Bonno Pel

The politics of sustainability transitions

Sustainability transitions are processes of fundamental social change in response to societal challenges (Grin, Rotmans, & Schot, 2010; Markard, Raven, & Truffer, 2012). They reflect a particular diagnosis of persistent social problems, in which persistence is attributed to the path dependency of dominant practices and structures (i.e. ‘regimes’), whose resolution requires structural and long-term change. By their nature, transitions involve politics in the broadest sense of the word, that is, as

Trojan horses in transitions: A dialectical perspective on innovation ‘capture’

Abstract As current sustainability challenges are increasingly acknowledged to be of a persistent and systemic nature, sustainability transitions are pursued as likewise systemic solutions. Attempts at such systemic innovations have frequently been seen to become ‘captured’ by incumbent actors, however. As such neutralizing or even perverting co-optation reveals the tense power relations involved, capture is a key dimension of sustainability transition politics. This article argues that capture need not be considered as undesirable per se, however. Against prevalent idealist understandings, a dialectical understanding of innovation capture is developed. This perspective elicits two often neglected aspects of capture, namely its ambiguity and its longitudinal development. Invoking insights from the sociology of translation, it is highlighted how innovation attempts are translated by situated actors, who strategically emphasize or downplay the elements of the innovation that fit their ambitions. Through the typical alternation of radicalizing and domesticating appropriations, it is shown how capture may even turn out favourable to capture ‘victims’ and their envisioned transitions. Comparing four system innovation processes in the Dutch traffic management field, it is shown how transition politics unfold around Trojan horses. Being equipped with latent transformative force, these seemingly innocuous innovations are even meant to be captured.

Intersections in system innovation: a nested-case methodology to study co-evolving innovation journeys

Current persistent sustainability challenges are widely understood to require transitions and system innovations. As these systemic changes typically emerge from multiple co-evolving innovations, Schot and Geels [2008. Strategic niche management and sustainable innovation journeys; theory, findings, research agenda, and policy. Technology Analysis and Strategic Management 20, no. 5: 537–54] urge to study the interactions between innovation journeys. Their call for multiplicity has been met through several studies. Yet considering that these analyses still leave the attendant navigational challenges underexposed, this article demonstrates the usefulness of nested-case methodologies. Focusing on the ‘intersections’ between interpenetrating case histories, in-depth investigation is combined with broader attention to next-order changes. The relevance and implications of these intersections are illustrated through four innovation journeys in the Dutch traffic management field: unfolding largely in parallel, but sometimes intersecting, they yield a mixed picture of trajectory formation and fragmentation. The phenomenon of emergent incoherence is identified as a key strategic challenge in system innovation processes.

Confronting Momentum: Mapping the Social Appraisals of an ‘Inevitable’ Motorway Capacity Expansion

Motorway capacity expansion projects are prominent causes for contestation. From a large technical systems (LTS) perspective, the concept of ‘momentum’ can be deployed to investigate social appraisals associated with such projects. Momentum is the end stage in LTS development, designating stabilization in the coevolution of social and technical system elements. In large-scale road infrastructure planning, momentum becomes manifest in the assumed inevitability of capacity expansion. Yet, as it remains unclear how momentum is confronted by situated actors, particularly within the remit of deliberative planning, this paper investigates the manifestation of momentum in the social appraisals of civil society actors involved in deliberating a case of ‘inevitable’ large-scale infrastructure planning. By using an exemplary case of a project on motorway capacity expansion in the Netherlands, it was investigated how momentum was acknowledged by actors, but perhaps also resisted or sustained. The paper finds that actors were quite aware of momentum, but that they largely refrained from resisting it as a result of the focus on impact mitigation in the deliberation. Furthermore, this focus sustained the necessity claim and underlying rationale for the motorway capacity expansion. However, the choice of whether to resist or sustain momentum could have been strategically motivated. The paper recommends that further practice and methodological research should focus on the challenges of teasing out social appraisals on momentum in the deliberative planning context.

Interactive Metal Fatigue: A Conceptual Contribution to Social Critique in Mobilities Research

Abstract The ‘mobilities turn’ has reinvigorated the social critique on the automobility system. Theorizing its profound reconfigurations of social life, relationist commitments invite a certain silence regarding the associated social pathologies, however. This article explores a critical-theoretical interpretation of the mobilities paradigm. It proposes the ‘interactive metal fatigue’ (IMF) concept, which theorizes the emergence of ‘interpassive’ social relations as socio-technical dialectics. Taking into account the contradictions that surround the critical-theoretical project, IMF paves the way for balanced critiques of mobilities. This will be shown through the case of Shared Space, an attempt to free public space from traffic management colonization.

