Tracing discursive space: Agency and change in sustainability transitions

Abstract

Abstract This article argues that a lack of a consistent agency-based approach in theory on sustainability transitions makes it difficult to describe processes of change. To overcome this problem, elements from transition theory will be rearticulated in terms of ‘discursive fields’, which are the bodies of meanings with which actors engage in social action. With that an agency-based conceptual framework is developed with which processes of change related to sustainability transitions can be researched. Discursive fields are subjected to a different degree of ‘fixation’—some discursive fields are more susceptible to change than others. The notion of discursive fixation helps us to develop new insights about the some of the elementary elements of sustainability transitions, such as the establishment of a so-called socio-technological niche, as well as the scaling up of the outcomes of such a niche. Moreover, the approach developed will be used to explore how individual agents can contribute to change processes. These insights give rise to an array of new empirical research in relation to sustainability transitions.