Transition Literature Research Articles

Bridging Data Governance and Socio-Technical Transitions to Understand Sustainable Smart Cities

ABSTRACT Smart city (SC) studies that have drawn on socio-technical transitions literature do not explicitly consider data governance (DG) as a significant component of smart city transitions (SCTs). This article works towards this gap by bridging the literature on DG and socio-technical transitions in SCs. We aim to answer two overarching questions: (1) What can SCTs learn from DG?; and (2) What can DG learn from SCTs? Against this backdrop, we outline the contours of a new research agenda that could bring together both fields in productive dialogue.

Coalitions, coordination, and contestation: a systematic review of the advocacy coalition framework and its implications for sustainability transitions research

IntroductionAchieving sustainability transitions requires substantial policy changes, often driven by coalitions of actors advocating for institutional change and transformative agendas. While the transitions literature highlights the importance of coalition coordination, the underlying processes remain insufficiently understood. This study explores the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) to derive insights into the coordination and dynamics of advocacy coalitions relevant to sustainability transitions.MethodsA systematic review of ACF literature was conducted, encompassing an initial corpus of over 700 articles and refining it to a final set of 45 documents. These documents were analyzed using qualitative coding to identify key factors influencing coalition coordination and to conceptualize coalition dynamics across the phases of sustainability transitions.ResultsThe review identifies four categories of factors shaping coalition coordination: prerequisites for coordination, reasons to coordinate, instrumental factors that influence coordination, and internal organization of coalitions. Additionally, it outlines how coordination patterns evolve across four sustainability transition phases, leading to the development of a typology that integrates dynamics within coalitions and across coalitions with two transition pathways: technological substitution and reconfiguration.DiscussionThis study advances the understanding of the political processes underpinning sustainability transitions by integrating ACF insights into transition studies. It underscores the importance of belief systems, resource access, and trust in fostering effective coalition coordination. The proposed typology offers a conceptual framework to guide future empirical research on coalition dynamics and their role in accelerating sustainability transitions.

HOW TO REGULATE ELECTRICITY: CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND ENERGY TRANSITION

Objective: The objective of this study is to propose alternative structures for the regulation of electricity, taking into account new variables posed by the energy transition. Theoretical Framework: This article is grounded mainly in scholarly literature from law and economics, corporate law, regulatory law and collective action theories, but places them in a new perspective with the support of ESG and energy transition literature. Method: The main methodology adopted for this study was review and discussion of scholarly work. Results and Discussion: The results obtained indicate that the traditional models proposed to deal with energy regulation are insufficient to address new challenges broguth by energy transition, and proposes a new, innovative model based on a shared-ownership structure. Research Implications: The study´s implications are significant for policymakers, private agents in the energy sector and, also, for governmental agents in the sector. The regulatory model proposed has implications for the relationship between public goods and the regulation of energy, as well as for the relationship between the general public and the directions of energy policy and governance. Originality and Value: This study contributes to the literature by proposing an innovative regulatory model, which build upon previous studies in the fields of energy regulation, corporate governance and collective action.

Exploring Pathways for Change: A Practice‐Oriented Integration of Foresight and Sustainability Transitions

ABSTRACTThe world is on a trajectory to exceed the 1.5‐degree target set by the Paris Agreement. As the effects of climate change become increasingly evident, there is a pressing need to fundamentally transform our societies towards just and sustainable futures. This paper presents a practical methodology for guiding collaborative transformation processes towards sustainability. Our aim is to contribute to the development of tools that combine insights from foresight with theories from the sustainability transitions literature, specifically scenario planning and multi‐level perspective (MLP) approaches. Foresight and sustainability transitions both aim to understand long‐term trends shaping production and consumption systems and guide transitions to more desirable socio‐technical regimes. However, few scholars have examined overlaps between the fields and explored the potential for practical integration in workshop settings. The MLP can benefit from scenario planning by incorporating directionality and pluralism of futures in transition processes, while the MLP provides a structure for understanding system dynamics and socio‐technical change to scenario planning. In this paper, we share our experiences using an integrated MLP‐scenario planning framework in a workshop setting where actors from the Swedish food system explored prospective transitions. Using backcasting and pre‐mortem related to regime dimensions from the MLP, participants built a common understanding of events, barriers and pathways associated with four normative scenarios of sustainable food systems. Our results show that the MLP and scenario planning can be integrated and implemented on a practical level to facilitate dialogues on current regime lock‐ins and thereby pave the way for transformative change.

From Niches to Global Value Chains: The Role of Firms' Collaborative Strategies in the Bioeconomy

ABSTRACTThe bioeconomy is expected to carry out the transition towards a bio‐based economy thanks to the transformation of petrochemical and fossil fuel value chains. Nevertheless, bio‐based innovations fail to overcome the hurdle of commercialisation and appropriation. This paper offers a renewed understanding of this problem by combining the niche‐to‐regime transition literature with the global value chain literature. The article hypothesises that to overcome the challenge of commercialisation and appropriation, bio‐based innovations need to break out of their sociotechnical niches and integrate global value chains (GVCs). To achieve this, niche players and lead firms in GVCs need to collaborate together. Using the case of microalgae, we theorise a time‐sensitive typology of collaborations according to the three phases mapped around innovation development from emergence to diffusion and commercialisation. This study highlights that the type of collaboration to adopt depends on the level of development of an innovation, suggesting that the study of collaborations as diffusion and commercial strategy deserves further attention in transition studies and GVCs literature.

