviews conducted during a longitu-dinal case study undertaken between 2012 and 2018, our results suggest that: 1) the division of practice into elements of material, activity, competence and meaning facilitates a detailed analysis of how the innovation interacts with existing practices; 2) innovators may need to act as activists to align the meanings ascribed to the practice at hand across the regime actors, and 3) understanding the different elements of practice helps identify lock-ins that prevent niche innovations from succeeding. We conclude that it is necessary to change the practices of more resourceful actors in different parts of the regime, especially in policy, in order to move beyond experimental stages of innovation.

The politics of deliberate destabilisation for sustainability transitions (2021) 🗎🗎

This paper advances scholarship on deliberate destabilisation for sustainability transitions. To understand how deliberate destabilisation plays out in practice, the politics of such processes must be confronted. To this end, we bridge research on the political economy of sustainability transitions with recent theorisations of the deliberate destabilisation of unsustainable socio-technical regimes and propose a set of analytical dimensions and guiding questions for the study of the latter. The added value of a political economy perspective to understand the politics of deliberate destabilisation in capitalist economies is demonstrated through the historical example of the phase-out of hen battery cages in the Netherlands. The poultry sector in the Netherlands embodies an industrial approach to food and farming, orientated towards producing large amounts of standardised and cheap food. We foster new insights on the influence of intertwined political and economic interests for deliberate destabilisation processes, which may reproduce, rather than transform, unsustainable and unjust socio-technical regimes.

Exploring the role of learning in sustainability transitions: a case study using a novel analytical approach (2021) 🗎🗎

Based on an exploratory case study of a community food waste initiative in Gothenburg, Sweden, this article presents a novel analytical approach to studying the role of learning within sustainability transition niches. The article's theoretical perspective draws from pragmatist educational philosophy, practice theory, and sustainability transition studies. Proceeding from this theoretical perspective, a two-stage empirical analysis is conducted using dramaturgical analysis and practical epistemology analysis, methods from sociology and the educational sciences. Building on this analysis, the article introduces the concept of educative practices, through which it is argued that a role of learning at the niche level within sustainability transitions is to interrupt the reproduction of norms and attitudes within socio-technical systems. The article thus offers original analytical and conceptual tools for investigating sustainability transitions in relation to learning.

Bringing geopolitics to energy transition research (2021) 🗎🗎

This perspective aims at a geopolitical conceptual and empirical contribution to research questions on power in energy transition research, coming from the history of energy and Sustainability Transitions Studies. It aims at answering the call that has been made for the development of approaches that take power dynamics between actors into account, by authors coming from Sustainability Transitions Studies. This article suggests a geopolitical approach of power relations, at and of the different scales of energy transitions - understood as a change of energy resource could open a complementary and more spatial vision on this issue based on the main concepts of representations, territoriality, and resource development. This conceptual proposition is then developed over two empirical examples. The first one is France's energy governance system, which is just stepping out of its precedent energy transition towards nuclear energy. It explores the effects of the ongoing sustainable transition on the structure of the political landscape and of the energy sector using the concepts of resource development control and appropriation. The second one on EU energy transition policy highlights the importance of representations, a key concept in geopolitics, whose analysis facilitates the understanding of actors' strategies.

Entrepreneurial Sustainability Engagement of Insiders Initiating Energy System Transition (2021) 🗎🗎

The central point in this article is that energy system transition can be initiated by a team of individuals interacting entrepreneurially beyond their different home-grounds in business, research, or regional development. Such entrepreneurial engagement of insiders with belongings to an established socio-technical system has not been captured in prevalent sustainability transitions or entrepreneurship perspectives. Insiders have mostly been expected to act within (and not outside) of their role expectations. This study investigates who individuals initiating energy transition are, what motives they have, and how they accomplish institutional change. The purpose is to qualify a perspective that can help us better appreciate how transitions, such as in energy systems, can be initiated. The new perspective recognizes the importance of insiders, their personal sustainability beliefs, their choice to teamwork entrepreneurially, and their narratives about the initiative affecting institutional change. It explains how transition in a heavily regulated Swedish energy system can occur. Implications are drawn for research, policy and entrepreneurial teamwork.

The role of social identity in institutional work for sociotechnical transitions: The case of transport infrastructure in Berlin (2021) 🗎🗎

Generally, sociotechnical change requires that agency is exercised across multiple, connected levels or contexts. Yet there is very little work in the sociotechnical sustainability transitions literature that theorises these connections in ways that acknowledge the individual-level processes involved. Here we show how identity theory can connect macro- and micro-levels of analysis, with identity construction being a social psychological process that is also involved in institutional work. For empirical illustration we use the case of emerging mobility transitions in Berlin, Germany, in particular aspects of institutional work for infrastructural change in favor of cycling. The study shows how the construction of a common identity among varied actor groups has been key to a citizen campaign for safe cycling infrastructure. The construction of a socially inclusive identity relating to cycling has been made possible by prioritizing the development of a campaign network comprised of weak ties among stakeholders, rather than a closer-knit network based on a more exclusive group of sporty cyclists. The findings are discussed in the light of both social psychological models and sociotechnical transitions theory. The implications for scaling niche practices for sustainability are considered.

On the Road of Discovery with Systemic Exploratory Constellations: Potentials of Online Constellation Exercises about Sustainability Transitions (2021) 🗎🗎

Sustainability transitions are shaped by specific dynamics, dependencies, and influences among the actors and elements that are part of the system. Systemic constellations as a social science research method can offer tangible visualizations of such system dynamics and thereby extract valuable, often hidden knowledge for research. This article builds on two online exploratory system constellation exercises about sustainability transitions, with two major objectives: (i) to introduce and disseminate (exploratory) systemic constellations as a method for (sustainability) research, and (ii) to extract their potential for (online) collaborative and transdisciplinary research, with a focus on sustainability transitions. Our exploratory research design includes participatory action research that took place during the virtual International Sustainability Transitions Conference 2020, Vienna, Austria. Data were analyzed following an interpretative-hermeneutic approach. The main findings consist of visualizations about sustainability transition dynamics between selected actors in Germany and Portugal that are discussed in light of the literature on constellation work and sustainability transitions, triggering new assumptions: (i) a strong sustainability narrative does not (necessarily) lead to action and transformation and (ii) transformation requires integrating narratives beyond weak and strong sustainability. We conclude with a list of potentials of exploratory constellations for sustainability research and online formats that offer novelties such as a constant bird-eye perspective on the system while simultaneously engaging with the system.

Pluralising agency to understand behaviour change in sustainability transitions (2021) 🗎🗎

In order to maintain a habitable planet, relatively fast and large-scale transitions towards sustainable societies are needed especially regarding the production and consumption of energy. The transitions require people to change the ways they conduct their daily lives as well as agency (capacity to act) in bringing about the needed changes at different levels of society. However, inadequate attention to human behaviour and agency is a recurring critique of the sustainability transition literature. In this article, we bring together insights from institutional, socio-psychological, practice theoretical and relational perspectives to highlight the diversity of understanding agency in sustainability transitions. The different approaches provide a nuanced view on the roles of people and the conduct of everyday lives in sustainability transitions. Building on the multi-level perspective (MLP), we argue that in order to acquire a more holistic understanding on the role of agency in sustainability transitions, attention should be paid to the links and interactions between different socio-technical systems, such as energy, transportation, waste and food as well as their internal dynamics, blurring the boundaries of micro-, meso- and macro-levels. Improved understanding of agency will bring to the fore everyday behaviour as an enabler of sustainability transitions. Furthermore, it will allow a more nuanced perception of the transition dynamics, which can significantly improve the overall understanding of the situated sustainability transitions mechanisms.

