Transition Literature Research Articles

Nineteenth-Century Literature in Transition: The 1890s, edited by Dustin Friedman and Kristin Mahoney

<i>Nineteenth-Century Literature in Transition: The 1890s</i>, edited by Dustin Friedman and Kristin Mahoney

Developing the industrial capacity for energy transitions: Resource formation for offshore wind in Europe

As energy transitions progress from formative to growth or acceleration phases, issues related to resource formation increase in importance. In this paper we address a type of resource formation that has received scant attention in the sustainability transitions literature to date: developing the industrial capacity to manufacture and deliver key complementary assets (i.e. components and services) to large energy projects. Such supply chain elements constitute a significant share of investment, are crucial for the upscaling of low-carbon technologies, and offer important job and value creation opportunities for different regions and countries. Empirically we study the build-up of industrial capacity to supply key complementary assets to the European offshore wind power market in the 2000–2019 period through three phases (formative, take-off, growth) of development. We provide explanations to observed spatio-temporal patterns of industrial capacity development by considering 1) industry life-cycle dynamics, 2) pre-existing assets and industrial relatedness, and 3) home market opportunities.

Promoting health literacy of older post-discharge patients in general practice - Creation of the GP-MATE communication tool through co-design

ObjectiveWork with older patients and their carers to co-design a tool that improves patient - general practice communication and continuity of care following discharge of an older person from hospital. MethodsExperience Based Co-Design with three teams of six to seven lay people (older patients and their carers), each supported by a corresponding general practice group. The process included an implementation-focused event with participants using the intervention in a live role-play. ResultsCo-design generated a patient-held tool (GP-MATE) that focuses on four areas of post-discharge care: carers/caring; continuity; medication safety and information power. Access to general practice for patients/carers post-discharge was considered to be vital to improving communication. Discussion and conclusionThe co-design process enabled patients and carers to be involved through all stages of intervention development, ensuring relevance and alignment. Practice implicationsThe intervention is uniquely suited to general practice, comprehensive yet brief enough to be usable within a 20-minute consultation. While the domains of GP-MATE compare well with existing care transitions literature, it will be important to assess impact on already busy practice schedules and impact on care.

Identifying Locations for Early Adoption of Zero Emission Fuels for Shipping—The UK as a Case Study

The United Kingdom (UK) shipping industry is facing calls to set out more robust decarbonisation plans. In light of the economic challenges facing the country, including the cost-of-living crisis and energy security considerations, the UK government has outlined plans to spearhead several ‘green’ developments. It is of paramount importance to understand how best to integrate the domestic maritime sector into this process by promoting the adoption of low-carbon marine fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia. However, there is a limited understanding of what are the most suitable locations for the early adoption of such fuels in the UK. The sustainability transitions literature offers interesting insights into how marine fuel transitions can unfold, by combining the study of market factors with various non-market socio-technical forces. Previous academic work has shown the importance of location and proximity in facilitating alternative marine fuel transitions. This paper builds onto that work by applying a socio-technical transitions framework to develop a set of indicators to ascertain the suitability of potential locations for the early adoption of hydrogen and ammonia as marine fuels in the UK. This paper explores these dynamics by combining evidence from documentary sources, a UK ship voyages database, and interviews with key stakeholders. Furthermore, three specific case studies are analysed in detail to outline key drivers for the adoption of hydrogen and ammonia. The findings show that there is a significant difference across the UK in regional viability for the early adoption of hydrogen and ammonia, with some of the best suited sites being in the north of Scotland (Orkney), south of England (the Solent-Isle of Wight), and east of England (Felixstowe-Harwich).