Listening and Preparing the Society to Engage: The Case of the Colombian Truth Commission and Its Legacy Strategy

ABSTRACT Reflections on the Colombian Truth Commission are timely to answer a question less explored in the transitional justice literature related to how transitional justice processes have been popularized and made accessible to the broader public, and moreover, how the various stakeholders have extended the fruits of transitional justice. In this note from the field, we offer our practitioner perspectives on the key enabling conditions and strategic moments in the development of the Commission’s legacy strategy that contributed to these outcomes. We examine how the Commission’s ethical and political framing of the listening exercises and its overall institutional structure led to a long-term peacebuilding project that continues to mobilize today through the work of the Trabajo en red con aliados or the Network of Allies. We unpack the key factors that foster ongoing mobilization of civil society and local government actors engaged in debating, implementing and grappling with the recommendations of the final report. This note provides new information for the debate about the value of networks and partnerships related to facing the truth and moving towards non-recurrence in transitional justice endeavors.

Policy mixes for sustainable development pathways: representation in integrated assessment models

Abstract The Paris Agreement on climate change and the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development require unprecedented transformations to sustainability, while maximising synergies and minimising trade-offs between the two agendas. The policy studies and sustainability transition literatures suggest that addressing the complex policy interlinkages requires ambitious, coherent, comprehensive and credible policy mixes supported by synergistic combinations of governance modes. We investigate to which extent these assumptions are reflected in quantitative scenarios produced with integrated assessment models. As a case study, we assess a new set of target-seeking sustainable development pathway (SDP) scenarios. We scrutinise the modelling protocols and the scenario results to analyse the extent to which these modelled SDPs represent governance modes and policy instrument types and purposes, and assess the resulting policy mix characteristics. As such, we bridge the scenario modelling and policy mix literatures and provide an initial pathway appraisal. We find that the modelled SDPs use policy mixes to constrain negative side-effects of unmitigated climate measures to achieve several SDGs simultaneously. The policy mixes speak to several policy mix characteristics. However, they are only partially spelled so far and their credibility remains limited. This calls for additional policy-translation efforts. 

Multilateral Governance in a Global Hydrogen Economy: An Overview of Main Actors and Institutions, Key Challenges and Future Pathways

This paper explores the current scope and direction of the emerging global governance of hydrogen within the broader context of the energy transition, where technological innovation and institutional change intersect. Hydrogen, as a critical yet complex energy vector, requires coordinated governance efforts to navigate its development effectively. To this end, we critically engage with key challenges facing the hydrogen sector and examine how institutional frameworks are addressing these issues. Departing from the broader scholarship on global energy governance, we conceptually leverage the socio-technical transition and innovation system literature to understand the complexities underpinning the development of the global hydrogen economy. We identify three overarching issue areas pertaining to the nature and role of hydrogen in the global energy system: end-use sector development, infrastructure and trade, and environmental and socio-economic sustainability. Each of these areas presents distinct challenges to hydrogen’s global governance, from stimulating supply and demand to managing geo-economic challenges and establishing comprehensive certification and standards. Through mapping multilateral institutions at the global and regional levels and their main objectives, we offer insights into the emerging institutional architecture related to hydrogen and identify potential gaps in current governance. Our findings suggest that while newer, hydrogen-specific institutions complement the broader agenda of the main established international organizations, the overall global hydrogen structure remains a patchwork of diverse actors and frameworks, each addressing hydrogen-related challenges to varying degrees. Our research contributes to a nuanced understanding of global governance in the hydrogen sector and advances scholarly discussions on how institutional and actor dynamics shape the emergence and development of new technologies.

Caring consumption and sustainability: Insights from household provisioning in the first ten years of motherhood

As primary sites of everyday consumption households play a key role in sustainability transitions. Yet neither everyday consumption nor what goes on within households have received much attention within the sustainability transitions literature. This paper contributes to this research gap by exploring how everyday practices of mothering intersect with aspects of the sustainability of everyday food provisioning. This is explored via longitudinal research with 10 women over a period of 10 years beginning when they were pregnant with their first child. Analysis considers engagement in both overtly ethical or environmental product choices and the adoption of online shopping- a mode of consumption which may be ‘inadvertently’ environmental. Analysis highlights that provisioning practices are profoundly relational and flexible, prioritising care, thrift and time management. Sustainability transitions need to adopt holistic discourses of sustainable living which embrace the relational character of everyday consumption and support affordable and feasible everyday practices of care.

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.

The Importance of Network Intentionality: Examining Predictors of Interagency Collaboration for Secondary Special Educators

Interagency collaboration (IAC) is mandated by federal legislation and is a well-established best practice in the transition literature. At the same time, there is limited research that examines the predictors of greater IAC, and the breadth of partners that secondary special educators collaborate with across school systems, service systems, and communities to support the transition process. Using a quantitative survey of 376 secondary special educators in a Midwestern state, we examined their IAC practices by documenting the characteristics of their social networks (i.e., diversity, communication patterns, and supports exchanged). Furthermore, we examined which malleable factors including network intentionality, collaboration self-efficacy, innovative action, and access to transition-focused professional development were associated with greater IAC. These findings provide a deeper portrait of transition-focused IAC and have implications for special educators and teacher preparation programs.

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.