Regime resistance and accommodation: Toward a neo-Gramscian perspective on energy transitions (2021) 🗎🗎

Transition scholars are increasingly addressing questions of power and politics in their explanations of the direction and form of sustainability transitions. Drawing on insights from neo-Gramscian scholarship to enhance the conceptualisation of power in sustainability transitions, we develop a theoretical account of how combinations of incumbent actor resistance and accommodation contribute to regime stability and change. We use this to understand how incumbent firms and their industry organisations contribute to the (re)production of a sociotechnical regime by drawing on material, institutional and discursive forms of power to execute strategies of resistance and accommodation. This helps embellish understandings not only of the nature of the power of specific incumbent actors tied to a particular regime, but also of the operation of incumbency as a deeper system of power. We apply a neo-Gramscian lens to the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions: a lens comprised of multiple interrelated concepts, including hegemony, historical bloc, integral state, war of position, passive revolution and trasformismo, whose contributions we outline in turn.

Alteration spaces: Charting the sustainability potential of large organizations (2021) 🗎🗎

Large organizations play a key role in sustainability transitions through their systems of pro-duction and consumption and their influence on wider society. Recognizing the uniqueness and complexity of structure-agency relations in organizations, this paper uses the example of food provisioning to compare the sustainability potential of eight national and multinational organi-zations located in Ireland. By introducing the novel concept of 'alteration spaces' to describe specific intra-organizational structure-agency constellations and their dynamics over time, we question existing interventionist views of organizational change. We argue these tend to overstate extra-organizational impulses for change while paying insufficient attention to organizational culture and committed individuals as potential sustainability advocates within organizations. This, in turn, facilitates a reconceptualization of individual agency as embedded within an organizational context, thereby challenging dominant understandings that disregard the potential of established organizations to initiate intra-organizational changes that shape and reflect sus-tainability transitions.

Patterns of policy learning in the RIS3 processes of less developed regions (2021) 🗎🗎

The implementation of the Smart Specialisation approach was expected to require an especially challenging commitment to policy learning in less advanced regions compared with advanced ones. This paper suggests a partially different analytical framework by discussing the relevance of path dependency in the design and implementation of Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3). The research question concerns the relationship between previous experiences in innovation policy also in less advanced regions and RIS3 policy processes. Based on the two case studies of Sicily and Apulia (Italy), the paper investigates in which way policy heritage contributed to the quality of processes and outcomes.

Towards methodological diversity in sustainability transitions research? Comparing recent developments (2016-2019) with the past (before 2016) (2021) 🗎🗎

The sustainability transitions research field continues to broaden rapidly, engaging scholars from a wide variety of disciplinary backgrounds. As highlighted in the STRN research agenda, transitions research relies on a broad range of methodological approaches; yet the methodological diversity of transitions studies has remained somewhat limited. In this article, we investigate if this verdict still applies to transition studies published since 2016. While our findings suggest that the recent literature became methodologically more diverse especially with regard to theoretical frameworks and research questions, other methodological dimensions continue to suggest a lack of diversity. Based on our literature review we propose three particularly promising areas for further diversifying future research on socio-technical transitions towards sustainability: theoretical bridging, novel methods, and multi-scalarity across multiple sectors.

Systems Engineering for the Energy Transition: Potential Contributions and Limitations (2021) 🗎🗎

Systems engineering finds its origin in analyzing and exploring complicated technical systems. In this positioning paper, we set out to discuss the value and limitations of a Systems Engineering approach in its contribution to societal challenges, notably the energy transition. We conceptualize the energy system as a sociotechnical system. We specifically explore stakeholders and their roles, agency, and acceptance. We illustrate the relevance by a case at the municipal level that shows the relevance of acceptance, pluralism, distributed agency, context, and process aspects. The municipality is still in a phase of exploration and conceptualization. Systems Engineering can be of great value in this phase to explore the problem and solution space. However, to make the most of this requires that Systems Engineering addresses policy making, distributed agency, and complexity. We discuss the challenges this poses for the traditional Systems Engineering approach; we indicate several potential strategies to address these challenges, and we show two fields that can help clarify how to address these challenges: transition studies and sustainability assessment.

The energy-extractives nexus and the just transition (2021) 🗎🗎

The concept of a 'just transition' to a low-carbon economy is firmly embedded in mainstream global discourses about mitigating climate change. Drawing on Karl Polanyi's political economy elaborated in The Great Transformation, we interrogate the idea of a just transition and place it within its historical context. We address a major contradiction at the core of global energy transition debates: the rapid shift to low-carbon energy-systems will require increased extraction of minerals and metals. In doing so, we argue that extractive industries are energy and carbon-intensive, and will enlarge and intensify social and ecological injustice. Our findings reveal the importance of understanding how the idea of a just transition is used, and by who, and the type of justice that underpins this concept. We demonstrate the need to ground just transition policies and programmes in a notion of justice as fairness.

Dancing with complexity: Making sense of decarbonisation, decentralisation, digitalisation and democratisation (2021) 🗎🗎

Energy systems around the world are changing, not only in terms of the technologies involved, but also with respect to economic, social, geographic and political dimensions. This perspective examines how four key trends: decarbonisation, decentralisation, digitalisation and democratisation - collectively packaged as the 'four Ds' of energy system transformation - are being discussed to describe energy system change. Rather than existing as concrete facts, I argue that such trends are important analytical frames, and highlight the role of their social construction in articulating and realising diverse energy futures. 266 unique actors from diverse communities and multiple geographies were found to have used the four Ds and other 'D frames'. Content analysis illustrates how articulations of energy trends have been used in actors' sense-making around the challenges, threats and opportunities presented by energy system change. I argue that many of these articulations can be understood in the context of increasing system complexity, and specifically, the need to rationalise technical, organisational and institutional logics of control. Given the importance of the sociology of trends in shaping energy futures, the paper concludes by raising some provocations for research and policy.

Place-based industrial strategy and economic trajectory: advancing agency-based approaches (2021) 🗎🗎

Agency-based approaches represent a fundamental advance in how researchers and policymakers can address questions of place-based industrial strategy, including issues of governance, leadership, new technology and regional assets. However, these approaches can be advanced further by recognizing the centrality of discourse in regional change. This paper does this by synthesizing two conceptual frameworks: Grillitsch and Sotarauta's trinity of change agency and Moulaert et al.'s framework of Agency Structure Institutions Discourse (ASID). Deploying two Australian case studies to shed light on drivers of change at the local scale, this paper demonstrates that discourse is a necessary component of transformative regional processes. Furthermore, it contends that successful transformation is presupposed by the extent to which local discourse overlaps with local opportunity spaces and forms of agency. Successful place-based industrial strategies need to mobilize these multiple elements of regional change in order to maximize their potential for success.

