Transformative outcomes: assessing and reorienting experimentation with transformative innovation policy

Abstract

The impending climate emergency, the Paris agreement and Sustainable Development Goals demand significant transformations in economies and societies. Science funders, innovation agencies, and scholars have explored new rationales and processes for policymaking, such as transformative innovation policy (TIP). Here, we address the question of how to orient the efforts of science, technology, and innovation policy actors to enable transformations. We build on sustainability transitions research and a 4-year co-creation journey of the TIP Consortium to present twelve transformative outcomes that can guide public policy agencies in evaluating and reformulating their projects, programmes, and policies. We illustrate the transformative outcomes in two empirical cases: transitions towards mobility-as-a-service in the Finnish transport system and the emergence of speciality coffee in Colombia. We argue that the twelve transformative outcomes can guide public policy agents to fundamentally transform their ways of thinking and operation in advancing transformative change.

Understanding the governance of sustainability pathways: Hydraulic megaprojects, social-ecological traps, and power in networks of action situations

“…Sustainability pathways and transformations entail deep shifts in underlying governance, policy and institutional settings (Schot and Kanger 2018;Biermann 2020;Kashwan et al 2020;Ghosh et al 2021). Dynamic interventions guiding sustainability pathways must ponder how SES respond to different governance configurations, considering their local arrangements of actors, institutions, and power, and their contextual conditions and historical legacies (Clark and Harley 2020).…”

Habitats and harbours for sustainability experimentation in the regions of Europe

“…We will use these factors in this research and attempt to articulate them geographically. Additionally, the recent insight has been gained that even though the diffusion of innovations takes place in the future, it is already possible to improve the 'transformative potential' during experimentation (Ghosh et al, 2021;Wolfram et al, 2019).…”

“…The second dimension illustrates that in explaining diffusion, the conditions enabling the emergence of experiments will be included. This is because it has become clear from transition studies that even though the diffusion of innovations takes place in the future, it is already possible to improve the 'transformative potential' during experimentation (Ghosh et al, 2021;Wolfram et al, 2019).…”

“…The presence of a vision, learning and a countercultural milieu are relevant conditions for experimentation but not directly for diffusion. (Although indirectly, they may be relevant because these factors may increase the transformative potential for future diffusion, as indicated by Ghosh et al (2021) and Wolfram et al, 2019)). The presence of a vibrant environment is relevant for diffusion but not directly for experimentation.…”

“…Recently, it has become clear that even though the diffusion of innovations is to take place in future, it is already possible to improve the 'transformative potential' during the experimentation (Ghosh et al, 2021;Wolfram et al, 2019). Therefore, this research includes the context conditions that have this potential.…”