Socio-technical Transitions Research Articles

Science to practice – networked governance of sustainability transitions in an African university

PurposeThis paper aims to present insights on the governance of sustainability transitions in higher education in Africa. The authors interrogate the research literatures on the governance of socio-technical transitions in water, electricity, transport and waste management, and identify barriers and enabling factors that enhance transformative practices in universities.Design/methodology/approachThe analytical framework proposed in this paper combines the elements of governance network theory (GNT) and transition topology. The framework of this study is grounded in an actor-centric approach using GNT to understand networks conducive to sustainability transitions. Events and governance networks were mapped on a transition topology to visualise organisational and institutional changes over time. The study engaged students, management, academic and administrative staff in building a community of practice towards sustainability. This research is based on qualitative content analysis grounded in interview data, focus group discussions, workshops, webinars and secondary data analysis.FindingsThe findings show that the university has consolidated a sustainability vision and targets, but several factors prevent the community from achieving these targets, including hierarchical decision-making processes, a multitude of disjointed committees and fragmentation in the campus community.Originality/valueThis research adds to an emerging body of literature in the field of sustainability in higher education with two contributions. Firstly, the study presents a novel perspective(s) on the governance of sustainability transitions by combining the literatures on governance and sustainability transitions using a new methodological approach of transition topology to show organisational and institutional changes. Secondly, the study presents new empirical evidence for improving the governance of sustainability transitions in a diverse and highly unequal African university community in the process of (de)colonisation of knowledge and governance.

Innovations, strategic organizational actions, and sailing-ship effect: illustrated with an IT product

Purpose In socio-technical transition theory, resistance by existing technology and regime resistance plays a key role. The resistance is in the form of intentional improvements; eventually, the regime destabilizes and adopts the new technology, referred to as the sailing-ship effect. Researchers used a structural view and examined it as a strategic action and its relationship with new technology (competitive/symbiotic) in non-fast-changing sailing systems. This study uses a microlevel view and examines it in a fast-changing where products/services are developed by integrating existing technology with new product innovations; their success depends on addressing technical/market uncertainty. This study examines the sailing-ship effect in a fast-changing system and contributes to the socio-technical transition theory. Design/methodology/approach The authors need to examine the phenomena of the sailing-ship effect in its setting, and a case-study method is appropriate. The selected case provided diverse analytic and heuristic perspectives to examine the phenomena; therefore, it was a single case study. Findings In an IT scenario, the strategic actions decide and realize agility and competitive advantage by formulating appropriate goals with required budgets and coevolutionary changes to resources at product, process and organizational levels, addressing technical/market uncertainty. Moreover, the agility displayed by strategic actions determines the relationship with new technology, which is interspersed. Finally, it provided insights into struggle, navigation and negotiations, forming strategic actions to display the sailing-ship effect. Research limitations/implications The study selected a Banking Financial Services and Insurance product of an IT Services company. As start-ups exhibit inherent (emergent) agility, the authors can examine agility as a combination of emergent and strategic actions by selecting a start-up. Practical implications The study highlights the strategic actions specific to an IT services company. It developed its product and services by steering clear from IT innovations such as native cloud and continuous deployment. It improved its products/services with necessary organizational changes and achieved the desired agility and competitive advantage. Therefore, organizations devise appropriate strategic actions to combat the sailing-ship effect apart from setting goals and selecting IT innovations. Originality/value The study expands the socio-technical transition theory by selecting a fast-changing system. It provided insights into the relationship between existing and new technology and the strategic actions necessary to manage technical and market uncertainty and achieve the desired competitive advantage, or the sailing-ship effect.

