Abstract
Sustainability transition research (STR) has failed to engage in any significant analyses or critiques of capitalism. This article argues that capitalism is not a ‘landscape’ factor, but rather permeates the workings of socio-technical systems in ways that must be recognised both for elaborating rigorous accounts of transition trajectories and for enhancing the capacity of STR to support future societal sustainability transitions. This argument is developed specifically in relation to the three challenges of STR: the analysis of the actual sustainability of sustainability transitions, the application of transition theory to cases in the Global South, and the move towards a forward-looking STR. The article identifies three main implications of this argument with respect to interdisciplinarity, the validity of current theoretical frameworks, and the practice of STR. Ultimately, the article invites STR scholars to be more openly reflexive not only about possible theoretical biases, but also regarding their own roles in society.
Highlights
Sustainability transition research (STR) ‘asks “big picture” questions’ (STRN, 2017, p. 6) on issues surrounding ‘radical and nonlinear societal change’ (Hölscher et al, 2018, p. 1)
In an historical context in which sustainability transitions are inevitably never politically neutral, how should STR scholars position themselves with respect to contested capitalist ideals of progress and development, and to what extent should these be implied in their transition models? How does awareness of capitalism influence where, and with whom and for what purposes STR scholars conduct research? Perhaps most importantly, what steps should be taken to ensure that future generations of STR scholars are literate in a range of relevant disciplines and engage in more self-critical research approaches?
In this paper I have organised my reflections on STR and capitalism by focussing on three research challenges that have been recently identified as critical for STR: the analysis of the sustainability of sustainability transitions; the application of transition theory to the Global South; and the move towards a more forward-looking STR
Summary
Sustainability transition research (STR) ‘asks “big picture” questions’ (STRN, 2017, p. 6) on issues surrounding ‘radical and nonlinear societal change’ (Hölscher et al, 2018, p. 1). In carving out its space at the ‘meso-level’, STR has generally viewed capitalism at the landscape level in the much used multi-level perspective (MLP) framework (Geels, 2002). This strategy might help to distinguish STR from other approaches to studying societal transitions and transformations (Feola, 2015). To take capitalism as an implicit given in STR implies the impossibility of a serious analytical examination of its economic, political, social and cultural conditions and dynamics, its diversity, its influence on sustainability transitions in different contexts, and the possibility that sustainability transitions might involve potentially fundamental changes in the capitalist system. This paper invites STR scholars to be more openly reflexive about possible theoretical and analytical biases, and in considering their roles in a world in which sustainability and other transformations are urged, envisioned, contested, and resisted by a very large and diverse number of actors and coalitions
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