Sustainability transition dynamics: Towards overcoming policy resistance (original) (raw)
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Research Policy, 2020
Recent literature has turned considerable attention to the role of policy mixes in shaping socio-technical systems towards sustainability. However, the identification of relevant policy intervention points has remained a relatively neglected topic. This is a potentially significant oversight given that such intervention points constitute a mid-step between means (particular policy instruments) and overall goals (change in the directionality of socio-technical systems). By complementing existing work on policy mixes with additional insights from transitions literature, this paper formulates a conceptual framework of six policy intervention points for transformative systems change. The coding scheme developed on the basis of this framework is used to review current literature on policy mixes in sustainability transitions. It is shown that the latter has so far primarily focused on niche-regime dynamics while largely neglecting the broader context of these interactions. We argue that adopting a wider perspective on intervention points can aid future work on policy mixes by enabling the identification of root causes and critical problems of ongoing transitions, and to spot gaps in existing policy activities. The case of the Estonian energy system is used to briefly illustrate these possibilities. Methodologically, we demonstrate the value of combining theory-based concept-formation with a systematic literature review, enabling not only a provision of a summary of existing literature but also highlighting systematic gaps in that literature.
Over the last years a fast growing literature developed around the notion of sociotechnical systems and the possibilities for governing such systems towards sustainability . Such large scale, structural changes in socio-technical systems have been described as multi-level transitions (Geels 2002). The government is assumed to play an important role in helping these necessary changes to happen. In this paper we argue that the transitions literature so far has underestimated political obstacles to governing transitions. In particular the transitions literature has under-conceptualised landscape level factors. We argue that the work on policy paradigms within political science (Hall 1993) is extremely useful to understand some of the macro-political constraints. The main point we are making is that policy paradigms shape what kinds of interventions are seen as politically acceptable and thereby influence the governance of transitions. The empirical case discussed in this paper to illustrate this argument is the transition towards a more sustainable energy system in the UK.
Restructuring energy systems for sustainability? Energy transition policy in the Netherlands
Energy Policy, 2008
Increasingly, researchers and policy-makers are confronting the challenge of restructuring energy systems into more sustainable forms. A 'transition management' model, and its adoption in the Netherlands, is attracting attention. Starting with the socio-technical multi-level theory that informs transition management, we analyse the 'energy transition' project carried out by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. Despite considerable achievements, their approach risks capture by the incumbent energy regime, thereby undermining original policy ambitions for structural innovation of the energy system. This experience presents generic dilemmas for transitions approaches.
Implementing Transition Management as Policy Reforms
Proposals to alter large-scale socio-technical systems through government actions in order to promote goals such as sustainability are highly uncertain policy projects. What is being proposed is the replacement of specific elements of existing policy 'mixes'-the goals and means-by others, in the expectation of avoiding counterproductive or sub-optimal policy outcomes. While laudable, such efforts are fraught with risks; including the possibility of the creation of sub-optimal policy mixes or of failed reform efforts with resulting poor outcomes. This article develops a model and typology of policy regime change processes and outcomes following Thelen and others in arguing that complex policy mixes typically emerge through one or more of four processes, 'drift', 'conversion', 'layering' and 'replacement', and that the expected outcomes of these different processes in terms of their ability to meet initial expectations are linked to the manner in which policy goals and means are (or are not) combined in a consistent, coherent and congruent fashion. This propensity is illustrated through examination of the case of energy transition management as practiced in the Netherlands.
Governing societal transitions to sustainability
International Journal of Sustainable Development, 2012
Our paper addresses the inherent tension between the open-ended and uncertain process of sustainability transitions and the ambition for governing such a process. We explore this tension from two theoretical angles: the sustainability and the governance angles; by showing the implications of sustainability targets in governance processes and governance attempts. We propose transition management as a governance approach that has the potential to overcome this tension through selective participatory processes of envisioning, negotiating, learning and experimenting. Transition management includes a portfolio of tools that have a common objective to enable change in practices and structures directed towards sustainable development targets. We present the transition arena and the transition experiments as two transition management tools elaborating on their process design, expected outcomes and illustrating their application in the Dutch construction transition.
The Dynamics of Sustainability Transitions: An Archetype for Transformation
EarthArXiv (California Digital Library), 2023
Significant global sustainability challenges include among others, energy, climate, and sanitation. Previous Sustainability Transition research has attempted to understand transformation complexity and interdependence, primarily through single-case methodological studies or large-scale analytical frameworks such as the Multi-Level Perspective. This leaves a knowledge gap on common dynamics underlying transition processes and emergent behaviors. To fill this gap, we conducted a cross-sectoral analysis of five system dynamics sustainability transition models with the objective of finding a common system archetype. An archetype emerged from a multi-step, mixed method structural analysis of these models. The extracted archetype captures generalizable sustainable transition dynamics across a diversity of research domains and temporal scales. The structural drivers of sustainability transitions within this archetype are used to discuss future research and practice that seeks to provide insight on common transition dynamics, deeper clarity on leverage points capable of managing transitions, and a framework for subsequent transition modeling archetype analyses.
Policy Sciences, 2009
This article describes policy-science interactions in a transition process in which we were involved as scientists. We describe the interactions that occurred in a project for the fourth National Environmental Policy Plan in the Netherlands. The project was successful in that it produced a new concept and set of principles for policy to deal with persistent problems such as global climate change, which were used in the national policy plan. The new concept was that of transition and the principles were: policy integration, long-term thinking for short-term action, keeping multiple options open and learning-by-doing and doing-by-learning. Retrospectively, we ask ourselves: what factors facilitated the acceptance of the first ideas about transition management? Reconstructing the events and drawing on interviews with key individuals involved, we have tried to find the key factors for the adoption of the ideas developed in the project. Finally, we reflect upon our role as scientists-advisors and the role of others in the development of a new story line and set of principles for policy. Our own assessment, 8 years later, is that we were engaged in boundary work.