Narrative Of Transition Research Articles

Petrochemical transition narratives: Selling fossil fuel solutions in a decarbonizing world

Being integral to the fossil-based energy order and as a key driver of multiple and intersecting ecological crises, the petrochemical industry faces increasing pressures to transform. This paper examines how major petrochemical companies navigate these pressures. Drawing from literatures on discursive power, narratives, and neoGramscian political economy, we introduce the concept of narrative realignment as a nuanced iteration of corporate discursive power that reframes problems of and solutions to green transitions. Specifically, we identify and explore common transition-related narratives, analysing climate and sustainability communications from the largest producers in the petrochemical sector. We argue that these strategic narratives portray the petrochemical industry as key to a successful transition and fend off criticisms by reducing them to misunderstandings. This framing works to reduce pressures for deep mitigation while repositioning the industry as part of the solution. Building on these findings, we demonstrate how petrochemical transition narratives relate to but also diverge from the position of fossil fuel extractors. Despite relying on fossil feedstock and being solidly placed in the fossil economy, petrochemical majors increasingly focus on repositioning themselves proactively as transition enablers. The argument illustrates the work of downstream actors to legitimize the existing energy order.

'Just pretending': Narratives of professional identity transitions in internal medicine.

Health professional identity transitions involve a dynamic period of liminality prompting a time of considerable uncertainty and self-doubt. For postgraduate trainees in the United Kingdom, the transition to medical registrar can be a significant deterrent to recruitment and retention. Narrative analysis offers insight into identity work during transitions with potential to inform strategies for developing professional identities. This study aimed to use narrative analysis to explore trainees' experiences and their sense of agency during the liminal phase of this transition. Following ethical approval, internal medicine (IM) trainees in their second year of IM training were interviewed. Transcripts were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed to identify narratives describing liminality during the transition to the role of medical registrar, including examples of rejecting and claiming identity grants. Narrative analysis, as described by Riessman and influenced by James Gee's units of discourse, was undertaken, with an agentive lens applied to the data. Between January 2021 and February 2022, 19 IM trainees were interviewed. Given the in-depth analysis, four narratives were purposively selected to present, including trainees rejecting and claiming the medical registrar role. Trainees tended to describe negative experiences, but those with a higher sense of agency demonstrated positive reflection and identity construction through narrative. There was often identity dissonance between how trainees defined their stage in the transition to medical registrar and how their narrative illustrated their identity work. This study exemplifies narrative analysis' linguistic and agentive lenses in exploring the experience of the liminal identity transitional period. The findings reflect the identity dissonance experienced by trainees during this time and sheds light on their sense of agency throughout. It heralds a need to acknowledge the significant liminality experienced during transitions throughout medical training and to empower a sense of agency to support identity work.

Towards a deeper understanding of up-scaling in socio-technical transitions: The case of energy communities

The pressing nature of the climate crisis is placing sub-national action at the forefront of climate mitigation. Energy communities have been an example of such niche action, as, over the past decades, they have blossomed in number and have challenged dominant narratives of the energy transition. The aggregate impact such action promises may be necessary to mitigate the global-scale problem of the climate crisis. This opens up the vexing question of what mechanisms are at play in scaling such action and how the contours of causality may be painted in the pathways towards transitions. This article aims to address this gap by building on the concept of mechanismic thinking. The innovative nature of this approach helps us identify empirical examples of conditions of scaling and brings conceptual clarity to studying processes of transitions. This article identifies conditions in relation to various pathways of transitions and the strategic management of niches. We identify several conditions that scaling may depend on through a systematic literature review of the energy community literature. From our review, two key results surface: Firstly, at the empirical level, the conditions identified suggest that a diversity of pathways to scaling may exist in parallel. Secondly, the conditions found in the literature can productively be mapped based on three dimensions: conditions internal to communities, conditions affecting interactions between communities, and finally, conditions related to the context of community initiatives. By feeding back our findings into leading theories in the field, our review enriches existing accounts of niche-internal dynamics of the strategic niche management approach. Moreover, we suggest that mechanismic thinking has much to add to the research agenda on connecting local scale innovation and higher scale impact in socio-technical thinking.