The outcomes of directionality: Towards a morphology of sociotechnical systems (2021) 🗎🗎

The sustainability transitions literature departs from the idea that grand challenges such as climate change and rising inequality call for far-reaching changes in sociotechnical systems of production and consumption. This implies a dual interest in the directionality of innovation; some directions of change can be perceived as more desirable, while others may be more plausible due to the path dependent nature of sociotechnical change. The specific characteristics of the potential outcomes of directionality have, however, received little attention. Our aim is therefore to unpack and conceptualize the multidimensional space in which sociotechnical systems may adopt different shapes and configurations. We also provide three illustrative empirical examples where directionality has resulted in systems with different technical, social and spatial characteristics. The ideas put forward in this paper can be seen as a contribution to a morphology of sociotechnical systems and thereby support efforts to investigate or promote specific directions of change.

Technological revolutions, socio-technical transitions and the role of agency: Varmland's transition to a regional bio-economy (2021) 🗎🗎

The paper draws on the literatures on techno-economic paradigms and socio-technical transitions to analyse the impact of technological revolutions on regional development. Based on interview data collected from policymakers and regional firms, the paper adopts a multi-scalar approach to analyse the role of agency and strategy formulation in the emergence of a new bio-based techno-economic paradigm and the early stages of a process of socio-technical transition towards a forest-based bio-economy in the Varmland Region of Sweden. The paper contributes to an understanding of the role of strategic agency in new regional path creation in the context of radically technological change.

Actors in transitions: narratives of roles and change in the German e-mobility transition (2021) 🗎🗎

We apply an approach that theoretically connects processes at different scales within a sociotechnical sustainability transitions frame, focusing on individual actors. Drawing on interviews with actors involved in the electric mobility transition in Lower Saxony, Germany, we analyse actors' narratives as revelatory of situated or 'conjunctural' knowledge, as viewed from a strong structuration perspective of sociotechnical change. The purpose is to shed a particular type of light on structure-agency processes. Strong structuration is an extended version of Giddens' social theory that takes account of actors' subjective experience of their situation, viewing this as both shaped by - and shaping of - structure, in the sense of rules that are internal and external to individuals. Here we show how actors' narratives of their experiences and positions in the sociotechnical system reveal themes relevant to the on-going structuration electric vehicles in the case study region of Lower Saxony, Germany. We identify general 'meta-narratives' that span more than one individual, as well as personal narratives that are specific to individuals. In addition, the analytic value of narratives in transition literature is discussed.

Justice in transitions: Widening considerations of justice in dietary transition (2021) 🗎🗎

Just transition is gaining increasing attention. The need to consider social justice in sustainability transitions is finally being acknowledged. Research on this issue has, to date, mainly concentrated on energy systems. In this paper, we examine how the elaboration of dietary transition widens the spectrum of justice questions in sustainability transitions research. We explicate the arising normative questions along the dimensions of distributive, procedural and recognitive justice; widening the considerations further to restorative and cosmopolitan justice. Dietary transition widens the justice considerations to basic needs, food security and nutrition. By doing so, it evokes socio-cultural tensions that require recognition and procedural solutions. The uneven distribution of capacities to innovate and adapt require scrutiny from the just transition scholarship. Likewise, the recognition of non-human animals and integrity of agro-ecological systems. The relational three-dimensional understanding of justice can advance inter- and transdisciplinary research across various systems.

Transformative outcomes: assessing and reorienting experimentation with transformative innovation policy (2021) 🗎🗎

The impending climate emergency, the Paris agreement and Sustainable Development Goals demand significant transformations in economies and societies. Science funders, innovation agencies, and scholars have explored new rationales and processes for policymaking, such as transformative innovation policy (TIP). Here, we address the question of how to orient the efforts of science, technology, and innovation policy actors to enable transformations. We build on sustainability transitions research and a 4-year co-creation journey of the TIP Consortium to present twelve transformative outcomes that can guide public policy agencies in evaluating and reformulating their projects, programmes, and policies. We illustrate the transformative outcomes in two empirical cases: transitions towards mobility-as-a-service in the Finnish transport system and the emergence of speciality coffee in Colombia. We argue that the twelve transformative outcomes can guide public policy agents to fundamentally transform their ways of thinking and operation in advancing transformative change.

Cultural imaginaries or incommensurable ontologies? Relationality and sovereignty as worldviews in socio-technological system transitions (2021) 🗎🗎

Scholars bridging the fields of science and technology studies (STS) and energy research in social sciences (ERSS) offer a rich and integrated conceptualization of how energy systems are imbued in social systems, including cultures, social structures, institutions, and social relations of power. Yet as fields of study, STS and ERSS are dominated by approaches to understanding nature, culture, and relationships among them with origins in western European Enlightenment thinking. In this article, we argue that the language of "imaginaries" provides an understanding of culturally organized normative commitments but may obscure attention to what are actually diverse and sometimes incommensurable yet legitimate plural ontologies. Tribal Nations, Indigenous communities, and other non-Western worldviews are not simply imagined; they offer different teachings regarding the relational and embedded realities governing relations among human and more-than-human beings across time and space. The field of STS has a rich history of exploring ontological controversies and provides insight into understanding diverse and competing perspectives in science and technology, yet without articulating the connection between this conceptual terrain and the lived realities of socio-technological system entrenchment or change. ERSS recognizes participation, energy system democratization, and even co-production as components of a just energy transition, while most typically thinking about participation as a methodology or research approach rather than as requiring consideration and even wholesale reconceptualization of ontological foundations. To advance convergent, transdisciplinary social science research in socio-technological transitions requires grappling with plural ontologies regarding the reality of relations in the world. Here, we explore diverse ontologies shaping the realities of energy systems through the lens of Tribal Nations in the Great Lakes region in the United States. Ontologies that recognize reciprocal relationships among human and more-than-human beings as well as the sovereignty of these beings and their collective kinships suggest fundamentally different priorities for energy systems transitions. Moving beyond the language of imagination to recognize that cultures can involve diverse and sometimes incommensurable pluralistic ontologies is essential for developing inclusive and just frameworks for socio-technological system transitions.

Spillovers between policy-transfer and transitions research (2021) 🗎🗎

Although research on sustainability transitions has addressed transnational linkages, little attention has yet been paid to the international diffusion and transfer of public policies. Transitions studies and research on policy transfer have had sparse interaction thus far. This viewpoint argues that the two fields can enrich each other through new research topics and findings on the influencing factors of policy change and system transitions. Lessons on the interrelation between policy transfer and sustainability transitions could be crucial for spreading transformative change internationally.

How to Explain Major Policy Change Towards Sustainability? Bringing Together the Multiple Streams Framework and the Multilevel Perspective on Socio-Technical Transitions to Explore the German "Energiewende"(sic)(sic)(sic)Palabras clave (2021) 🗎🗎

Most efforts at explaining major policy transformation apply a single lens to study specific cases. Recent contributions have called for a more plural use of theories to facilitate the production of valuable new perspectives and research agendas. The German energy transition is a good example of such a transformative change. This article takes up the call for cross-fertilization of theories, using two complementary lenses to explain the German energy transition: (i) applying the multiple streams framework (MSF) demonstrates how political factors and public opinion have opened a "policy window" for reform from a political dimension. (ii) The multilevel perspective on sustainability transitions (MLP) sheds more light on the importance technological innovation for transformation processes. Exemplified through the German energy transition, we highlight limitations of both lenses, as well as the value of using multiple lenses to analyze specific cases of major policy change. The MSF highlights the role of agency and power relations. The MLP demonstrates how niche-technologies uproot the incumbent regime. Employing both lenses together offers insights as to how major policy change goes beyond single instances of decision-making but is the product of a larger trajectory of path-dependence that emerges from the interplay of socio-technical and political dynamics.