Infrastructure Transitions in Southern Cities: Organising Urban Service Delivery for Climate and Development

Rapidly growing cities in the Global South are characterised by high levels of vulnerability and informality and are expected to bear a disproportionate share of the costs of a changing climate. The confluence of climate change impacts, inequitable urbanisation processes, and under-development emphasise the need for accelerated urban transitions in Southern cities, yet mainstream theories of urban sustainability transitions have been shown to be insufficient for such contexts. This is particularly relevant with regard to urban infrastructure: While mainstream urban theory tends to regard infrastructure as static, centralised, and heavily engineered, infrastructure configurations in cities of the Global South are often heterogeneous, comprising multiple dynamic social and material flows. Drawing on theory from Southern Urbanism and empirical data of unorthodox infrastructures from 14 cities, this article assesses the potential challenges posed by applying a key transitions framework—namely the Multi-Level Perspective—in Southern contexts. The article closes by suggesting a set of theoretical propositions for future conceptual and empirical research that could advance transitions literature more broadly, and highlights the need for all cities to pursue inclusive service delivery models that are responsive to the complex and shifting landscape of climate impacts.

Lost in transaction?: An institutional analysis of households’ transaction costs from demand-side grid management

Better utilization of the electricity grid is urgently called for, and demand-side management (DSM) measures are implemented to influence consumers' electricity consumption to off-peak periods. Little is known about how DSM measures generate private transaction costs for households, being crucial for the effectiveness and fairness of such measures. This article contributes to the energy transition literature by exploring sources of private transaction costs for households from a time-of-use tariff scheme for the grid in Norway. Data from nine group interviews reveal that uncertainty about the transaction (grid capacity), distrust of the transactor (grid provider) and the complexity of the institutional context (uncertainty about the electricity sector) increase transaction costs for households and reduce effectiveness of the tariff. Providing households with information on the reasons and methods for adjusting electricity consumption is essential, including the economic impacts on households of the new tariff. Additionally, households should receive enhanced guidance of technology use and behavior changes. For these two steps to work, trust in energy actors must be strengthened. Lastly, one should pay attention to the potentially undermining effect of such DSM measures on legitimacy of energy policies in general, given the unequal levels of transaction costs depending on households’ capital.

From policy mix to pavement: Exploring individual actor-internal factors in zero-emission truck adoption

Despite regulatory efforts and market availability, the adoption of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) in the road freight sector is limited. This paper investigates the influence of managers' policy mix perceptions on the uptake of ZEVs in Sweden. Based on a survey of transport operation managers, we analyse the interaction between their perceptions of how technology-neutral the prevailing policy mix is, the anticipated regret of premature technology adoption, the rate of technology change and their mutual influence on the decision to delay ZEV adoption. The study's findings reveal a positive correlation between managers' perceptions of technology neutrality and adoption delay. We further explain the mechanism in this relationship by confirming that anticipated regret mediates the positive correlation between perceived technology neutrality and the ZEV adoption delay decision: The more technology-neutral the policy mix is perceived, the more anticipating regret over adopting ZEVs is expressed by the managers, which, in turn, increases the likelihood to delay ZEV adoption. Moreover, managers' perceptions of the rate of technological change affect their anticipated regret. The work contributes to the transition literature by unveiling how a specific policy mix perception, namely technology neutrality, could delay the adoption of ZEVs and calls for a nuanced re-evaluation of the current policy mix to facilitate a faster transition towards net-zero goals. It also underscores the importance of paying closer attention to how individual actor-internal factors (such as perceptions and emotions) of individual decision-makers in organisations may influence transition processes.

Household niche experimentation in sustainability transitions and everyday life: A novel framework with evidence from low-waste living in Melbourne

Sustainability transitions research and policy treat households and the home in a narrow way. The paper reviews niche-based experimentation and social-practice theory informed sustainability transitions literature to develop a novel framework for deliberate household experimentation. The usefulness of the framework is explored in an action research project on low-waste living in Melbourne. Data was collected through interviews, weekly self-reports and three participatory workshops. The research confirms the usefulness of the framework and offers reflections on deliberate household experimentation. The conclusion is that similar to other niche spaces, household niches are instrumental in demonstrating, learning about, advocating for and critiquing different aspects of sustainability transitions. But in contrast to other niche spaces, households are deeply embedded in the everyday life of what matters to people. If the transition to low-waste living is to be successful, it needs to be planned from the perspective of everyday household life.