Challenging perceptions of socio-cultural rejection of a taboo technology: Narratives of imagined transitions to domestic toilet-linked biogas in India

Domestic toilet-linked anaerobic digesters (TLADs) recycle organic waste materials, including human excreta (HE), into a clean gaseous fuel and fertiliser product. Socio-cultural resistance is often used to explain local resistance towards TLADs due to the use of HE as a feedstock. However, through qualitative investigation utilising in-depth semi-structured interviews with potential TLAD users in Assam, India, the use of socio-cultural rejection to describe resistance towards TLADs was found to have homogenised local voices and framed them as resistant to technological change whilst ignoring diversity within groups. The narratives revealed resistance to be diverse and related to an individual's place, personal and social identity. Resistance to TLADs results from both socio-cultural as well as socio-technical concerns and is also potentially negotiable. Adoption of TLADs could be facilitated through opportunities such as technology demonstration, social group adoption and a greater perceived necessity. Inefficiencies in Assam's biogas implementation programme have been potentially overlooked due to too much attention being placed on household decision making and generalising socio-cultural resistance across the state. If TLADs are to be disseminated within Assam, authorities must work with communities and employees of the biogas programme to more widely renegotiate social norms around HE as a resource and not a waste product. More generally Assam's biogas programme is ineffectively identifying households with a need and motivation for domestic biogas and we recommend revaluating the use of local contacts to identify households eligible for the national subsidy as well as the bias towards households with large numbers of cattle.

Energy Transition Narratives in Spain: A Case Study of As Pontes

The energy transition is one of the most important processes of the last decade in Spain, affecting all aspects of life (social, political, economic and demographic). Its main objective is to eventually replace the fossil-fuel-based energy matrix with renewable energy sources to avoid climate change and meet sustainable development goals. This transition has affected a large number of population groups and institutions in carbon-intensive regions such as As Pontes, who are the main stakeholders in this process. These stakeholders have generated different narratives around the implementation of decarbonization policies and their short- and long-term impacts on the local population and the territory. These narratives affect the acceptance and pace of implementation of decarbonization measures and policies adopted by national and regional governments. Based on a qualitative analysis of published material (press articles, policy reports published by central and regional governments, reports published by environmental groups, financial institutions and large companies), this article first identifies the different stakeholders involved in the decarbonization process and maps them according to their power and interest in the energy transition process and then highlights the prevalent energy transition narratives, with their impact on the pace of the energy transition in Spain, focusing on the case of As Pontes. The results show that the narratives propagated by different stakeholders have a great impact on the acceptance of the decarbonization policies and measures adopted by the central government and the pace of the energy transition in different parts of Spain, including the region of As Pontes.

Tracing temporal conflicts in transitional Myanmar: life history diagrams as methodological tool

ABSTRACT This article adds to the emerging ‘temporal turn’ in peace studies by addressing methodological questions about how temporality can be captured and explored in empirical studies. Developing our methodological tools for exploring time and temporality, we argue, is critical to move beyond the supposed linear temporality of peace processes, and make visible alternative temporal frameworks that shape everyday experiences and contestations around peace in conflict-affected contexts. Drawing on a study of two conflict-affected areas in Myanmar, we contribute towards this aim through a discussion of how life history diagrams helped us trace temporal conflicts between overarching narratives of political transition and everyday experiences of insecurity. This facilitated a deeper understanding of how relationships between war and peace, and between past, present and future, were manifested and made sense of in people’s everyday lives. Our use of life history diagrams revealed temporal conflicts between the dominant, linear temporality of the Myanmar transition, and more complex and cyclical temporal frameworks people used to describe their realities. Life history diagrams also facilitated narratives that troubled an events-based temporality focused on macro-political shifts such as ceasefire agreements and elections, and instead foregrounded everyday experiences of continuous insecurity and struggle.

