Simone Franceschini

Mapping Sustainability Transitions. Networks of Innovators, Techno-economic competences and Political Discourses

In this chapter the essential basic concepts that are needed to build a socio-technical map are presented. Any social function—such as feeding, housing, mobility, supply of energy, healthcare, etc.—is fulfilled by one or more socio-technical (ST) systems. Each ST system consists of a network of innovators and a structure of material and immaterial constituents. Usually one ST system holds a dominant position: only ST “niches” are partially or totally protected from its selection pressure. The dynamics of ST systems may be grouped into two large families: the adaptation of a dominant ST system and the establishment of a new dominant position. Niches play a relevant role in both kinds of dynamics. The political dimension of the dynamics of ST systems becomes relevant when a dominant position is taken over: niche innovators must scale up a cumulative process between empowerment, legitimation and networking in order to gain a stable role into the public debate and possibly to influence the direction of change of agendas and actual policies. A sustainability transition (SusTran) is needed when a social functions is currently dominated by (or locked into) a ST system that is environmentally unsustainable. The mere adaptation of an existing dominant ST system is not sufficient to generate a SusTran. This is why the take-over of the dominant position of an unsustainable ST system is a necessary condition for a SusTran to take place.

Multilevel Scenarios of Urban Mobility

In this chapter we show that the socio-technical map (ST-map) can be useful to represent sustainability transitions also when multi-scalar dynamics are at stake. This is the case of urban mobility: it takes place at a local level, but some of its constituents—actors, policies, technologies—are national or global. The analysis starts with the consideration of the ST systems and niches that concur to (and compete for) the provision of urban mobility: the dominant system of the individual car; the subaltern systems of public transport and the bicycle; the emerging carsharing schemes. Also some locally dominant systems of integrated mobility are considered. These systems are then positioned into a ST-map built on two dimensions. The first dimension consider all the relevant political discourses on urban mobility: ‘Mobility as a driver of development’; ‘Mobility as a generator of harmful impacts’; ‘Mobility as a determinant of the quality of urban spaces’; ‘Mobility as a right’. The second dimension lists three alternative business models: ‘sell vehicles’, ‘rent vehicles’, ‘manage transport systems’. Starting from the ST-map of the current situation of urban mobility—and from the consideration of the ongoing changes—three alternative scenarios are proposed. The ‘Auto-city’ scenario emerges from the reconfiguration of the existing ‘individual car’ dominant system and is generated by the absorption of the producers of batteries. In the ‘Eco-city’ scenario a coalition of urban networks supports a new political discourse of urban mobility and foster the creation of new urban systems of integrated mobility. In the ‘Electri-city’ scenario local and national electric operators takes over the individual car system because they are interested in the integration of smart grids and electric vehicles, also in order to increase grid stability and reduce demand-supply unbalances, in particular in the case of renewable sources. Multi-scalar dynamics are at the heart of the proposed scenarios of urban mobility: the ‘Auto-city’ and the ‘Electri-city’ scenarios mostly result from global dynamics, where niches are used for experimentation; the ‘Eco-city’ scenario emerges from a two-dimension diffusion process: horizontally, at the local level, where dominant positions “migrate” from an urban area to another; vertically, from the local to the national level, in order to gain greater political support.

The History of the US Light Market Between Bulbs and Illumination

This chapter combines a historical case study with the ST-map which aims at describing the evolution of the main U.S. light systems over the last two centuries. The use of the ST-map helps to track the evolution of new technologies—and their networks of innovators, and it helps to position such networks in respect to the relevant business models and the dominant political discourses. The analysis represents how the dominancy of specific light systems has been intertwined with the development of networks of innovators that could seize value from the value of new urban energy infrastructures first, and later from the growing importance of the energy/environmental question in the political discourse about light. The ST-map represents a simplified way to present the dynamics of dominant systems over long time, so it may be used to convey important dynamics—in a synthetic way—overcoming a limitation of typical historical descriptive case studies. This chapter also addresses the limitations encountered by the usage of ST-map in historical case studies, especially when the focus is on narrow socio-technical systems.