User innovation, niche construction and regime destabilization in heat pump transitions (2021) 🗎🗎

Domestic heating systems require a rapid shift to low-carbon options to meet global climate targets. We analyse a heat pump transition in two contrasting case studies: Finland and the United Kingdom, utilizing original data from interviews, document analysis, and archival online data. Finland has an almost completed transition, while the United Kingdom can be considered a stalled one. Building on previous research that has highlighted the importance of context, policy and users in transitions, we explore various user roles within low-carbon transitions, and how they shape processes of niche construction and regime destabilisation. Our findings show that the role of users is one key explanatory element of the different heat pump transitions. We also find that specific characteristics of a transition context can influence the types of users that emerge. We conclude that instead of just providing incentives, policy should also aim to mobilise users.

Introducing the Endowment-Practice-Institutions (EPI) framework for studying agency in the institutional contestation of socio-technical regimes (2021) 🗎🗎

A timely transition of socio-technical systems to more sustainable alternatives is crucial in mitigating climate change and other environmental problems. While innovation plays a significant role in such transitions, policy makers and the scientific community have become increasingly aware that the deliberate destabilization of existing socio-technical regimes-including associated institutions and technologies-is also often necessary. However, such aspiration is politically contested. This paper presents the Endowment-Practice-Institutions (EPI) Framework to study the contestation of institutions underpinning socio-technical regimes. By integrating key theories from Institutional Sociology and Political Economy, the framework conceives actors' capability of influencing institutional structures to be dependent on their institutional work practices and the various endowments that enable these practices. We present Japanese coal policy as an example to illustrate how the framework can be used to assess actors' institutional work and their influence on institutional outcomes. In addition to providing new theoretical insights, the framework helps to systematically analyze agency-driven mechanisms pertinent for the maintenance or destabilization of socio-technical regimes. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

(Un)making in sustainability transformation beyond capitalism (2021) 🗎🗎

Theorizations of sustainability transformation have foregrounded the construction (making) of novel socioecological relations; however, they generally have obscured processes of deliberate deconstruction (unmaking) of existing, unsustainable ones. Amidst ever more compelling evidence of the simultaneous unsustainability and continued reproduction of capitalist modernity, it is misguided to assume that transformation can happen by the mere construction of supposed 'solutions', be they technological, social or cultural. We rather need to better understand whether and how existing institutions, forms of knowledge, practices, imaginaries, power structures, and human-non-human relations can be deconstructed at the service of sustainability transformation. This paper demonstrates the usefulness of a lens that attends to processes of making and unmaking in sustainability transformations through an analysis of an ongoing sustainability transformation, the territorios campesinos agroalimentarios (TCA) endogenous territorial figure and peasant movement in Colombia. TCA is transforming territory beyond capitalism on the basis of relational ontologies and principles of autonomy, dignity and sufficiency. This paper identifies processes of unmaking of capitalism in the TCA and demonstrates how they are concretely entangled in the construction of post-capitalist realities. This paper sketches a research agenda on sustainability transformation that is sensitive to and theoretically equipped for the analysis of transformation as a multifaceted, multilevel process that entails the deconstruction of capitalist modernity and the construction of post-capitalist realities. Central to this agenda is a plural engagement with theories of social change from across the social sciences and humanities, which have not previously been mobilized for this endeavour.

The lifecycle of algorithmic decision-making systems: Organizational choices and ethical challenges (2021) 🗎🗎

In this viewpoint article we discuss algorithmic decision-making systems (ADMS), which we view as organizational sociotechnical systems with their use in practice having consequences within and beyond organizational boundaries. We build a framework that revolves around the ADMS lifecycle and propose that each phase challenges organizations with "choices" related to technical and processual characteristics - ways to design, implement and use these systems in practice. We argue that it is important that organizations make these strategic choices with awareness and responsibly, as ADMS' consequences affect a broad array of stakeholders (the workforce, suppliers, customers and society at-large) and involve ethical considerations. With this article we make two main contributions. First, we identify key choices associated with the design, implementation and use in practice of ADMS in organizations, that build on past literature and are tied to timely industry-related examples. Second, we provide IS scholars with a broad research agenda that will promote the generation of new knowledge and original theorizing within the domain of the strategic applications of ADMS in organizations.

Politics of complexity: Conceptualizing agency, power and powering in the transitional dynamics of complex adaptive systems (2021) 🗎🗎

This paper seeks to bridge the gap between socio-material and complex adaptive systems approaches in conceptualizing the politics of transformation. Our contribution in particular is a further clarification of the relational nature of power, and the role of non-humans in transitional dynamics of complex adaptive systems. We explore and operationalize the role of non-humans and relationality in (1) agency and (2) power, and the implications thereof for processes of (3) powering, through which power relations shape resource distributions and associated macro-scale dynamics. We consider agency as an embedded and temporal capacity for reorientation. This also entails attributing agency to entangled networks of humans and non-humans. Such a capacitive conception of agency follows from our understanding that agents and structures consist of comparable ontological building blocks, both being (networks of) components in complex adaptive systems. Power we understand as a productive and relational phenomenon that emerges from interactions between components and that structures their agency. We argue that such a 'force-field' understanding of power enables the observation of different types of power relations. Finally, we consider six different mechanisms through which power relations can result in a (re)distribution of resources and with that, contribute to self-reproducing or transformative systemic dynamics. With this conceptualization, we hope to advance the debate on the different facets of the politics of transformation, and to help further urgently needed transitions towards a more sustainable future.

Co-exploring relational heuristics for sustainability transitions towards more resilient and just Anthropocene futures (2021) 🗎🗎

In this paper, four relational heuristic responses for exploring new modes of engagement, or patterns of activity, that could enliven humanity's efforts in fostering systemic thinking and action to inform sustainability transitions are offered. Their purpose is to realise more resilient and just Anthropocene futures. These relational heuristics are (1) re-patterning our theories of change-making, (2) cultivating a shared future consciousness, (3) creating transformative spaces and (4) engaging in processes of co-exploration. We argue that these heuristics are better aligned for studying and responding to the systemic and interdependent nature of the real-world challenges we are currently facing.

Mixed feelings: A review and research agenda for emotions in sustainability transitions (2021) 🗎🗎

Low-carbon transitions across energy and transport systems have been widely researched in regards to how transitions are designed, what policies support them, which technologies they entail, and how fast, or slow, they take. Much of this research has focused on examining the agency and behavior of actors and institutions, or examining processes and outcomes, but less weight has been given to human emotions. Based on an explorative systematic review of the sustainability transitions literature, we address a research gap by focusing on how emotions have been reported or examined in transitions concerning energy, buildings and transport. We show that the acceptability and adaptation of new technologies, systems, policies and practices requires people's willingness to change, which itself needs positive emotional commitment. We thus propose a new research agenda for low-carbon transitions that takes into consideration people's emotions as we address climate change and attempt to move to net zero societies.