‘I felt forced to find an alternative’: a qualitative analysis of women medical educators’ narratives of career transitions

ObjectivesWhile institutional and systemic attempts to increase women’s participation in medical education have enabled increasing numbers to enter the field and achieve more senior positions, little is known about lived...

Examining career transition narratives through the lens of social justice: a critical study of the British Press

ABSTRACT In this article we examine the print media portrayal of career transitions by adapting Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework. The aim is to explore and critically analyse the newspaper articles published in The Times, Guardian, and Daily Mail between 1985 and 2015, the same time span in which career development theories started to get public attention. In particular, we answer the question of how the language used by journalists influences assumptions about personal agency in career development. Assessing the similarities and differences of the dominant academic discourses and the social characteristic of the press provides a setting to draw conclusions about the social implications of career theories.

Race, religion, and coloniality: ex-Muslim “coming-out” narratives in France

In the past few years, a number of individuals have begun using YouTube as a platform to document their transition from being Muslim to being ex-Muslims. This article examines the “coming-out” narratives of self-described ex-Muslims in France. Generally speaking, two main types of videos exist: narratives of transition from Islam to atheism and narratives of religious conversion from Islam to Christianity. There are few differences between these two main types. Both narrative types are inherently political, intersecting significantly with broader Islamophobic and secularist-nationalist discourses in France. Drawing on a thematic analysis of several YouTube videos, within the relevant historical and sociopolitical contexts of France, this article argues that public declarations of apostasy from Islam in France (as narratives of salvation embracing the promise of modernity, while critiquing the supposedly inherent backwardness of Islam) are engaged in a particular mode of subjectivation that cannot be understood outside of the ontological afterlives of colonialism.

Framing Agnes

Framing Agnes

Tradition as Strategy: An Analytic Narrative of Hahoe Village's Transition to Modernity

Tradition as Strategy: An Analytic Narrative of Hahoe Village's Transition to Modernity

Pathways for adapting tourism to climate change in an urban destination – Evidences based on thermal conditions for the Porto Metropolitan Area (Portugal)

The narrative of sustainable tourism transition in a context of adaptation to climate change is very relevant internationally. The availability and sharing of knowledge and information is a basic requirement for the successful planning of the tourism sector regarding this phenomenon. Planning adaptation in the urban tourism sector is widely regarded as a collectively-based process. However, collaborative planning is far from being the standard. This study reports the results of a Modified Delphi Approach (MDA) among experts about the future of urban tourism in a context of adaptation to climate change in Porto Metropolitan Area (Portugal), considering the outdoor thermal conditions perspective. Using an expert panel, the study gathered their opinions to analyze the degrees of responsibility of the main sectorial entities at different territorial levels, the conditions of action in the transformation agenda and the measures to be implemented in the adaptation and mitigation process – according to priority and time horizon. Two rounds were carried out to apply the methodology between January and April 2021. The first questionnaire had the participation of 47 professionals. 34 out of the 47 professionals of the 1st round participated in the second questionnaire. The evidence from different stakeholders demonstrates that there is an ambiguous process of understanding the problem, information needs, and a weak interaction between actors – resources – tasks. The effectiveness and efficiency of collaborative planning and outlined goals by 2050 for adaptation of urban tourism sector to climate change can be hampered. Experts consider the creation of structural (tangible) measures to be fundamental. Among other results, it was found that most participants consider that the intervention is dependent on the guidelines issued by the government and municipal councils when it comes to defining a proposal for adapting the urban tourism sector to climate change. Despite this, the options for more sustainable practices must be based on three axes: (i) solutions based on the energy sector in the hotel industry (e.g., energy certification, prioritization of the use of renewable energy); (ii) improvement and expansion of green infrastructure for tourist enjoyment [e.g., creation of green areas (small additional pockets), namely in the center of Porto; and pedestrianization of central areas of the city] and (iii) network participation through the collaboration of various stakeholders with relevance in tourism and urban planning.

