Conceptual niche management of grassroots innovation for sustainability: The case of body disposal practices in the UK

Abstract

The grassroots has recently been identified as an alternative site for the development of innovations that may contribute to shifts towards more sustainable systems of consumption and production. While the characteristics of these innovations have been elaborated, it remains unclear how these alternative ideas and practices can be purposively supported to populate incumbent systems. This is especially so in light of the difficulty the grassroots face in connecting forcefully with the mainstream. This article will address this issue by outlining an adaptation of conceptual niche management – an approach that focuses on the embedding of guiding principles used to fulfill basic societal needs – that is sensitive to grassroots innovation. The framework will be applied to the current UK body disposal system to illustrate how such transformative sustainability ideas may be capitalised on.