Towards Sustainable Food: A Contested Transition

The aim of this chapter is to show that the socio-technical map (ST-map) can be useful even to analyze the current and future dynamics of feeding: a societal function that feature complex techno-economic dynamics and contrasting political visions. First of all, the ST systems that are relevant for the today provision of food are considered: the global agribusiness system; the traditional and new local systems; the organic system; the fairtrade system. For each of them a supporting network of innovators is identified; all relevant policies—at the global, national and local scale—are also considered. Then, all food ST systems are positioned into a ST-map based on two dimensions. The first dimension is built on five alternative discourses on sustainable food: ‘Food for all’, ‘Healthy food’, ‘Environment-friendly food’, ‘Food as local culture and local development’, and ‘Food that is produced in a fair way’. The other dimension ranks supply chains from simple to complex: complexity of supply chains depends on both the distance covered and the number of steps. The chapter ends with a future analysis of sustainable food. Starting from ongoing changes and from alternative dynamics of ST-systems and networks of innovators, three scenarios are proposed. The ‘Biotech’ scenario results from a two-fold transition involving the global agribusiness system: suppliers of biotechnological inputs respond to the pressure for sustainable agriculture and food security; large-scale retailers integrate the commercial activity of the organic, fairtrade and local systems. The ‘Elite Versus Mass’ scenario features a new network led by elitist large-scale retailers that clusters the commercial activities of the organic and fair trade systems in order to serve the increasing demand for healthy and environment-friendly food. In the ‘Organic’ scenario a new dominant system integrates all the productive and commercial actors who are interested in converting to organic practices and to organic food products; also some large-scale retailers coming from the global agribusiness system join the organic network. In all scenarios the cumulative process between the empowerment of networks and the emergence of supporting policies is stressed.

How to Build a Socio-technical Map

In this chapter we show how a socio-technical map (ST-map) can be built in four steps. Graphical examples are taken from the case studies presented in Chaps. 3– 6 of this book. In step 1 the field of analysis is determined: this is usually a whole societal function, such as feeding, housing, mobility. In step 2 the relevant systems and niches and their networks of innovators are identified: the dominant system (if any), other systems, and niches are represented differently into the ST-map. Also local systems and niches—when relevant—can be represented in a specific way. In step 3 the two dimensions of the ST-map are drawned. The first dimension usually represents the relevant political discourses on sustainability, that is, how the current and future sustainability of the analyzed societal function is interpreted by innovators. The second dimension of the ST-map usually represents the techno-economic competences that are leveraged by innovators to promote change. These may refer either to business or productive models, or to technologies. In step 4 all ST systems and niches are positioned into the ST-map. Such a positioning represents to which political discourse and to which techno-economic competence mostly refers the network of innovators of any given system or niche. Also the dominant policy (if any) can be positioned into the ST-map. The resulting ST-map can be used to represent either the current situation of a societal function or its prospective or retrospective dynamics. In the latter case the history of a societal function can be represented through a sequence of ST-maps, each referring to a single moment of relative stability of the societal function. Starting from the current ST-map and from the analysis of the current potential for change also scenarios can be built: these are represented as the result of the ‘demography’ of ST systems and their supportive networks.

Freiburg: From ‘Auto-City’ to ‘City of Short Distances’ (1945–2010)

In this chapter we analyse the sustainability transition pathway that made Freiburg an ‘Eco-city’ where the modal share of slow mobility is more than 50 % (pedestrians: 24 %; cycling: 28 %), and the car is less relevant (30 %). Through the sequential use of three ST-maps we are able to reconstruct the sustainability transition of Freiburg: from an emerging ‘Auto-city’, where private cars increase of importance (first ST-map: 1969), through a time of coexistence of four different systems (individual car, public transport, individual bicycle, walkability) (second ST-map: 1979), until the polarization in two systems: the individual car and the so-called ‘City of Short Distances’ (third ST-map: 2010). The reproduction of these two systems takes place at different scales: local actors support the ‘City of Short Distances’—which is today dominant in Freiburg—while national and international actors keep supporting the individual car.