Rethinking the Multi-level Perspective for energy transitions: From regime life-cycle to explanatory typology of transition pathways (2021) 🗎🗎

The mounting challenge of climate change requires large-scale transitions in energy, mobility and agro-food systems underpinning industrial societies. An influential framework for the study of energy transitions is the Multi-level Perspective which has been applied to a broad range of new topics and questions over the last decades. One of the recent key themes is the timing, duration and acceleration of transitions. This paper aims to contribute to this discussion by offering a reformulation of MLP's 'global' model which explains socio-technical system shifts through interacting processes on niche, regime and landscape levels. Through a close inspection of MLP's seminal works coupled with selected insights from other literatures the paper develops two conceptualizations: 1) a regime life-cycle model of transitions; 2) a 'property space' based approach to transition pathways. These formulations enable to establish a common analytical core of various frameworks focused on systems change, open up new research questions, generate new hypotheses, construct an explanatory typology of transition pathways and provide practical methodological guidance for case selection in further research on energy and mobility transitions.

The Debate If Agents Matter vs. the System Matters in Sustainability Transitions-A Review of the Literature (2021) 🗎🗎

Transition studies is a growing discipline for addressing sustainability challenges. Traditionally, its focus has been at the system level. However, addressing sustainability challenges also requires attending to the role of agents in sustainability transitions. This is the focus adopted in this paper. We review the literature on agency in sustainability transitions, based on 77 journal articles on sustainability transitions listed in Scopus from 2014 to 2018. We find that agency is increasingly explored in the sustainability transitions literature. Despite this growing interest, this body of knowledge remains scattered in regard to typologies or theoretical framings. Our review leads us to identify three recurring themes. One theme drew our attention in particular: the transition research community is divided into those who argue that agency is sufficiently embedded in the transition literature and those who oppose this argument. Going forward, the dynamics of individual-level agency, including behaviors and motivation, deserve further attention.

Agency in Circular City Ecosystems-A Rationalities Perspective (2021) 🗎🗎

The concept of agency is increasingly used in the literature on sustainability transitions. In this paper, we add to that discussion by arguing that the concept of rationality opens new avenues to theorizing relational agency in transitions toward a circular economy. To this end, we compare rationality conceptions from management (e.g., collaboration and competition) with critical theory perspectives on rationality (e.g., instrumental and communicative rationality). This leads us to develop a typology matrix for describing plural rationalities underpinning relational agency. We illustrate this typology using excerpts from an in-depth case study of an ongoing city-coordinated ecosystem that develops a smart technology-enabled urban area based on the principles of circularity. The first contribution of this interdisciplinary paper is to offer a rational perspective on theorizing the antecedents of relational agency in circular economy transitions, where communicatively rational action enables agency and change. Secondly, our paper contributes to the literature on circular cities through conceptualizing circular transition as simultaneous collaboration and competition. Thirdly, our paper introduces a dyadic perspective on rationality to the literature on coopetition and provides an operating space from which professionals can navigate, depending on the type of coopetitive situation.

Collaborate and die! Exploring different understandings of organisational cooperation within Scotland's uncertain North Sea oil and gas industry (2021) 🗎🗎

This study ethnographically explores how collaboration is enacted within two differently structured sub-sea engineering organisations local to the oil & gas industry in Aberdeen, Scotland. Literature suggests organisational collaboration practices are largely dependent on trust, historical cooperation, establishing interpersonal relations and information sharing networks. Such notions are suggested as readily enacted in Aberdeen. However, following changes in industry landscape, we uncover a variety of additional factors pertaining to macro level local industry climate, and meso-level organisational cultures that shape different perceptions, understandings, and enactments of collaboration. To grow current scholarly thinking, we define how such diverse understandings actively prevent organisational collaboration in the restrictively competitive climate of Aberdeen's oil & gas industry. Implications for expanding understandings of collaboration in employment sectors facing substantial industry destabilisation and reformation are discussed.

Unravelling non-human agency in sustainability transitions (2021) 🗎🗎

While agency has received considerable attention in recent sustainability transitions studies, as well as in the literature on socio-ecological systems and sustainability transformations, the focus has been on the agency of humans. Given the emphasis on infrastructures and material culture in sustainability transitions studies, it is surprising that non-human agency has not received more attention. This paper aims to add to the body of work on agency and actor-oriented approaches in sustainability transitions, and addresses this gap by investigating the role of non-human agency in shaping sustainability transitions. Through an application of Actor-Network Theory, we followed the Bagrada hilaris pest, and analyzed the roles performed by the Bagrada as a so-called actant within a network of humans, as part of a transition-in-the-making towards more sustainable food systems. The Bagrada has been a key actant in provoking changes towards sustainable pest management in Chile, destabilizing regime practices associated with pesticides, and creating and mediating relationships between different human actors. In terms of transition theories, particularly the multi-level perspective, this case illustrates the relational nature of agency. The main theoretical implications are that: a) actants from all levels (niche, regime, landscape) are linked in networks of relations that make change happen; b) the landscape level is not void of agency; c) boundaries between levels are fluid. We conclude that relating to non-human actants and understanding how to mobilize them for normative goals can help catalyze sustainability transitions.

The Great Discrepancy: Political Action, Sustainable Development and Ecological Communication (2021) 🗎🗎

The term 'sustainable development' was coined to denote a political goal some 40 years ago; debates about sustainability date back considerably further. These debates reflect the growing awareness of the destructive effects of human activities on the natural foundations of life. Numerous initiatives have been launched to trigger a turnaround, with the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs being the latest attempt. However, substantial progress has been rather limited thus far. This discrepancy is the subject of the article. Starting from a historical overview of sustainability politics, the argument develops in three steps. First, it is shown that conventional conceptions to promote environmental change fall short in depicting the broader societal context. To provide a comprehensive picture of the challenges related to transformation processes, a theory of the functional differentiation of societies is presented in a second step. A systems theory perspective offers a convincing theoretical explication of the problem. Third, this approach is scrutinized with regard to the political system and the politics of sustainability. The key finding is that the specific functional logics of the different social subsystems must be taken into account when analysing sustainable development and the discrepancy between the aims and ambitions of (global) environmental policy and the visible consequences. On the one hand, the functional differentiation of modern society guarantees its high degree of effectiveness and flexibility. On the other hand, implementing fundamental change, such as a transition towards sustainability, is not simply a question of strategy or of political willingness and steering. Rather, there is a need for more elaborate explanatory instruments. As a result, we argue for a linking of theories of sustainable development and advanced social theory.

