A.J. Wieczorek

Understanding Industrial Transformation

This Chapter introduces industrial transformation as a specific field of science. The key assumption of research on industrial transformation is that deep societal change is required to achieve sustainability. Its study requires concerted efforts from many scientific disciplines.

Unpacking sustainabilities in diverse transition contexts: : solar photovoltaic and urban mobility experiments in India and Thailand

It is generally accepted that the concept of sustainability is not straightforward, but is subject to ongoing ambiguities, uncertainties and contestations. Yet literature on sustainability transitions has so far only engaged in limited ways with the resulting tough questions around what sustainability means, to whom and in which contexts. This paper makes a contribution to this debate by unpacking sustainability in India and Thailand in the context of solar photovoltaic and urban mobility experimentation. Building on a database of sustainability experiments and multicriteria mapping techniques applied in two workshops, the paper concludes that sustainability transition scholarship and associated governance strategies must engage with such questions in at least three important ways. First, there is a need for extreme caution in assuming any objective status for the sustainability of innovations, and for greater reflection on the normative implications of case study choices. Second, sustainability transition scholarship and governance must engage more with the unpacking of uncertainties and diverse possible socio-technical configurations even within (apparently) singular technological fields. Third, sustainability transition scholarship must be more explicit and reflective about the specific geographical contexts within which the sustainability of experimentation is addressed.

A Systemic Assessment of the European Offshore Wind Innovation: Insights from the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom

The development and diffusion of offshore wind energy technology is important for European energy policy. However, the large potential does not automatically lead to a large share in future energy systems; neither does an emergent stage of technological development automatically lead to success for companies and the related economic growth and growth in employment. Recent insights in innovation studies suggest that the success chances of technological innovations are, to a large extent, determined by how the surrounding system (the innovation system) is built up and how it functions. Many innovation systems are characterized by flaws that hamper the development and diffusion of innovations. These flaws are often labelled as system problems or system challenges. Intelligent innovation policy therefore evaluates how innovation systems are functioning, tries to create insight into the systems’ challenges and develops policies accordingly. This report assesses the European offshore wind innovation system based on insights from four countries: Denmark, the UK, the Netherlands and Germany. We use the Technological Innovation System (TIS) approach to analyse the state and functioning of the system at the end of 2011. Based on the analysis we identify four types of systemic challenges: (i) actor-related such as deficiency of engineers; (ii) institutional, e.g. non-aligned national regulatory frameworks; (iii) interaction-related like poor transferability of scientific knowledge to specific contexts of application and; (iv) infrastructural such as poor grid infrastructure. We suggest the challenges require a systemic, coordinated policy effort at a European level if the system is expected to contribute to the goals of climate change reduction and stimulation of green growth.