How Can We Design Policy Better? Frameworks and Approaches for Sustainability Transitions

The literature on socio-technical transitions offers a wide range of frameworks and approaches to conceptualise and steer sustainability transitions. However, the complex nature of transition processes, along with the weak correspondence between the transitions literature and policy design, make their joint application rather challenging. In response, this paper proposes a conceptual framework to inform actors managing a system or organisation in a transition process about the steps to follow, from the initial representation of the problem to the formulation of the interventions, and their eventual evaluation for further refinement. This framework is built from an integrative review of the sustainability transitions literature, incorporating state-of-the-art approaches and frameworks to guide policy design. It aims to advance the operationalisation and orientation of policies to accelerate sustainability transitions through a three-phased approach: (i) baseline assessment of systemic challenges, (ii) targets visioning and pathways design, and (iii) implementation and evaluation of policy interventions. The role of the most salient frameworks espoused in the literature is detailed and integrated into the conceptual framework so that transition actors are equipped with the necessary knowledge and tools to design effective policies for the realisation of their sustainability goals.

Transición sociotécnica en el sector de la palma aceitera: análisis desde una perspectiva multinivel en el municipio Colombiano de Tibú

Abstract Changes in the interactions between agents involved in the value chain of the palm oil sector in the municipality of Tibú (Colombia) over the period 1985-2020 have resulted in a reduction in the indices of poverty, social inequality, and unemployment for the inhabitants of the region, which can be explained by a process of socio-technical transition. The main objective of this study is to analyze the factors that determined the success of this process from a multilevel perspective. Exploratory research was developed based on a case study analysis using semi-structured interviews of commercial and non-commercial agents in the sector and information collected from secondary sources. The results show that changes in the legal and regulatory framework established by the government, landscape transformation, and the transition from small farmers to medium entrepreneurs of the farms in the region were important factors revolutionizing the system and are encouraging the emergence of new alternative practices in the palm oil sector.

Functional view and technological progress of a sociotechnical system: illustrated with an interventionist state

Purpose Organizations use innovations and respond to external pressures, creating a transition to the sociotechnical system. In their transitions, they interact with the environment and undergo adaptation-selection. The extant literature used a multilevel perspective (MLP) with a structural view and examined dynamics and transitions (phenomena) in a noninterventionistic setting. This study aims to examine the dynamics and phenomena with a microstructural or functional view and expand the MLP; this paper uses neo-institutionalism and human values as part of the functional view. Moreover, when the authors examine the phenomena in an interventionistic setting, they can obtain certain unique dynamics and their influence on the phenomena. Design/methodology/approach The authors need to examine the phenomena in its setting, so this paper selected a case study, Indian electricity generation. For diverse heuristic and analytic views, it selected two Indian states. Findings The findings from the functional view showed that organizations exhibit certain traits of neo-institutionalism and human values, which mediate their responses (behavior) to external pressures. Additionally, due to the interventionist state, their dynamics use shaping instead of selection logic for innovations, which decides the transition pathway selection (technology adoption). It further decided the extent to which innovations cumulate as stable designs. As a result, the responses and the transition provide benefits in the short term while invariably failing in the long term. Research limitations/implications By selecting cases with higher investments in renewable energies and combustible fuels, the authors can expand the functional view to include user typologies such as producers, intermediaries and citizen groups and obtain further insights into transitions. Practical implications The study highlights the generation dynamics specific to Indian electricity generation and its transition pathways. The study’s outcome provides insights to researchers and practitioners in formulating policy changes and transforming electricity generation. Originality/value The study uses a functional view comprising neo-institutionalism and human values and expands the sociotechnical transition theory. In addition, selecting an interventionist setting provided insights into dynamics specific to organizational behavior and associated services. Finally, the obtained insights offer suggestions for technology development to better manage transitions with adaptation-selection.

Brace for impacts: Perceived impacts and responses relating to the state of connected and autonomous vehicles in Gothenburg

It is anticipated that Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) will be introduced for public use in the coming decade. Thus, it is important to consider how ready cities are to integrate them into the urban environment. To address this question, this article frames the introduction of CAVs within the context of a socio-technical transition. We use the Drivers, Pressures, State, Impact and Response (DPSIR) framework to identify the impacts and responses of the introduction of CAVs in cities, with a specific emphasis on Gothenburg, Sweden. The results of the DPSIR analysis are then analyzed through the lens of transition management, in which the responses are related to strategical, tactical, operational and reflexive governance strategies. It was found that the reflexive component is likely to be critical for a successful introduction of CAVs in cities, so that policies can be adjusted as the uptake of the technology changes. Many issues that could arise from CAVs, such as increased car traffic and physical barriers to mobility, are already addressed in the City of Gothenburg’s official transportation strategy, but there is room for clearer policy with regard to CAV technology.