Conceptualizing the Role of Individual Agency in Mobility Transitions: Avenues for the Integration of Sociological and Psychological Perspectives (2021) 🗎🗎

With the release of the latest IPCC report, the urgency to steer the transport sector toward ecological sustainability has been recognized more and more broadly. To better understand, the prerequisites for a transition to sustainable mobility, we argue that interdisciplinary mobility research needs to revisit the interaction between social structures and individual agency by focusing on social norms. While critical sociological approaches stress the structural barriers to sustainable mobility, political discourse over sustainable mobility is still largely dominated by overly individualistic approaches, which focus on individual behavior change neglecting its social embeddedness. With discursive struggles over sustainable mobility intensifying, it becomes more urgent to better understand how structural contexts condition individual travel behavior, while at the same time showing how individuals engage in processes of social change. Against this backdrop, the article seeks to deepen the cooperation between sociological and psychological research in mobility transitions research. Building on a broad body of literature, we revisit recent theoretical approaches, which conceptualize the role of individual agency in sustainability transitions. On this basis, we highlight the role of social norms in mobility transitions as a key concept bridging individual behavior and social structures. Using Strong Structuration Theory as an integrative framework, we focus on the role of individual agency in processes of re-negotiation of social norms. Our main hypothesis is that individuals can contribute to mobility transitions by influencing and re-negotiating social norms, especially in the context of windows of opportunity. We analyze how focusing on the dynamic and conflicted nature of social norms can help to illustrate leverage points for a mobility transition as well as inspire future empirical research in the field. This includes that individuals can influence social norms through changing their own travel behavior as well as through engaging in discourse on transport policies.

Exploring the re-emergence of industrial policy: Perceptions regarding low-carbon energy transitions in Germany, the United Kingdom and Denmark (2021) 🗎🗎

Industrial policy has re-emerged as an area of policy discussion in recent years, but the characteristics and role of industrial policy vary across national contexts. Particularly, the role of industrial policy in the ongoing energy transitions of different countries has received little attention. We introduce an analytical framework to explore the relationship between industrial policy and different energy policy trajectories and apply this framework in an empirical analysis of the perceptions of key stakeholders in the energy sector in Germany, the United Kingdom and Denmark. We identify four key elements of industrial policy - industrial visions, industrial policy instruments, industrial policy governance, and employment concerns - and based on these analyse perceptions of how industrial policy has facilitated changes in the energy system of the three countries. We find significant differences in industrial policy styles for low-carbon transitions, reflecting broader differences in political institutions and cultures. Our analysis shows how sustainability transitions relate to industrial policy, and which elements can act as enablers and barriers to low-carbon transitions.

Making time, making politics: Problematizing temporality in energy and climate studies (2021) 🗎🗎

Sociotechnical transitions are grounded within temporal scenarios, predictions of the future, and competing long-term trajectories. While decarbonization timescales are central to many energy and climate studies, we are missing a critical reflection about the politics behind time-making and temporality in transitions research. To shed light on the contested nature of time in energy and climate politics and explain the struggle over the temporal dynamics of transitions, we propose a stronger engagement with time based on the growing body of literature from Science and Technology Studies (STS). We argue that conceptualizing time-as co-produced and deeply intertwined not only with advances in science and technology, but also with the ordering of politics and society-allows us to contest a neutral, and apolitical framing of decarbonization timescales, transformation pathways, and mitigation trajectories. An STS-informed perspective on time-making brings to light societal struggles and competing ideas of social and political ordering attached to the different notions of temporality. This focus allows us to critically engage with the politics behind themes like climate emergencies, urgent decarbonization targets, or deadlines for phasing out fossil fuels. In forwarding this argument, we briefly revisit the role of time in energy and climate studies and take stock of earlier STS research on the construction of time and the politics of temporal orders. We conclude by discussing how an STS perspective on time can contribute to the research agenda outlined by Benjamin Sovacool and colleagues and suggest new frontiers for energy and climate research.

Exploring the Role of a Colombian University to Promote Just Transitions. An Analysis from the Human Development and the Regional Transition Pathways to Sustainability (2021) 🗎🗎

Universities are central organisations that can act as promoters and amplifiers of regional just transitions. In this paper, we analyse how a Colombian regional university, the University of Ibague (UI), is playing this role through two initiatives: (1) a governance experiment piloted between 2018 and 2019 that constructed an aspirational vision for this university through the definition of eight human capabilities; (2) a formal curriculum regional programme named Peace and Region (P&R) established in 2010 as a service-learning strategy for undergraduates in their final year. To analyse the contribution of these two initiatives towards a just transition, we built a specific analytical framework based on the human development and capability approach and Regional Transition Pathways to Sustainability (RTPS). Exploring both the content and the process of building the list and perceptions of the different actors involved in the P&R programme, we found that both initiatives have a strong directionality that resonates with the normative ambition of a just transition. Moreover, in both processes, people involved have expanded human capabilities, and co-produced holistic and transdisciplinary knowledge through the interaction of academic and non-academic actors. From an RTPS perspective, the programme captures regional complexity and moulds micro-dynamics to socially fair and sustainable paths.

Narratives of Socioecological Transition The Case of the Transition Network in Portugal (2021) 🗎🗎

This article explores narratives and characteristics of sociological transitions displayed by members of the Transition Network (TN) in Portugal. It is informed by scholarly work on grassroots innovations, sociological transition narratives, and environmental engagement in Portugal. It furthers this research in three ways: (1) it analyzes an original case study-the Portuguese TN; (2) it identifies and defines the various socioecological narratives conveyed by its participants; and (3) it interprets the TN's sociopolitical appeal as a grassroots innovation in the context of environmental mobilization in Portugal. Drawing on 20 semistructured interviews with current and former members of the Portuguese TN, three narratives of sociological transition were identified-utopianism, inevitability, and pessimism-as well as seven characteristics that motivated interviewees' engagement with the TN.

Behaviour in sustainability transitions: A mixed methods literature review (2021) 🗎🗎

Sustainability transitions require changing many behaviours embedded in production and consumption systems. Simultaneously, behavioural public policy is now a significant site of research-policy translation globally. Links between behaviour and system change are underdeveloped in both fields. Systematic review of current transitions literature found -4% of papers focused on behaviour. Two prominent perspectives on behaviour (labelled: 'everyday' and 'strategic') are critical of a focus on individuals, preferencing broader analysis. Two additional perspectives were identified - 'automatic' and 'reflective' - which highlight immediate and local influences on behaviour but underemphasise context. All four perspectives on behaviour draw on different conceptualisations, causality, methods and disciplinary foundations, and yet all have value and application to transitions. We argue that a complimentary and flexible approach to behaviour would benefit the field, considering the diversity of phases, scales and contexts of sustainability transitions. Transitions' own behavioural perspectives could also help address behavioural public policy's challenges.

Bridging barriers in sustainability research: ? review from sustainability science to life cycle sustainability assessment (2021) 🗎🗎

Sustainability science (SS) has emerged to foster inter- and transdisciplinary research practices and the creation of new, robust, actionable knowledge for navigating sustainability transitions. However, whether the research paradigm of the emerging transdisciplinary SS has permeated the relevant research body to integrate with the subfield of sustainability assessment (SA) is an open question. Aiming to investigate and enhance interdisciplinary communication in SS theory and practice, we comparatively study three literature bodies: SS, SA and Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA). By combining conceptual analysis, bibliometric and social network analysis, and systematic content review, we explore how these research fields are and can be further interrelated. Our analysis indicates that the research paradigm of SS has hardly been embraced by SA scholars. There are however few SAs that have attempted to put SS concepts into practice and perform SAs that are both scientifically- and socially-robust. Extensive applications are needed to address current limitations and understand the feasibility and the outcomes of SS-inspired SA. Reflecting on the few empirical studies, we conclude that LCSA as currently applied cannot be a holistic and transdisciplinary framework for sustainability. An integration of life cycle- and other methods into robust, transparent and socially-embedded SA frameworks is needed, which will be enabled through communication and collaboration among SS and LCSA/SA scholars. Our paper gives insights towards this direction.