First transition dynamics of reaction–diffusion equations with higher order nonlinearity

AbstractIn this study, the dynamics of a reaction–diffusion equation on a bounded interval at the first dynamic transition point is investigated. The main difference of this study from the existing ones in the dynamic transition literature is that in this work, no specific form of the nonlinear operator is assumed except that it is an analytic function of and . The linear operator is also assumed to be a general operator with sinusoidal eigenvectors. Moreover, we assume that there is a first transition as a real simple eigenvalue changes sign. With this general framework, we make a rigorous analysis of the dependence of the first transition dynamics on the coefficients of the Taylor expansion of the nonlinear operator. The main tool we use in this study is the center manifold reduction combined with the classification of the dynamic transition theory. This study is a generalization of a recent work where the nonlinear operator contains only low‐order (quadratic and cubic) nonlinearities. The current generalization requires certain technical difficulties such as the validity of the genericity conditions on the Taylor coefficients of the nonlinear operator and a bootstrapping argument using these genericity conditions. The results of this work can be generalized in various directions, which are discussed in the conclusions section.

‘This coconut was the one that finally worked’: cursing for peace and justice in Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT This article analyses how Sandya Ekneligoda re-purposes cultural and religious cursing rituals to challenge disappearances, impunity, and illiberal peacebuilding in post-war Sri Lanka. Drawing on several cosmologies (principally Buddhist and Hindu), she invokes archetypal female deities/demons for healing and revenge. She uses performances of ritual cursing not only to keep her husband’s disappearance in the public eye and to critique domestic justice processes, but also to connect with other families of the disappeared across Sri Lanka’s ethnic, religious, and linguistic divides. In January 2022, she performed a cursing ritual against the ruling Rajapaksa clan, which ended with smashing a coconut. Six months later, a popular uprising had ejected the Rajapaksas from power. The article makes an original empirical contribution to the peacebuilding and transitional justice literature, which highlights the need to pay greater attention to (female) cosmological power, negative emotions, and non-liberal forms of resistance to illiberal peacebuilding.

Institutional voids and business model convergence in the recycling industry

Considering that recycling is seldom economically viable, this study analyzes how recycling organizations perceive institutional voids and adapt their business models to propel a transition from waste crisis to establishing waste management services. The analysis is embedded in the sustainability transitions literature and is approached from an institutional void and business model lens. Qualitative research was conducted with 23 organizations in the recycling industry of Lebanon. The main findings revealed that public voids mainly cause constraints with few exceptions of opportunities, whereas some market voids are perceived as constraints at times and opportunities at others, and coping with these voids leads to a convergence of business models. This study contributes to business model adaptation by examining its role in the transition process and to sustainability transitions research by focusing on how niche-level actors introduce waste management services that are otherwise the regime's responsibility.

Inertia and resistance to change in multi-actor innovation processes – Evidence from two cases in the Netherlands

Existing transitions literature often highlights successful experiments for changing practices through multi-actor processes but overlooks the challenges of adjusting incumbent practices and engaging actors in reflexive learning. The current article addresses this gap through two qualitative case studies of water-related co-creation processes in the Netherlands. Each case met inertia and resistance from various actors in different forms. We examine the difficulties encountered using data from semi-structured interviews and observations of micro-level interactions from embedded action research. We find that using transactional learning perspective combined with Practical Epistemology Analysis is useful for obtaining a worm-eye view of dynamics of incumbency on the actor-level, in contrast to the eagle-eye view commonly adopted in transitions studies. Our main contribution is the identification of specific barriers to change and demonstrating how a worm-eye perspective offers detailed insights into micro-level interactions that hinder sustainability transitions.

