Sustainability Transitions: A Discourse-institutional Perspective

Genus, Audley

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-43884-9_24

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Institutional perspectives have already been introduced in previous ST work [28]. We set out to continue this work by introducing the concept of institutional capacity, which we considered suitable for analyzing policy and planning processes that aim for a certain outcome, but meet some challenges along the way.…”

Section: Institutional Conditions and Institutional Capacitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability Transitions at the Frontline. Lock-in and Potential for Change in the Local Planning Arena

Isaksson

Heikkinen

2018

Sustainability

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This paper explores challenges and possibilities for integrating goals of long-term sustainable development into urban planning practice, with a specific focus on local institutional conditions for sustainability transitions. The analysis is based on a qualitative single case study of a large urban development process: the development of a new city district in Hyllie in the city of Malmö, Sweden. Hyllie was branded as a flagship project for sustainable urban development, with particularly high ambitions on climate neutrality and sustainable energy consumption. Several innovative elements were initiated in the development process, for instance the "climate contract" between the municipality and large energy companies. In the paper, this climate contract is discussed as an initiative with a promising potential for sustainability transitions. In practice, however, the outcome of the development in Hyllie in terms of sustainable development is ambiguous, since the district is also framed around luxury shopping, entertainment, and an ambition to attract visitors from a long distance. The Hyllie development illustrates pre-requisites for work on sustainable development in a decentralized and market-oriented planning context. Theoretically, the analysis is inspired by the multi-level perspective (MLP) and institutional theory. The results illustrate how the development process was shaped by a complex interplay between actors with differing agendas and targets at different stages in the process. These results are applied in a general discussion of challenges and possibilities for urban planning to contribute substantially to a transition to long-term sustainable development. Overall, the analysis demonstrates the importance of considering specific local institutional conditions in strategic work for long-term sustainability.

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Section: Institutional Conditions and Institutional Capacitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability Transitions at the Frontline. Lock-in and Potential for Change in the Local Planning Arena

Isaksson

Heikkinen

2018

Sustainability

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“…Institutional analysis is concerned with the influence of social rule structures on processes of societal change and stagnation [108,109]. Studies of sustainability transformations have therefore often recurred to an institutional perspective, analyzing the juridical, administrative, territorial and political fabrics of certain systems to illuminate how these affect system change dynamics, including the role of agency [110,111,112]. The focus often lies on institutional logics which presuppose and purport certain beliefs and behaviours [113,114,74].…”

Section: Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epistemic outsiders: Unpacking and utilising the epistemic dimension of disruptive agency in sustainability transformations

Spatan,

Peter,

Thiele

et al. 2024

PLOS Sustain Transform

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Disruptions (systemic disturbances) are crucial to initiate and accelerate sustainability transformations of large-scale social systems (be they socio-ecological, socio-technical, or socio-institutional). Their emergence, characteristics and effects strongly relate to the role of agents who aim to disrupt and transform the status quo, and which thus possess what we call disruptive agency. In this paper, we highlight the epistemic dimension of disruptive agency in social transformations, first by conceptualizing disruptive agents as epistemic outsiders with respect to the social system that they intend to disrupt and transform, and second by connecting this conceptualization to notions of belief, social practices, social networks, discourses, or institutions. We identify five advantages of this approach. Firstly, it informs and conceptually enables various promising interdisciplinary avenues to explore and potentially influence transformative change towards sustainability. Secondly, an epistemic conception of disruptive agency offers a key for an integrated analysis of the individual and collective levels of agency involved in sustainability transformations. Thirdly, the notion of epistemic outsiders conceptually connects agent positions across system boundaries that are understood to be of crucial importance for sustainability transformations respectively (e.g., “niche innovators” or “regime intermediaries”) but which lack an integrated understanding. Fourthly, an epistemic perspective additionally highlights the changing requirements and challenges resulting in two principal stages of transformations unfolding over time, namely before/after a new epistemic layout is shared by a majority of agents. Finally, the above features allow to derive and conceive of new intervention formats and strategies.

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From Lignite Regions to Transition Labs: Rethinking Regional Politics of Lignite from the Perspective of the “Politics of Scale”

Becker,

Naumann

2024

Rescaling Sustainability Transitions

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While technical perspectives consider scale as function of size, debates on the politics of sustainability transitions tend to translate scale into political levels, shaping or impeding the development of sustainable modes of production and consumption. The debate on the “Politics of Scale” in critical human geography foregrounds scale as a social construction reflecting uneven relations of power, political strategies and contestations. This chapter applies the perspective of the “Politics of Scale” to the two German lignite mining regions of Lusatia (Lausitzer Revier) and Rhineland (Rheinisches Revier). Both regions have a long history in the extraction of lignite. This history is about to end following the political decision to phase out the use of lignite in Germany. In consequence, the former lignite regions are becoming not only sites of the transformation of energy infrastructure, but also of structural change and extensive efforts for realising a just transition process. We discuss these transitions from a scalar perspective and through three analytical prisms: first, the impact of national policy as a shifting context for regional policy and as an example of the rescaling of regional development; second, the emergence of new scales of regional development strategies as a new scalar fix of regional governance; and third, the contestations of the phasing out of lignite on different geographical scales and as an example for jumping scales of various actors in the regions. These three emblematic lenses will enable us to discover the scalar dimension of the efforts for just transitions.

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Sustainability Transitions: A Discourse-institutional Perspective

Cited by 8 publications

References 78 publications

Sustainability Transitions at the Frontline. Lock-in and Potential for Change in the Local Planning Arena

Sustainability Transitions at the Frontline. Lock-in and Potential for Change in the Local Planning Arena

Epistemic outsiders: Unpacking and utilising the epistemic dimension of disruptive agency in sustainability transformations

From Lignite Regions to Transition Labs: Rethinking Regional Politics of Lignite from the Perspective of the “Politics of Scale”

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