The enactment of socio-technical transition pathways: A reformulated typology and a comparative multi-level analysis of the German and UK low-carbon electricity transitions (1990–2014)

Geels, Frank W.; Kern, Florian; Fuchs, Gerhard; Hinderer, Nele; Kungl, Gregor; Mylan, Josephine; Neukirch, Mario; Wassermann, Sandra

doi:10.1016/j.respol.2016.01.015

Cited by 654 publications

(495 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…21 Between 2005 and 2011, the share of renewables in total generation doubled from 10.0% to 20.1%, owing to generous feed-in tariffs, falling costs (especially for solar-PV), positive discourses and growing societal interest. 22 The very rapid diffusion of solar-PV after 2006 ( Figure 4) was unforeseen and driven by tariffs that far exceeded the cost of generation. This stimulated strong interest from households who deployed small-scale rooftop PV systems, and from farmers who deployed large-scale roof-and field-mounted systems.…”

Section: Socio-technical Analysis Of the German Electricity Transitiomentioning

confidence: 99%

The Socio-Technical Dynamics of Low-Carbon Transitions

Geels

Sovacool

Schwanen

et al. 2017

Joule

Self Cite

445

198

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SummaryEffective mitigation of climate change will require far-reaching transformations of electricity, heat, agricultural, transport and other systems. The energy studies and modelling research that so often dominates academic and policy debates provide valuable insights into these transitions, but remain constrained by their focus on rational decision-making and their neglect of non-linear dynamics and broader social processes. This review paper describes insights from a complementary socio-technical approach that addresses the interdependent social, political, cultural, and technical processes of transitions. Focusing on the 'Multi-Level Perspective' (MLP), transitions are conceptualized as arising from the alignment of processes within and between three analytical levels: niche-innovations, socio-technical regimes and the socio-technical landscape. This analytical framework is illustrated with a case study of the German electricity transition and used to appraise lowcarbon transitions in several other sectors. We end by articulating four lessons for managing lowcarbon transitions.

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Section: Socio-technical Analysis Of the German Electricity Transitiomentioning

confidence: 99%

The Socio-Technical Dynamics of Low-Carbon Transitions

Geels

Sovacool

Schwanen

et al. 2017

Joule

Self Cite

445

198

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“…This movement started in Totnes in the UK but now encompasses 1,258 registered groups across several continents. In addition, a growing number of citizens and community cooperatives have acted as investors in renewable energy, thereby actively supporting the low carbon transition and shifting power structures in the electricity sector, such as in the case of Germany (Geels et al, 2016). This distributed ownership of renewable power generation technologies in Germany -in 2012 the renewable power generation capacity of 73 GW was mainly owned by citizen and cooperatives (47%) as well as institutional and strategic investors (41%) while only 12% was owned by energy suppliers (Morris and Pehnt, 2015) -may partly help explain the continuously high public acceptance rates for Germany's transition towards renewable energies: in 2016, 93% of respondents saw the Energiewende as an important or very important topic, and 55% thought it progressed too slowly, despite 69% expecting rising energy costs (BDEW, 2016).…”

Section: Enter Agency: From Emergent To Governed Energy Transitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…through grids in the case of electricity, global technology learning and diffusion of policy models like feed in tariffs) influence each other. Still, not only do natural resources and starting points vary significantly across countries, but also their institutional contexts matter for the way in which transitions unfold, both in terms of their pace and direction (Geels et al, 2016;Kern et al, 2015). This diversity of pathways makes the conventional 50% global penetration indicator for determining the pace of energy transitions meaningless, and there may be more suitable metrics to measure progress of the low carbon transition, e.g.…”

Section: Add International Dynamics: From National To Global Energy Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

The pace of governed energy transitions: Agency, international dynamics and the global Paris agreement accelerating decarbonisation processes?

Kern

Rogge

2016

Energy Research & Social Science

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197

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The recent debate on the temporal dynamics of energy transitions is crucial since one of the main reasons for embarking on transitions away from fossil fuels is tackling climate change. Long-drawn out transitions, taking decades or even centuries as we have seen historically, are unlikely to help achieve climate change mitigation targets. Therefore, the pace of energy transitions and whether they can be sped up is a key academic and policy question. Our argument is that while history is important in order to understand the dynamics of transitions, the pace of historic transitions is only partly a good guide to the future. We agree with Sovacool's (2016) argument that quicker transitions have happened in the past and may therefore also be possible in the future globally. The key reason for our optimism is that historic energy transitions have not been consciously governed, whereas today a wide variety of actors are engaged in active attempts to govern the transition towards low carbon energy systems. In addition, international innovation dynamics can work in favour of speeding up the global low-carbon transition. Finally, the 2015 Paris agreement demonstrates a global commitment to move towards a low carbon economy for the first time, thereby signalling the required political will to foster quick transitions and to overcome resistance, such as from from incumbents with sunk infrastructure investments.

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“…According to the MLP approach transitions are shaped by the interplay of niches, regimes and landscape factors (Geels et al, 2016). The latter forms the wider context (covering societal values, macro-economic patterns, demographic developments, etc.)…”

Section: Multi-level Perspective Strategic Niche and Transition Manamentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional innovation policies for new path development – beyond neo-liberal and traditional systemic views

Tödtling

Trippl

2018

European Planning Studies

117

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How new regional growth paths emerge and what policy concepts are most adequate for nurturing their evolution constitute recurring themes in regional innovation and development studies. New industrial paths are often portrayed as the result of market-driven processes and Schumpeterian entrepreneurial efforts. This view goes along with a neoliberal policy approach that restricts the role of public interventions to setting up a suitable regulatory frame and supporting an entrepreneurial climate. The theoretical underpinnings and policy perspectives of this approach have been challenged by the innovation system literature, which offers a systemic view on the rise of new growth paths and advocates a more proactive role of public policy. This paper investigates the role of policy models beyond these traditional ones. We contrast different variants of systemic and multi-scalar policy concepts for new regional industrial path development. Our literature-based study shows that more recent models go beyond new path development and growth per se, paying more attention to the direction of innovation and change, and to policy approaches for achieving more sustainable forms of development. We scrutinize the theoretical and empirical bases of these new policy models and discuss why they are superior to neoliberal and older systemic ones. ARTICLE HISTORY

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The enactment of socio-technical transition pathways: A reformulated typology and a comparative multi-level analysis of the German and UK low-carbon electricity transitions (1990–2014)

Cited by 654 publications

References 46 publications

The Socio-Technical Dynamics of Low-Carbon Transitions

The Socio-Technical Dynamics of Low-Carbon Transitions

The pace of governed energy transitions: Agency, international dynamics and the global Paris agreement accelerating decarbonisation processes?

Regional innovation policies for new path development – beyond neo-liberal and traditional systemic views

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