Emergent transformation games: Exploring social innovation agency and activation through the case of the Belgian electricity blackout threat

The persistence of current societal problems has given rise to a quest for transformative social innovations. As social innovation actors seek to become change makers, it has been suggested that they need to play into impactful macrodevelopments or “game-changers”. Here, we aim to deepen the understanding of the social innovation agency in these transformation games. We analyze assumptions about the game metaphor, invoking insights from actor-network theory. The very emergence of transformation games is identified as a crucial but easily overlooked issue. As explored through the recent electricity blackout threat in Belgium, some current transformation games are populated with largely passive players. This illustrative case demonstrates that socially innovative agency cannot be presupposed. In some transformation games, the crucial game-changing effect is to start the game by activating the players.

A TRANSITIONS STUDIES PERSPECTIVE ON THE SOCIAL ECONOMY; EXPLORING INSTITUTIONALIZATION AND CAPTURE IN FLEMISH ‘INSERTION’ PRACTICES

Current persistent challenges of sustainable and equitable development call for systemic technical and social innovations. The ´ insertion´ practices of work integration social enterprises (WISEs) can be considered examples of such innovation efforts. The underlying rationales and institutional frameworks have been elaborated extensively in social economy scholarship. However, as WISEs are frequently reported to fall victim to pressures towards isomorphism or ‘capture’ by incumbent institutional structures, transitions theory seems worthwhile to invoke in order to develop a dynamic understanding of these processes. As illustrated through case study data on the Flemish social economy, it is highlighted how ´insertion´ displays longitudinal dynamics of institutional capture that are similar to those observed in sustainability transitions more generally. This empirical analysis helps to identify the scope for fruitful paradigmatic interplay between transitions studies and social economy scholarship.

Coproduced game-changing in transformative social innovation: reconnecting the “broken city” of Rio de Janeiro

Social innovation is gaining attention for its potential for system transformations. It is often initiated by grassroots collectives, which can become successful through support from other actors and through certain game-changing events or developments. We highlight how transformative social innovation is a highly dispersed, coproduced process of changing social relations. This coproduction is unfolded through a case of interacting interventions in the socio-spatial structure of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Frequently referred to as a “broken city,” the city suffers from various social challenges related to the socio-spatial cleavages between the welldeveloped and the marginalized areas, the favelas. Following a nested-case approach, we describe two policy measures and three social innovation initiatives intended to reconnect the broken city. We analyze their effects as well as their various interactions. The findings give reasons for considering the policy measures as “game-changers” that allow new courses of play. Still, the key observation about these intertwined socio-spatial interventions is that the broken city is undergoing more dispersed game-changing. Further observing how the reconnections constitute different kinds of changing mobility, we conclude with reflections on mobility-related game-changing.

Critical Approaches to Transitions Theory

Since its emergence as a theory of sustainability transformation, transitions theory has started to gain currency with both policymakers and researchers. As transitions approaches become established in research and policy, a process of institutionalization can be witnessed. Yet notwithstanding this mainstreaming, transitions theory continues to be controversial. Questions have been raised about its theorization of agency and transformation dynamics, and especially about the normative assumptions underlying its intervention strategies. Arguably, these recurring questions call for ‘critical approaches’ to transitions theory. This contribution explores these, guided by a constructive attitude. The argument starts from the consideration that transitions theory harboursdistinctly ‘critical’ elements, and that polemical juxtapositions between critical and uncritical transitions approaches are unnecessary: What are the critical contents of transitions theory? How can the critical contents of transitions theory be retained and developed further? These questions are answered through a historical comparison with the critical-theoretical project as initiated by Marx, Horkheimer and Adorno, amongst others.As with transitions studies, this project was meant to diagnose the social problems of its time, and to articulate corresponding remedial strategies. It ran into various internal contradictions, however, and these provide useful insights for the further development of critical transitions. The main conclusion is that transitions theory is well equipped to deal with these critical-theoretical paradoxes, but also displays tendencies towards relapsing into the pitfalls.

Intersections in delta development; analyzing actors for complexity-sensitive spatial concepts

Delta areas can be considered complex adaptive socio-ecological systems. The Dutch Southwest delta, facing serious flood risks, vulnerability to ecological decline, and various challenging issues of agriculture, industry, harbor development and energy provision, is a case in point. Still, many institutional barriers exist towards governing and planning this complex whole as such. In this article we therefore develop and test a method for the development of integrative, complexity-sensitive spatial concepts: First, stakeholder analysis techniques are used to disclose the diversity of system understandings amongst the actors involved. Moreover, the method mobilizes these constructivist techniques to gain insight into the CAS property of co-evolving subsystems. Through the subsequent inventory, classification and synthesis of such ‘intersections’ between subsystems, the method helps identify the delta’s crucial clusters of interdependent subsystems, or ‘configurations’. We present three of such configurations, to illustrate how this method informs the step from systems analysis to spatial design.