A Methodological Framework to Initiate and Design Transition Governance Processes

Abstract

Sustainability transitions require societal change at multiple levels ranging from individual behavioral change to community projects, businesses that offer sustainable products as well as policy-makers that set suitable incentive structures. Concepts, methods and tools are currently lacking that help to initiate and design transition governance processes based upon an encompassing understanding of such diverse interactions of actors and intervention points. This article presents a methodological framework for the initiation and design of transition governance processes. Based upon a conceptualization of sustainability transitions as multilevel learning processes, the methodological framework includes participatory modeling, a systematic literature review and governance system analysis to identify social units (learning subjects and contexts), challenges (learning objects) and intervention points (learning factors) relevant for initiating case-specific transition governance processes. A case study on sustainable food systems in Ontario, Canada is provided to exemplify the application of the methodological framework. The results demonstrate the merit of combining stakeholder-based and expert-based methods, as several learning factors identified in the participatory process could not be found in the general literature, and vice versa. The methodological framework allowed for an integrated analysis of the diversity of existing initiatives in the case study region and specific intervention points to support place-based sustainability innovations. Initiators of transition governance processes can use the results by designing targeted interventions to facilitate and coordinate existing initiatives or by setting new impulses through purposeful action.

Participatory modeling for transition governance: Linking methods to process phases

“…However, the same framework can be applied in an ex-ante planning exercise that defines the action situations, participating actors, and aspired outcomes. The application of the framework for such a prospective design of transition paths has already been explored (Halbe et al, 2013(Halbe et al, , 2018Halbe and Pahl-Wostl, 2019).…”

Food Secure Metropolitan Areas: The Transition Support System Approach

“…There are important benefits to combining stakeholder-based and expert-based methods in promoting food system transitions [32]. These include a potential to increase societal support for decisions that are being made [33], a potential to increase the active contribution of stakeholders towards promoting societal change [34], the identification of new issues by stakeholders [32], increased quality of decision making [35], and a more effective and efficient formulation of policy [36]. By employing decision support tools, stakeholders are supported to take well-informed decisions and the quality of deliberation can be improved.…”

“…For such an in-depth analysis, a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods and techniques should be employed, also tailored to the spatial scale (national, regional or local) on which urgencies have been identified. The aim should be to maximize complementarity between different types of knowledge and better link stakeholders' priorities and policy objectives with quantitative models [32]. This step should provide insight into diverse scenarios for the future, for example: how does growth of the urban population influence the demand for and production of food and what effects does this have on food prices?…”

“…Therefore, our TSS approach can be applied elsewhere, although the local or regional context and needs of stakeholders involved should always be the point of departure. In line with principles propagated by scholars in reflexive evaluation and transition management, transferability thus requires flexibility, reflexivity and sensitivity to the local context [20,32,36].…”

AHP-Consensus Judgement on Transitional Decision-Making: With a Discussion on the Relation towards Open Innovation

“…The agenda of business transition entails a strategic transition management procedure. The two approaches comprehensively applied in the transition process are adaptive management and transition management [17,18]. Adaptive management approach is a significant method in dealing with sustainability of social-ecological system changes by learning the process from extended experimental investigation [19,20].…”