We, the Change Outlining Research Lines of How Psychology Can Contribute to the Understanding of Societal Transition Processes (2021) 🗎🗎

In the last years within sustainability research, the agreement seems to have changed about the appropriate strategies to solve the intensifying socio-ecological crisis. While the focus used to be on "greening" individual lifestyles, it has recently shifted to the fundamental transition of central societal production and consumption systems. This raises the question of what psychology with its traditional focus on the individual can contribute to a better understanding and successful design of such societal transition processes. The present paper aims to offer an outline of how such psychological research lines might look like. We use the social identity concept as a starting point and motivate it as central for understanding the transformation of an individual into a group member who voluntarily collaborates with others to create more sustainable socio-technical solutions for central societal needs. The three parts of our paper deliver compact descriptions of thought-provoking research lines which developed in the last years. These research lines contribute to a better understanding of how social identities as collective pro-environmental activists are "crafted," through which processes such as activist identities influence the participation in collective pro-environmental action and, ultimately, collective change. In sum, an important psychological contribution to the debate about the "Great Transformation" could be to provide a better understanding of what motivates individuals to actively participate in transition-oriented initiatives and how this motivation can be strengthened.

Regional foundations of energy transitions (2021) 🗎🗎

Due to a spatial turn in the socio-technical transition literature, the geography of energy transitions has recently been taken increasingly seriously, leading to burgeoning research output on regional energy transitions since early 2010. Amidst this wealth of publications, however, it can be difficult to keep track of its diverse and constantly evolving landscape. This editorial therefore aims at developing a framework that allows for bringing multiple approaches to regional energy transitions into conversation with each other and that helps to understand and explain the complexity of these interdependencies in ways that go beyond observing regional variety in energy transitions.

Sustainability Buckets: A Flexible Heuristic for Facilitating Strategic Investment on Place-Dependent Sustainability Narratives (2021) 🗎🗎

This article presents a heuristic framework to help respond to gaps in knowledge construction in sustainability transitions. Transition theory publications highlight concerns ranging from contentious understandings of sustainability to the need for generalisable conceptual frameworks around how place specificity matters in transitions. The heuristic presented here is a flexible framework for developing place-dependent narratives of sustainability transitions grounded in investment choices. The sustainability buckets development resulted from the abduction and retroduction methods. It was also underpinned by a praxis-oriented mechanism from business ('strategic investment buckets'), a transition theory conceptual framework ('the multi-level perspective'-MLP), and a social sciences heuristic ('sustainability cultures'). The sustainability buckets resulted from synthesising the critical literature with empirical findings drawn from two case studies in New Zealand. The heuristic proved helpful to navigate, organise, and code meanings and understandings of sustainability in the New Zealand agri-food context. It also helped facilitate dialogue with research participants from different backgrounds, such as government and business. The heuristic was designed to transform, remaining fit for purpose as transitions evolve. This article suggests the sustainability buckets could be used to enable investment opportunities for upscaling, reproducing, and transplanting transitions happening in distinct sectors and high-level systems.

Transforming ecological modernization 'from within' or perpetuating it? The circular economy as EU environmental policy narrative (2021) 🗎🗎

It is widely acknowledged that policies for a more sustainable society require narratives outside the status quo. This contribution studies the EU's environmental policy narrative of a circular economy (CE), which many consider promising in this respect. The results demonstrate that the CE narrative was created to transform EU policy discourses 'from within' but eventually perpetuated the established discourse of ecological modernization. This perpetuation resulted from specific strategic practices used to create the CE narrative, which (1) concealed conflict, (2) strengthened the agency of incumbents, and (3) excluded alternative voices. The analysis uses empirical evidence from 28 interviews with key stakeholders, 84 policy documents and participant observation data at the European Union (EU) level. The results suggest that the development of narratives outside the status quo depends on strategic practices that address (future) conflicts and offer new agency to change agents as well as transition strategies to incumbents.

Learning from emancipation: The Port Royal Experiment and transition theory (2021) 🗎🗎

Over the last decade, transition studies has emerged as an intellectual field aimed at answering the question: How do we get to a more sustainable world? Emerging from a combination of science and technology studies, evolutionary economics, and studies of innovation, transition studies has become a widely used conceptual tool to frame pathways to a more sustainable future. However, its embrace of a systems approach to change, I will argue, transition studies remains unengaged with critical theories of change in sociology, history, and political economy. In addition, geographers have critiqued transition studies for its lack of attention to spatial relationships. Using a particular historical case study of transition in a particular place-the Port Royal "Free Labor" emancipation experiments in the South Carolina Sea Islands during the Civil War-this paper explores both the weaknesses and the strengths of transition studies as a conceptual tool, and how attention to critical and spatial approaches to change can improve our understanding of transitions. In particular, I will show how a political ecology, as a critical and spatial approach, can improve transition studies. I will use a historical case, the Port Royal emancipation experiments, to illustrate how the addition of political ecology to transition studies can improve one's understanding of sustainable transition pathways.

Enacting a just and sustainable blue economy through transdisciplinary action research (2021) 🗎🗎

To enact a just and sustainable blue economy, one must consider all the actors involved in its shaping. This paper argues that a quintuple helix approach to stakeholder engagement - involving government, academia, the business community, and civil society - and an inclusive transdisciplinary action research (TAR) methodology are promising avenues with which to do so. Embracing critical pragmatism as a foundational framework, key ideas from three strands of research are consolidated: (1) the recent work on the geographical dimension of socio-technical sustainability transitions; (2) the literature on just sustainabilities and just transition; and (3) action research and transdisciplinary approaches to problem solving. This allows for the reimagination of a common future for the blue economy that is developed through a different kind of democratic process driven and informed by co-learning, and shared experiences. By adopting a transdisciplinary action research approach, actors from different disciplines and spheres of experience can gain a better mutual understanding and find commonality through the open door of collaboration. The theoretical argument presented in this paper is illustrated by a vignette of an ongoing TAR project at Southern Connecticut State University, which outlines the challenges and opportunities inherent to implementing a TAR approach.

Shifting patterns of expectations management in innovation policy: A comparative analysis of solar energy policy in the United States, Japan and Germany (2021) 🗎🗎

This article builds on the literature on sociotechnical imaginaries and the sociology of expectations to engage in the discussion of how expectation alignment facilitates the development of novel technologies. While existing scholarship has elaborated on how expectations alignment is important to support technological development, it has not fully explored how the challenges of expectation alignment are translated into practices of expectation management and collective governance over the innovation process. Based on a range of archival sources, the article examines three historical episodes of photovoltaics development in locations that had spearheaded its development: the United States, Japan and Germany. Based on these historical episodes, the article suggests three core issues for the management of expectations in technological development: the creation, adaptation and materialization of shared imaginaries.