Future Mobility Scenarios with Design Fiction: Autonomous Vehicles as Social Agents

This article aims to envisage a future world with Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) from a speculative perspective and uses design fiction as a method. Even though there are future studies about how AVs are going to be operators in the traffic by taking the role of the driver, this article suggests that AVs are going to be referred not only as transportation vehicles but also, they will become a part of social life through their increased agencies. We argue that this might be a significant concern for the areas that are in relation with the design of AVs considering socio-technical transitions towards future. Two design fiction workshops with designers were organised to develop future scenarios including AVs. As a result, the scenarios created by designers were analysed and characteristics of the scenarios were identified considering the social and contextual aspects of the storyworlds. Finally, the study discusses design considerations for AVs based on the future contexts and lifestyles as well as the social role that AVs can fill by changing the meaning of journey in the future scenarios.

What is the relationship between sociotechnical transition and disruptive innovations?

Sociotechnical transitions are milestones for the impacts of innovations on civilization. What is the relationship between sociotechnical transition and disruptive innovations? A relationship between sociotechnical transitions and disruptive innovation is suggested by the similarity of figures depicting product replacements during sociotechnical transitions as compared to figures illustrating disruptive innovations. Yet Christensen's disruptive innovation framework has been criticized as inadequate for studying sociotechnical transitions. If we cannot use the disruptive innovation framework to investigate sociotechnical transition, there is cause for concern.Viewing disruptive technology events allows for a more granular examination of sociotechnical transition. Here the authors investigate the relationship between the sociotechnical transition framework and the disruptive innovation framework. We show that not every disruptive innovation results in a sociotechnical transition, however every major Schumpeterian sociotechnical transition wave, and every Kondratieff K-wave has resulted from a series of disruptive innovations. We further add to the literature by revealing that sociotechnical transitions are not monolithic nor irreversible. These Schumpeterian sociotechnical transitions occur through disruptive innovations of entire categories of products or services. These findings also support that regime change is likely possible only through the disruption of an entire product or service category.

Flexible experimentation as a remedy for uncertainties - Reflexive Public Reason behind the energy transition in the People's Republic of China

Contemporary societies, aware of the consequences of their actions, urgently need mechanisms to deal with uncertainties. Understanding the diversity of these mechanisms remains critical to answering the question of whether a global energy transition is possible. Our paper responds to the call for a diversification of perspectives on energy transitions and contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the role of uncertainty and risk in public deliberation. In this paper, we use the model of Reflexive Public Reason to explore the mechanisms behind the governance of uncertainties related to the energy future in the People's Republic of China. As a key country in the global response to climate change, China offers a unique model for managing large-scale systemic sociotechnical transitions. We show that the model of Reflexive Public Reason, which involves reflection on sociotechnical imaginaries (STIs) and civic epistemologies, is helpful in understanding how particular energy futures are imagined and selected. We also show the role that uncertainties and risks play in this process. As a result, we demonstrate the usefulness of flexible experimentation in describing China's energy transition - which may be useful in observing how the Chinese state manages uncertainty by controlling it within a limited experimental space.

Doctor Who and the seeds of anxiety: exploring popular narratives of energy justice and exploitation