Can a rapid mobility transition appear both desirable and achievable? Reflections on the role of competing narratives for socio-technical change and suggestions for a research agenda

As research on socio-technical transitions has repeatedly shown, positive or negative narratives can play a key role in galvanizing public support for or resistance against socio-technical transitions. In the mobility sector, many countries have recently seen some indications of beginning socio-technical change dynamics. In the case of Germany, key practices of a low-carbon transport system – such as cycling, substitution of travel through home office or ‘shared mobility services’ – are moving from niches to mainstream, while grassroots initiatives are successfully demanding improvements for cycling and walking. In this dynamic situation competing narratives of change begin to emerge, which claim to define what a transition towards ‘sustainable’ mobility should look like and how it could be accomplished. Against the backdrop of these recent discursive shifts the article highlights three key conflictual dimensions, along which competing narratives of a mobility transition in Germany, but also in other European countries, are likely going to diverge. The article suggests that research into mobility transitions should focus on the intensifying discursive struggles, in which different social groups with highly differing power will attempt to shape the broader socio-technical vision of a ‘sustainable’ mobility future.

Transition of Female Pakistani Students to both the UK and Postgraduate Education Context: Constructing Hybrid Identities through a modicum of control

ABSTRACT The article explores female Pakistani students’ narratives of transition on moving to the UK and into post-graduate higher education. It draws on a qualitative longitudinal study with six female Pakistani students at one university to reveal the complex ongoing transformation of their thinking, feeling and believing. An analysis of troubles of identity during the year are suggestive of their seizing a ‘modicum of control’: a kind of agency that doesn’t resist power structures, but does make an individual feel that they are choosing. As a result our participants went on to make profound changes to some of the ways they thought about and lived their lives. The results have implications for Universities, policy makers and tutors to transcend an institutional focus into a broader enculturated view that highlights an irreversible change to their past identities, which needs support both for students’ transitioning to the UK University and on their return.

“Being” a Head of Department in an English University

ABSTRACT This article takes the author’s personal experience of being a Head of Department (HOD) in an English University, and frames this experience as a transition narrative. The format draws on the work of Sandra Acker, who framed her own experience as a Head of Department in Canada, in three areas. Utilising literature both on Higher Education Management and the emotions of leadership, the article proposes that a focus on the personal affective side of leadership can help the nascent department Head understand more clearly how the personal and the political, policy frameworks intertwine. Finally, the article suggests that understanding one’s own leadership skills in a particular context is crucial to working with academic colleagues.

Learning to be Legal: Transition Narratives of Joy and Survivor Guilt of Previously Undocumented 1.5-Generation Latinx Immigrants in the United States

ABSTRACT Relying on in-depth interviews and ethnographic research in California (2011–2018), this article theorizes the experiences of politicized, 1.5-generation Latinx immigrants who have transitioned out of undocumented status. It shows that transitioning out of undocumented status comes with feelings of joy and privilege, as well as with feelings of survivor guilt, ontological fragmentation, and wanting to take up new responsibilities as a way of repaying, and standing in solidarity with, undocumented family and community members. I argue that the transitioning experiences of previously undocumented immigrants relate to (1) their mixed-status families in the context of uneven penalization of undocumented immigrants, (2) the immigrant narrative of struggle and sacrifice, (3) politicization, pressure, and social control within the immigrant rights movement, and (4) their durably embodied undocumented subjectivities. This paper thereby advances more relational understandings of citizenship, (political) subjectivity, and the profound effects of legal violence caused by the citizenship regime.

