Smart Specialisation as a transition management framework: Driving sustainability-focused regional innovation policy?

Abstract

Intensifying debates regarding the capacity of innovation policy to contribute to addressing complex problems requires analysis of the relationship between different policy approaches and the concepts of sustainability and sustainable regional development. This paper makes an important contribution to this endeavour by considering the potential of the place based Smart Specialisation (S3) approach to be used as a vehicle for governing regional sustainability transitions. The potential for alignment between the Transitions Management (TM) framework and S3, predicated upon the central role of collaborative discourse in each, provides the analytical lens to explore this issue. Key factors which both promote and inhibit the potential of S3 to effectively pursue a sustainability agenda are identified. An exploratory case study of the first stages of implementation of S3 in Gippsland, Australia, suggests that the policy approach can be adapted to address some of the challenges. However, it also suggests that adaptation of the S3 process may act to conceal unacknowledged, systemic issues, with profound implications for its capacity to promote societal transition within constrained time frames.