Achieving and implementing sustainable socio-technical transitions requires high levels of public understanding and acceptance across multiple sectors including energy, transport, heating, and other domains. However, the level of public understanding of even the most “obvious” high carbon sector, energy production, and of the surrounding class relations around its production and consumption, remains under-examined. A specific gap is how energy narratives diffuse through and are shaped by widely accessible popular sources. The extent that public understanding may be informed by how popular culture presents issues of energy, class and access, merits consideration, yet is underexplored. This article contributes to the emerging field of energy humanities by examining five stories from the popular BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, broadcast in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. It situates them in the time they were created and finds that the program provides representations of energy production and class and that these stories yield critique of political repression of subjugated peoples. However, Doctor Who ultimately does not convey a meaningful sense of endogenous social change as questions of justice are resolved by a saviour arriving from without. Our contention is that Doctor Who distils and represents via drama a degree of support for energy justice critique present in a particular place and time, the UK from the 1960s to the 1980s. Yet we also contend the energy justice critique apparent in Doctor Who is limited by several interlocking characteristics: the paternalistic rescue of victims of oppression matched by the uncritical validation of other and newer energy sources; therefore, the need for technological progress is endorsed. These limitations in normative energy justice appear in a programme viewed by millions and we contend these limitations prevailed in the wider culture which produced and watched it. Ultimately therefore interpretation of Doctor Who reflects on the theme of denialism, of the need for a just energy transition, which is conspicuously relevant today across multiple nations.

Learning mode misfits in policy learning: typology, case study and lessons learnt

ABSTRACT Research on policy learning has shown that actors can learn in inadequate modes. To better understand policy learning failures and possible remedies, we ask how and why inadequate learning environments occur and how they can be changed. Building on the varieties of learning approach, we distinguish between perceived and functional actor certification and problem tractability. On this basis, we introduce a typology of learning mode misfits and indicative adjustments and revisit previous case studies from this perspective. We then apply the concept to a case of policy learning in a socio-technical transition, arguing that learning environments in socio-technical transitions tend to overvalue actor certification and problem tractability and require recalibration towards reflexivity. Assessing the effects of participatory co-creation interventions on technology development in precision grassland farming in two living labs in Germany, we provide evidence that decentral arenas and participatory experimentation facilitate learning by coequal actors scrutinising problems.

Barriers and Drivers to Adoption of Water Reuse In Buildings: A Sociotechnical Analysis in Ceará, Brazil

Purpose: This study aims to identify the barriers and drivers towards the adoption of water reuse systems in buildings in regions with water scarcity, such as the Brazilian Northeast. Method: A qualitative study was carried out in the state of Ceará, Brazil. The study encompassed the analysis of content from seventeen in-depth interviews and documentary evidence. Results and conclusion: The primary adoption drivers were found to be economic savings through consumption reduction and environmental awareness. Main barriers included the initial investment and payback time, as well as user practices, such as residents' lack of system maintenance. In addition, political and institutional aspects, such as the absence of fiscal incentives, also played a key role. In conclusion, water reuse in buildings constitutes an innovation that requires further development to promote significant adjustments of the socio-technical regime. Originality/value: This research introduces innovation by conducting an analysis of the adoption of water reuse in buildings based on the multi-level perspective of socio-technical transitions towards sustainability. It focuses on a state in the Brazilian Northeast, whose territory is primarily situated in the Caatinga biome, characterized by a semi-arid climate and a history of severe drought cycles. Research implications: The results provide valuable insights for researchers, technology developers, and policymakers to develop actions that stimulate the implementation and diffusion of water reuse in buildings.

Transforming the grid for a more environmentally and socially sustainable electricity system in Great Britain is a slow and uneven process.

Electricity system decarbonization is key for environmental sustainability. From a consumption-production perspective, much attention has been paid to changes in how electricity is generated and used, but electricity systems also rely on a grid infrastructure that connects and integrates production and consumption, and which will also need to transform. At the same time, new technologies in the electricity system, including the grid, offer the potential for more socially sustainable ways of producing and consuming energy. However, in practice, change has been slow, uneven, and often dysfunctional. A socio-technical transitions approach offers insights into why this is so, seeing electricity system change not simply in technical and economic terms, but also as the outcomes of interactions between technology and social and political processes. The approach draws attention to the particular challenges of achieving rapid transitions in complex critical infrastructures like electricity with strong institutional logics of security. This article applies this approach to the case of Great Britain, where despite strong commitments to sustainability in the form of high-level climate policy, the electricity grid has often been a constraint on the pace of change. The nature of the British transition is explained partly by weak links between these high-level goals on the one hand and the detailed rules and practices in the electricity system on the other. It is also explained by patterns of ownership and grid regulation in the British case that protect incumbents and make it difficult for new actors to develop the system in more socially sustainable directions.

