Engaging with the politics, agency and structures in the technological innovation systems approach

Kern, Florian

doi:10.1016/j.eist.2015.07.001

Cited by 87 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…There is an interest in actors' use of power in steering political or technological decisions (Avelino, 2017;Loorbach, Frantzeskaki, & Avelino, 2017;Stirling, 2014). Another recurring theme explores the role of agency in politics (Frantzeskaki, Wittmayer, & Loorbach, 2014;Kern, 2015;Mercure, Pollitt, Bassi, Viñuales, & Edwards, 2016).…”

Section: Actors In Sustainability Transitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Active sustainability actors: A life course approach

Koistinen

Teerikangas

Mikkilä

et al. 2019

Sustainable Development

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There is an increasing interest in the role of actors in the pursuit of sustainability transitions. In this paper, we adopt a life course perspective to explore active sustainability actors. To this end, we interviewed 16 professionals across private, public, and third sectors in Finland. The paper's main implication is in introducing a life course perspective to the study of active sustainability actors. Second, we propose a grounded model of active actors' sustainability engagement. The model details sustainability agency formation and maintenance dynamics. Going forward, our findings are a call for further research on sustainability agency, be it in its engagement, via life courses, or via the study of different actor types.

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Section: Actors In Sustainability Transitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Active sustainability actors: A life course approach

Koistinen

Teerikangas

Mikkilä

et al. 2019

Sustainable Development

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“…Using the SIS approach as an analytical framework also prompts bigger questions as to its strengths and drawbacks. As noted by Kern [13], one criticism of the innovation systems approach is the apolitical nature of its analyses, and while some aspects of politics may be covered by, for example, the institutional dimension of the framework used in this paper, others view the politics as pervasive across all the dimensions and functions of innovation systems. Although an explicit analysis of the agents of change that may reveal the relative differences and similarities of the four sectors is not included, the framework does explore the drivers and barriers for each sector.…”

Section: Disaggregating the Innovation Systems Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A number of projects on a significantly larger scale seem to be under [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] development in Kenya as part of the feed-in tariff system, which currently offers a tariff of US$ 0.12/kWh for project developers [30] (see Table 6). This includes the Samburu project (40 MW), the Garissa project (50 MW), the Greenmillenia Energy project (40 MW), the Nakuru project (50 MW), the Kopere Solar Park project (17 MW), the Witu Solar Power project (40 MW) and the Alten Kenya Solarfarm project (40 MW) [39,48].…”

Section: Large-scale Grid-connected Solar-power Projectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Source: [30]. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] increase the competitiveness of wind power compared to conventional sources of energy for power generation. As economic feasibility generally increases with the size of the wind turbines, the general trend in the industry has been towards the gradually increasing scale of wind turbines.…”

Section: Sectoral Innovation System Characteristics Of Large-scale Gmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Technological shape and size: A disaggregated perspective on sectoral innovation systems in renewable electrification pathways

Hansen

Gregersen

Lema

et al. 2018

Energy Research & Social Science

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“…Whilst acknowledging the arguments of proponents of socio-technical transitions theory, in particular [54,55] that, if done properly, attention to regime and landscape levels of analysis already allows socio-technical transitions scholarship to engage with politics, we nevertheless argue that there is more work to be done on political economy considerations in particular, such that it takes us beyond the boundaries of what socio-technical transitions scholarship has facilitated to date. Indeed, several contemporary scholars have usefully demonstrated how a political economy focus can provide more depth and insight on the specific dimensions, or levels, on which socio-technical transitions scholars tend to focus.…”

Section: Global Value Chains and Political Economiesmentioning

confidence: 84%

Can Pay-As-You-Go, Digitally Enabled Business Models Support Sustainability Transformations in Developing Countries? Outstanding Questions and a Theoretical Basis for Future Research

et al. 2019

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This paper examines the rapidly emerging and rapidly changing phenomenon of pay-as-you-go (PAYG), digitally enabled business models, which have had significant early success in providing poor people with access to technologies relevant to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (e.g., for electricity access, water and sanitation, and agricultural irrigation). Data are analysed based on literature review, two stakeholder workshops (or "transformation labs"), and stakeholder interviews (engaging 41 stakeholders in total). This demonstrates the existing literature on PAYG is patchy at best, with no comprehensive or longitudinal, and very little theoretically grounded, research to date. The paper contributes to existing research on PAYG, and sustainability transformations more broadly, in two key ways. Firstly, it articulates a range of questions that remain to be answered in order to understand and deliver against the current and potential contribution of PAYG in affecting sustainability transformations (the latter we define as achieving environmental sustainability and social justice). These questions focus at three levels: national contexts for fostering innovation and technology uptake, the daily lives of poor and marginalised women and men, and global political economies and value accumulation. Secondly, the paper articulates three areas of theory (based on emerging critical social science research on sustainable energy access) that have potential to support future research that might answer these questions, namely: socio-technical innovation system-building, social practice, and global political economy and value chain analysis. Whilst recognising existing tensions between these three areas of theory, we argue that rapid sustainability transformations demand a level of epistemic pragmatism. Such pragmatism, we argue, can be achieved by situating research using any of the above areas of theory within the broader context of Leach et al.'s (2010) Pathways Approach. This allows for exactly the kind of interdisciplinary approach, based on a commitment to pluralism and the co-production of knowledge, and firmly rooted commitment to environmental sustainability and social justice that the SDGs demand.

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Engaging with the politics, agency and structures in the technological innovation systems approach

Cited by 87 publications

References 34 publications

Active sustainability actors: A life course approach

Active sustainability actors: A life course approach

Technological shape and size: A disaggregated perspective on sectoral innovation systems in renewable electrification pathways

Can Pay-As-You-Go, Digitally Enabled Business Models Support Sustainability Transformations in Developing Countries? Outstanding Questions and a Theoretical Basis for Future Research

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