Integrating distributive justice in system dynamics models of sustainability transitions

AbstractSocial‐ecological‐technological transitions for decarbonisation and sustainable development goals can perpetuate or introduce environmental and socio‐economic injustices. The just transitions literature provides useful perspectives for assessing transition pathways. This paper explores integrating distributive justice into system dynamics modelling for sustainability transitions. For this purpose, we adapt existing requirements to enable the evaluation of distributive justice in model‐based support for climate planning to the specific case of system dynamics modelling. We test the requirements by using a previously developed system dynamics model to (1) gain insights into the application of the requirements and (2) reflect on their further development. Our findings underscore the importance of transparency in model assumptions and results. They suggest exploring the behaviour space of models to account for uncertainty and plurality of stakeholder values. Furthermore, they emphasise the need to discuss the implications of model results and the plurality of stakeholder values to foster deliberation and inclusive decision‐making.

Strategies for circular economy in the Nordics: a comparative analysis of directionality

Abstract In this paper we mobilize sustainability transitions literature to explore directionality for circular economy (CE) transitions, by drawing on and adapting a framework for analysing roadmaps to empirically investigate CE strategies. Specifically, this paper explores circular economy CE strategy documents in the Nordics, the commonalities and differences between them and to what extent they provide directionality for CE transitions. Through a systematic document analysis of 39 CE strategy documents, we find that the strategy documents are vague and lack clear political visions. As such, we argue that the documents fail to provide clear directionality for CE transitions and question their usefulness. Additionally, the paper demonstrates how CE strategy documents can contribute to promoting the development of industries that couple to national ambitions for the development of new, green industries.

Demolishers or ‘material experts’? Project actors negotiating changing roles in sustainable projects

For projects to contribute to sustainability transitions, traditional roles of project actors need to be challenged. This paper focus on the changing role of demolishers in circular construction projects. We explore the role changes needed and the tactics adopted to negotiate these changes. Therefore, we collected data across 10 demolishers and two construction projects in the Netherlands. We identified required changes related to task, timing, position, and image. The studied demolishers adopted six different tactics to negotiate these changes. These findings contribute to the sustainability transitions literature by highlighting the important function of projects in operationalizing role changes and enabling change in the roles of incumbent actors. Furthermore, the results contribute to the debate on roles in sustainable projects, and on the roles of demolishers in particular, showing the different elements and non-linear nature of role change, including the unique challenges and tactics adopted by demolishers to negotiate these changes.

The effect of parents’ support, protean career orientation and self-perceived employability on the school-to-work transition

PurposeThe increasing complexity of global labor markets and work environments has made the school-to-work transition more difficult. We explore factors that influence important career outcomes for young adults in China as they transition from their university to the labor market. Specifically, we examine how protean career orientation, self-perceived employability, mother’s and father’s career support and human capital (English language proficiency) may influence career satisfaction and employment status during adulthood.Design/methodology/approachWe collected survey data in two waves, six months apart, and obtained English proficiency ratings from university records.FindingsFather’s and mother’s career support was significantly associated with protean career orientation and protean career orientation was significantly related to self-perceived employability. Self-perceived employability was significantly associated with career satisfaction and employment status. The career support-career satisfaction and career support-employment status relationships were fully mediated by protean career orientation and self-perceived employability. Contrary to expectations, the human capital variable of English language proficiency did not moderate the serial mediation involving either career satisfaction or employment status.Originality/valueBy integrating protean career theory, human capital theory and research on parental support, we offer an interdisciplinary contribution to the school-to-work transition literature. We also advance protean career theory by studying it as a mediating variable and by examining parental support as an antecedent of it.

