Abstract
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.
Highlights
The scholarly literature on sustainability transitions has been evolving rapidly
We have identified the systemic level as a way to cluster actors in transitions, as in the case of the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP), in which actors are joined on the niche, regime, or landscape level
We find actors on different levels of governance, such as municipalities, administrative districts, national governments, and international organizations
Summary
The scholarly literature on sustainability transitions has been evolving rapidly. originating in evolutionary economics and complex systems approaches, parts of this literature stress the importance of agency for successful transitions [1,2,3,4,5]. Dominant concepts in transitions research, such as the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP), have been criticized for insufficiently considering agency [6,7,8]. Such criticism has been countered by arguing that the MLP is “shot through with agency, because the trajectories and multi-level alignments are always enacted by social groups” [9] We study whether or not agency is (quantitatively) falling behind more systems oriented concepts in the transition literature, and what actor-related concepts are most prevalent in this literature To this end, we perform a systematic exploration of 386 relevant journal articles (Supplementary material 1) listed in Scopus for their treatment of agency and actors. We conclude by outlining further directions for an integrated actor typology in sustainability transitions
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