Grassroots innovation and social innovation in perspective.

This article provides a comprehensive review of social innovation and grassroots innovation over the last 5 years, offering a detailed analysis of both concepts. This study explores the integration of grassroots innovation and social innovation based on an extensive literature review. It examines five dimensions within the literature: key fields, disciplines, actors, geographical areas and theoretical frameworks. Despite significant research in recent decades, there is a notable gap of literature devoted to grassroots innovation and its position within discourse of social innovation. This paper explores the differences and similarities between the concepts of social innovation and grassroots innovation in order to better understand the use of both concepts, the cases in which they are used and possible complementarities. The main findings of the literature on combining the concepts of social innovation and grassroots innovation focus on social enterprises, while research on grassroots innovation as a stand-alone concept focuses on community-led initiatives, civil society organisations, cooperatives and local leaders. Geographically, India plays a very important role in grassroots and social innovation research, followed by Brazil and Spain. In terms of theoretical approach, the combination of social innovation and grassroots innovation has a strong sociological focus, emphasising theories of social practice, collective action, solidarity and community. In contrast, the theoretical frameworks of grassroots innovation are more anchored in power relations and socio-technical transitions, including, for example, resistance to innovation. Grassroots innovation offers practical insights into understanding innovation through the lenses of grassroots and community-based social change. Similarly, social innovation can contribute to the debate on grassroots innovations by understanding not only the agency of actors, but also the innovation ecosystem, actors and types of innovation. Further empirical research on the understanding and application of both concepts in the global North and South in academic discourse offers great potential, therefore potential research questions have been raised here for further investigation.

Conceptualizing the democratization of innovation through transitions theory: A case study of biohacking in community science labs

Community science labs are important sites attempting to democratize science and biotechnology. With similarities to hackerspaces and makerspaces, these labs provide resources to conduct experiments and develop goods. As such, they are touted as potential sites for innovation for more just and equitable outcomes. This article aims to demonstrate how concepts from the transitions literature can be used to understand the democratization of innovation in and from these types of spaces. Combining concepts from the socio-technical transitions and economization/marketization literatures, the article develops a novel conceptual framework for analyzing the democratization of innovation that encompasses the dynamic interactions between both the innovation activities that occur within community science labs and their broader socioeconomic contexts. The framework is applied to a case study (the Open Insulin Project) in a community science lab in the San Francisco Bay Area (Counter Culture Labs).

Fostering a transition to inclusive sustainability through shared urban mobility

This study aimed to understand how a structure reconfiguration contributes to an inclusive sociotechnical transition. A case study was carried out in Fortaleza city, Brazil, between 2017 and 2019 focused on two integrated sharing mobility initiatives (i.e. bike sharing and e-carsharing). Findings show that the public-private partnership created to implement these initiatives was possible through the integration of various sociotechnical actors, who play multiple roles and develop strategies to institutionalise the sustainable shared mobility program. Findings reveal that such integration, which occurs by collective actions promoted by the state, third sector, community, and market, changed the city's dynamic towards an inclusive sustainability transition. We mapped insights into how the roles and responsibilities of the actors involved accelerate the sustainability transition. This paper contributes to theory and practice by illustrating a transition model using a local perspective that supports the institutionalisation of a sustainable mobility transition.

Transformative disruptiveness or transition? Revealing digitalization and deep decarbonization pathways in the Italian smart electricity meter roll-out

