Abstract
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.
Highlights
In 2007, the Netherlands introduced the Social Support Act, which focused on the ‘active’ role of inhabitants and citizens in providing social support and enhancing the social participation of vulnerable groups
We argued that the transitions field to date lacks a suitable vocabulary to analyse the interactions and relations of actors as part of a sustainability transition
We explored the potential of the concept of ‘role’ for transition research
Summary
In 2007, the Netherlands introduced the Social Support Act, which focused on the ‘active’ role of inhabitants and citizens in providing social support and enhancing the social participation of vulnerable groups. In the last years, transition thinking has been applied to broader sustainability questions in cities, neighbourhoods and communities (Bulkeley et al, 2011; Seyfang and Haxeltine, 2012; Schroeder et al, 2013; Wittmayer et al, 2016) It is in these contexts that changes in the social fabric (related to the concept of social innovations, cf Franz et al, 2012; Moulaert et al, 2013) become important drivers for change and where the concept of socio-technical transitions is extended to make it more apt for broader social analysis (cf Grin, 2010). This question is addressed through a literature overview of transition research focusing on the key points of convergence of different streams within this emerging field and their treatment of actors and agency; and a focused literature review of roles theories, starting from classical works and overview articles and zooming in on three perspectives, which allow us to understand roles in relation to societal change. We conclude the paper by summarizing the main insights and pointing to future research avenues (Section 5)
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