Of solar collectors, wind power, and car sharing: Comparing and understanding successful cases of grassroots innovations

The geography of sustainability transitions: Review, synthesis and reflections on an emergent research field

“…Environmental innovation development activities, including grassroots innovations, are situated in places characterised by specific local institutions (Berkhout et al 2011;Ornetzeder and Rohracher 2013). Thus, localised institutional frameworks, including norms and values such as specific local cooperation cultures, should be analysed in order to comprehend the background and potential of individual transition experiments (Coenen et al 2010).…”

“…The fundamental argument is that geographical proximity allows continuous face-to-face interaction, which facilitates the creation of social ties, and thereby network formation (Coenen et al 2010;Dewald and Truffer 2012;Ornetzeder and Rohracher 2013). Similarly, work on the role of industrial clusters in sustainability transition processes also highlights positive proximity effects on interorganisational relations concerned with e.g., collaborative innovation projects, arising from colocation (McCauley and Stephens 2012).…”

The roles of users in shaping transitions to new energy systems

“…Since legitimation can be focused around general socio-political visions that are anti-consumerist and anti-growth-oriented, grassroots activists may sometimes remain indifferent, or even hostile, to mainstreaming. However, this is not always the case; a shift from not-for-profit and voluntary activities to professional and profit-oriented initiatives has been observed for a number of niche technologies, such as car-sharing, solar thermal collectors and PV technologies 34 . This shift is accompanied by a diminished or changing role of initial grassroots actors, as well as the decline of self-building activities.…”

“…Social networks are also likely to contribute if they are deep; in other words, the people involved should also be able to mobilize a broader set of commitments and resources from incumbents 15,19,20 . The importance of user involvement in network building has now been established in a broad range of studies in relation to the development of thermal solar collectors, biomass heating systems, sustainable buildings, and wind turbines, among others 34,35 . In these areas, users have been actively involved with constructing the technological devices, making it meaningful to speak of them as user-producers.…”

What influences the diffusion of grassroots innovations for sustainability? Investigating community currency niches

“…Researchers have begun to explore the nature of GIs and the conditions under which they emerge (see Verheul and Vergragt 1995;Georg 1999;Hess 2007;Smith 2007;Seyfang 2009;Witkamp, Raven, and Royakkers 2011;Kirwan et al 2013;Ornetzeder and Rohracher 2013;Smith and Seyfang 2013;White and Stirling 2013). Yet there has been little exploration of the processes of niche formation and growth in civil society contexts, nor of the ways GI niches seek to gain wider influence on regimes (Smith 2007;Longhurst 2012;Hargreaves et al 2013;Seyfang and Longhurst 2013b; forthcoming are rare exceptions).…”