Energy infrastructure digitalization is proposed as key for a just deep decarbonization. However, an integrative literature review reveals the lack of a more profound exploration on normative considerations tied to world perspectives and values, as levers of a lasting transformation in the context of socio-technical transitions. Thus, the paper employs qualitative research methods to investigate how energy infrastructure digitalization contributes to transformative disruption, along which deliberated deep decarbonization pathways, using Italy's smart electricity meter roll-out as a case study. While the roll-out represents a substantial effort in introducing digital devices into the residential sector, concerns persist about its effectiveness, also due to potential societal disruptions. Through in-depth interviews with experts (N = 17) and citizens (N = 23) and content-oriented analysis, the research unveils evolving pathways between ever more disengaged two grand narratives and value systems: energy as a commodity and energy as a common good. The first opts for technological progress, changing consumer behavior, to address energy poverty and social justice, building on market-based instruments and new business models. Conversely, the second harbors skepticism towards technological fixes, emphasizes energy sufficiency and questions energy opulence, linked to environmental justice considerations, and calling for corrective principles by regulatory means. Finally, the paper presents a conceptual framework to re-shape deep deliberative transformation, highlighting the importance of re-connecting to defined values, re-generating actionable knowledge, restructuring institutions in societal experimentation, and recognizing underlying processes such as justice claims. It argues for further research into discourse coalitions capitalizing on defined narratives, to better understand their impact on policy-making processes.

A multi-level perspective on innovation intermediaries: The case of the diffusion of digital technologies in healthcare

Innovation intermediaries have emerged as prominent forms of intervention for supporting technological changes and driving sociotechnical transitions. In this paper, we draw on an in-depth case study tracing the emergence and evolution of an intermediary organization created specifically to address innovation-related challenges and spur digital transformation in the healthcare sector in Montreal, Canada. We analyze data from 85 interviews with leading actors in the healthcare ecosystem, coupled with supplementary material, meetings, and follow-ups to theorize how intermediaries help facilitate the diffusion of emerging digital technologies in this sector. Our analysis reveals two interrelated processes: (1) “technology-focused intermediation” to help co-create the technology in accordance with existing demands; and (2) “ecosystem-focused intermediation” to help reinforce ecosystem components for enabling effective deployment. Each of these processes is driven by sourcing, mobilizing, and scaling activities intended to align the technology development trajectory with envisioned sociotechnical requirements.

How to account for the dark sides of social innovation? Transitions directionality in renewable energy prosumerism

Social innovation is gaining attention as a pivotal dimension of socio-technical transitions with renewable energy prosumerism as a prominent example. However, this example also highlights that social innovation evokes concerns about purposes, beneficiaries, normative dilemmas and legitimacy. This paper addresses recent calls to confront the perceived ‘dark sides’ of social innovations. As debates on these dark sides often get stuck in either naive optimism or paralyzing critique, the paper investigates how transitions theory can inform nuanced understandings. The key concept is transitions directionality. The analysis shows how it conceptualizes the dark sides as manifestations of socio-technical path dependence, as disempowering ideological ‘landscape’ factors, as internal contradictions within institutionally complex regimes, as niche-regime dialectics, and as transition phases. Rather than proposing a particular normative position, the paper presents a heuristic that supports well-considered engagement with the dark sides.

Justice in energy transformations as a spatial phenomenon: A framework for analyzing multi-dimensional justice claims

Energy transformations not only evoke multi-dimensional claims for just distribution, recognition, and procedures, but also reveal how these claims depend on and shape the spatial context that they address. The aim of this contribution is to provide a framework that connects spatial and multi-dimensional aspects of justice in energy transition research. It builds on literature in the fields of just transition studies and energy justice. While the relevance of considering space and scale in socio-technical transitions is widely acknowledged, a conceptual framework can help to connect justice and spatiality in transitions and support scrutiny of their interconnections. The present work seeks to address this gap by incorporating contributions from the fields of political geography and political theory. Accordingly, it discusses central intersections in the moral–spatial tension field. Spatial justice claims are conceptualized as referring at the same time to moral (substance-related) and spatial dimensions of (in)justice and relating both to each other. The paper conceptualizes how justice claims refer to multiple scales, center-periphery relations, interterritorial and infrastructure-related concerns as well as to place-based attachments. It discusses the positioning of actors in this moral-spatial field as well as the reference to directional patterns of responsibility and effect. Attention to spatial justice claims further discloses processes of boundary construction, perpetuation, and contestation as well as the regional entrenchment of widely shared justice claims. Transformation-related political institutions and processes in affected regions reveal how various spatial justice claims are publicly related to each other.