Middle-Class, Cosmopolitans and Precariat among Millennials between Automobility and Multimodality

This paper refers to the concept of social milieus – which classifies societies according to socio-economic and socio-cultural criteria – and applies it to the everyday mobilities of young Millennials. Starting from three contrasting young social milieus from different social classes – cosmopolitans, middle-class and precariat – differences in material mode options and psychological evaluations of transport modes were investigated, which can be understood as (individual and collective) preconditions for participation in certain hegemonic or alternative transport regimes. For this purpose, quantitative data from Germany from the early 2010s of 852 young people aged 17 to 24 were used. As a result, this study contrasts the often-proclaimed linear regime shift towards multimodality, which would treat Millennials as a supposed collective driving force. The data reveal milieu-specific deviations from the predominant transition narrative as follows: First, young cosmopolitans seem to be the only group to share the historically momentous radical emotional distance from private automobility, which is reflected in ‘green’ multimodal behaviours. In contrast, the young middle-class shows signs of (conservatively) reproducing car-oriented behaviours. Finally, the young precariat faces socio-economic restrictions and tends to be outside the dualistic categorisation of automobility/multimodality. In conclusion, we see the concept of social milieus as an important thought-provoking impetus for a necessary change of perspective in international transport and mobility research to make the problem of social division in transportation more visible. If the direction towards multimodality aligns with the normative compass for a socio-ecological transformation, (transport) policies must provide even stronger support to milieu-specific framework conditions.

Battle over the sun: Resistance, tension, and divergence in enabling rooftop solar adoption in Indonesia

This article examines sustainability transitions in the Global South, focusing on the adoption of rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems in Indonesia as a case study. Based on 55 in-depth interviews and a secondary data review, we develop an alternative analytical framework that draws insights from geographical political economy and political ecology. This alternative lens allows us to better inform the socio-technical transition literature by uncovering both the spatial implications of renewable energy transitions and the power differentials underpinning them. We find that the emergence of rooftop PV technology in Indonesia has provoked resistance, as it challenges the incumbent power company’s monopoly over urban space, the Java-Bali grid system’s dependency on coal-based electricity, and state-led practices that prioritise the implementation of small-scale solar in rural and remote areas. We argue that paying attention to the asymmetric power relations among institutions and actors across multiple scales offers a more-fine grained approach to analysing the dynamics of sustainability transitions. Our findings also call for greater attention to diverse and divergent perspectives among niche actors, emphasising the need to genuinely embrace local voices and knowledge that might otherwise be marginalised by the dominant globally and nationally driven narratives of renewable transition.

Neo-Dualism: Accumulation, Distress, and Proliferation of a Fissured Informality

A dominant strand of orthodoxy argues that the problem of the informal sector could be mitigated through the capitalistic growth process. But our observations on India are different—with an expansion of the capitalistic formal sector, as the economy grows, there is a proliferation of fissured informality. Using a structuralist macro-model, we provide certain explanations for this phenomenon, which are also tested empirically using Indian subnational-state and firm-level data. Thus, we explore both the short- and long-run effects of the expansion of the formal sector on the heterogeneous informal economy. While a section of the population is pulled into the advanced informal activities, a vast segment is pushed to petty production. Accordingly, the orthodox transition narrative is questioned and alternative policy and political possibilities are introduced. JEL Classification: O11, O13, O17, P48

Exploring Trans People's Narratives of Transition: Negotiation of Gendered Bodies in Physical Activity and Sport.

This paper explores how trans people who make transitions negotiate their gendered bodies in different moments of this process, and how their narrative storylines are emplotted in physical activity and (non)organized sports (PAS) participation. A qualitative semi-structured interview-based study was developed to analyze the stories of eight trans people (three trans women, two trans men, and three nonbinary persons) who participated in PAS before and during their gender disclosure. A thematic analysis was conducted to identify the patterns in the transition process and the structural analysis of the stories from the interviews. Three transition moments (the closet, opening up, and reassuring) were identified from the thematic analysis. Most participants showed difficulties in achieving their PAS participation during the two earlier moments. The predominance of failure storylines was found particularly in men, while success was more likely to appear in women because their bodies and choices fitted better with their PAS gender ideals. The nonbinary trans persons present alternative storylines in which corporeality has less influence on their PAS experiences. The knowledge provided on the moments and the stories of transition help to explain trans people’s (non)involvement in PAS and to guide policymaking and professional action in PAS fields.