Framing branching points for transition: Policy and pathways for UK heat decarbonisation (2021) 🗎🗎

This paper develops the use of the branching point concept as a tool to support key decisions for reorienting systems for sustainability. In this approach, a pathway is seen as arising from accumulation of many specific decisions which create momentum in a particular direction and so reinforce the irreversibility of the pathway. Three complementary approaches to branching point analysis are identified within the transitions literature: 1) in pathway-scenarios for sustainability, 2) framing key decision-points in historical analysis, 3) to deconstruct the politics of transition pathways. A case study of UK heat decarbonisation is used to apply the branching point concept. This analysis highlights the tension where a policy approach, framed by a sector-wide target, interacts with distinct socio-technical responses and an alternative policy approach to decisionpoints is proposed. This paper demonstrates the potential to develop branching point analysis into a tool to support and help structure policy decisions for transition.

Policy action for green restructuring in specialized industrial regions (2021) 🗎🗎

Combining insights from evolutionary economic geography and socio-technical transition studies, this article provides a conceptual framework and a theory-informed empirical analysis of policy dimensions for regional green restructuring. The combination of these two perspectives allows the application and confrontation of analytical concepts with the particularities of regions, with a specific focus on the role of policy to ensure directionality. Empirically our discussion is illustrated by a case study of Western Norway, a specialized industrial region. We focus on the role of policy for the development of new green technology pathways within this region. We observe that different industry transition pathways within a region are influenced by various combinations of policy action, and that policy for regional green restructuring includes complex policy mixes initiated at different levels of governance. Our framework provides a suitable scheme for assessing the role of policy for green restructuring in regions.

Just transition: A conceptual review (2021) 🗎🗎

The growing attention paid to the idea of a just transition away from the incumbent fossil fuel energy paradigm has led scholars to devise diverse definitions, understandings, and viewpoints of the term. This review seeks to clarify the different perspectives surrounding the concept, to consolidate knowledge, and to provide a concise account of current debates in the literature as well as a research agenda. It identifies five themes around which the concept has been discussed: (1) just transition as a labor-oriented concept, (2) just transition as an integrated framework for justice, (3) just transition as a theory of socio-technical transition, (4) just transition as a governance strategy, and (5) just transition as public perception. Overall, this review suggests that the literature on just transition employs rich theoretical and empirical insights from various disciplines yet contains several gaps. Specifically, it argues that the literature would benefit from more empirical studies rooted in practice, more discussion on the relationship between different concepts of just transition, an expansion of geographical scope to include developing countries and non-democratic regimes, and more attention to power dynamics in just transition.

Ecological economics: The next 30 years (2021) 🗎🗎

This editorial introduces a special section of the journal on ecological economics: The next 30 years consisting of 20 different articles from a broad range of contributors. It explores common themes from the articles including uncertainty, the normative goals of sustainable scale and just distribution, collective action, co-evolution, transdisciplinarity and the need for radical systemic change. Drawing on our own vision for the next 30 years of EE, we use multi-level selection theory (MLS) to help understand how these themes are connected, to offer insights into how we might promote collective action at the scale required to achieve a socially just sustainability transition, and to reassess the distinction between normative and positive science. We conclude that ecological economists are united primarily by the recognition that economics must be built from biophysical foundations and by our shared normative values that prioritize the common good over self-interested individual preferences

People and power: Expanding the role and scale of public engagement in energy transitions (2021) 🗎🗎

Given the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, energy transitions are among the most important STS research areas. Evidence increasingly points to social movements and mobilized publics as critical drivers of change, including transformative energy transitions. Yet STS' focus on science and expertise can miss the significance of the public's role in leading and shaping energy transitions. This paper explores how STS considers public engagement and disparities between project-specific issues and broader energy objectives, such as addressing global climate change. Drawing on research about public participation, mobilized publics, and social movements, the paper examines how expanding the STS lens of analysis can ensure that the public's role in energy transitions is fully assessed and reflected. The paper also discusses future research approaches and avenues for more interdisciplinary collaboration, which will be advantageous in investigating transformative energy transition pathways.

Energy transitions from the cradle to the grave: A meta-theoretical framework integrating responsible innovation, social practices, and energy justice (2021) 🗎🗎

An almost inexhaustible number of conceptual approaches has arisen in the past few decades to seek to explain the interlinked phenomena of energy transitions, low-carbon transitions, or sociotechnical change. With an eye for theoretical synthesis, this study asks: What do three particular epistemic communities-those concerning innovation, practices, and justice-say about energy transitions? What does this literature reveal about the injustices and inequalities of energy transitions? Finally, what can we learn by integrating aspects of this literature? The study answers these questions by drawing from responsible research and innovation, social practice theory, and energy justice approaches. Essentially the first is about the design of technology, the second how it is used, the third the broader societal and global implications. Taken together, the study offers an integrative framework capable of analyzing transitions from their "cradle" of design to their "life" of use to their "grave" of aftereffects. It explores the extent to which the three perspectives can be integrated into a meta-theoretical framework. This integrative framework is then applied to four diverse case studies: French nuclear power, Greek wind energy, Papua New Guinean solar energy, and Estonian oil shale.

World wars and sociotechnical change in energy, food, and transport: A deep transitions perspective. (2022) 🗎🗎

This paper explores the relationship between world wars and sociotechnical transitions in energy, food, and transport. We utilise and contribute to the Deep Transitions framework, which explores long-term, multi-systemic sociotechnical transitions and integrate a conceptual approach tailored to this particular topic. This approach bridges between historical literatures focused on world wars and sociotechnical perspectives. We explore in what ways the three sociotechnical systems of energy, food, and transport were influenced by the conditions of the First and Second World War and the extent to which these developments influenced lasting change. Our framework is based around three analytical steps: first, we analyse sociotechnical developments during wartime through the interpretive lens of mechanisms of total war. Second, we examine these developments in terms of how they can be interpreted as influencing the development of rules and meta-rules in sociotechnical systems. Third, we focus on the legacy of 'total war' utilising the concept of imprinting to examine the rules-based, infrastructural, and wider symbolic and cultural legacy of world wars in peacetime. This paper presents a novel interpretation of world war and sociotechnical transitions and contributes to a specific query of the Deep Transitions framework regarding the role of war in the emergence of the first deep transition. We consider the significance of this analysis in the context of sustainability transitions research.

Assessing transitions through socio-technical configuration analysis-a methodological framework and a case study in the water sector (2022) 🗎🗎

Classic accounts of transitions research have predominantly built on reconstructions of historical transition processes and in-depth case studies to identify and conceptualize socio-technical change. While such approaches have substantively improved our understanding of transitions, they often suffer from methodological nationalism and a lack of generalizability beyond spatial and sectoral boundaries. To address this gap, we propose a novel methodology - socio-technical configuration analysis (STCA) - to map and measure socio-technical alignment processes across time and space. STCA provides a configurational and dynamic perspective on how social and technical elements get aligned into "configurations that work", allowing for the identification of differentiated transition trajectories at and across spatial and sectoral contexts. The methodology's value is illustrated with the empirical case of an ongoing shift from centralized to more modular infrastructure configurations in the global water sector. Building on this illustration, we outline potential contributions of STCA to configurational theorizing in transition studies, sketching the contours of what we believe could become a generative epistemological approach for this field.