The role of municipal ownership for urban net-zero path creation

Particularly within recent years, the rising number of city actors worldwide declaring climate emergencies and pledging commitments to carbon neutrality has sparked a spatial turn in broader sustainable transition thinking, noting the importance of the local level for governing sustainable transitions. Using a Geographical Political Economy approach, this paper critically engages with path creation theory and sustainable transitions literature to explore the potential of urban net-zero carbon transitions in a multi-scalar governance framework. The main argument is that municipal ownership across sectors has a fundamental role in sustainable transitions at the city level. This paper makes a distinct conceptual contribution to sustainable transitions literature by drawing on path creation theory to illustrate how municipal ownership is a central tenet of path creation by bringing together local actors and enabling political capacity and agency to control and strategize integrated sustainable urban pathways. Using the transport and energy sectors in Nottingham in the UK, it applies the Path Creation Framework in an urban setting to illustrate that municipal ownership stimulates a positive path creation through three main arguments. First, municipal ownership enables a positive embeddedness and historical legacy in the provision of sustainable urban energy and transport services; second, it facilitates the establishment of skills and expertise that positively reinforces urban political capacity for the pursuit of urban sustainability; and third, it stimulates the creation of innovative urban projects for sustainable and equitable pathways.

Remaking Early American Literary Studies (Again)

Abstract This review essay considers the edited collection American Literature in Transition: The Long Nineteenth Century, 1770-1828, in relation to current shifts in the field of early American literary studies away from New Historicist methodologies toward a concern with topics such as form, genre, and networks. Seeking to interrogate longstanding critical assumptions about the danger of “grand narratives” and “bounded wholes,” it asks whether potentially progressive alternatives to concepts of transition and contingency are possible. At a moment when early Americanist scholarship, and the institutional and political contexts for it, are in a heightened state of flux, what emerging lines of inquiry are likely to have an ongoing influence and to what degree are critics working on the long eighteenth century engaged in a shared project?

Phase-in and phase-out policies in the global steel transition

ABSTRACT To reach the goals of the Paris Agreement, global emissions should be reduced to net zero by mid-century. The steel sector is an emission-intensive industrial subsector where low-carbon production routes are emerging, and recent studies have shown that rapid decarbonization of the sector is technically possible. However, several barriers block the sector-wide diffusion of low-carbon steelmaking. Inertia and barriers to exit inhibit the closure of emission-intensive plants, thus driving overcapacity and trade conflicts which in turn risk undermining the global steel transition. Drawing on the industrial transitions literature, we find that phase-out policy has a key role to play in overcoming inertia and barriers to exit, increasing the pace of exits in the steel sector, and enabling market space for low-emission steelmaking. Still, reviewing policy mixes in the top four steelmaking jurisdictions, we observe that these are primarily oriented towards phasing-in low-emission capacity rather than phasing-out emission-intensive capacity. In an analysis of low-emission steel projects in the LeadIT Green Steel Tracker, we find that almost half of these projects are financially backed by government, revealing that support for phase-ins is sparking a renaissance for subsidies in the steel sector. At the same time, we find that green steel projects, in aggregate, are increasing total steelmaking capacity. To minimize overcapacity and trade conflicts in the steel transition, policymakers should develop new corresponding phase-out policies that support and increase the pace of closures, to enable a rapid sector-wide diffusion of low-emission steelmaking.

Accelerating the sustainability transition of brown regions: Unlocking the speed factor

Green innovations aim to improve and reduce the environmental impact of economic activities. Thus far, research focus on the positive trajectories of green transition. Continuing in this direction we focus on brown regions (i.e. specialized in fossil-fuel technologies) and the challenges that they face to become sustainable. Taking as example German Labour Market Regions we identify brown regions and measure their transition using an innovative approach based on Social Network Analysis and Knowledge Spaces. We find that the technological relatedness to green technologies, having a high life satisfaction in the region and the presence of the green party in the local government facilitate the transition. However, strong economic structures based on brown activities do not generally increase the transition speed. Our findings imply that technological and socio-economic characteristics influence the speed of transition, a dimension not yet accounted for in the sustainability transition literature.