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A Transitions Perspective on Governance
for Sustainable Development
Derk Loorbach, Niki Frantzeskaki and Wil Thissen Brussels, 27-05-2009
Sustainable Development: A challenge for European research28-29 May 2009, Brussels, Belgium
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Key messages
• Sustainable development requires transitions
• Transitions can be understood & influenced
• Governance of transitions requires innovative approaches and research
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On or off track?
• Our society is unsustainable– Climate, energy, health-care, education, mobility, water, poverty,
inequality, …
• Sustainable development– Different levels of scale; local-global– Long term process; intergenerational– Multiple domains; ecologic, economic, socio-cultural
No fixed goals or definitions; clearly not business as usual
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Sustainability transitions
• Fundamental change of a societal system towards a sustainable system state satisfying sustainability values
• A continuous process in which societal values and interests are represented, negotiated and balanced
• Normative orientation for future oriented action
fundamental shift from existing practices, structures and culture to new ones
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Time
Water management
DutchHealth care
Dutch construction
sector
Sustainable
systems
US car industry
Financial system
Agriculture
National energy systems
Sys
tem
Sus
tain
abili
ty P
erfo
rman
ce
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Understanding transition dynamics
Predevelopment
Stabilization
time
Societal development
Acceleration
Take-off
Macro-level
(landscape, trends)
Meso-level (regimes, institutions)
Micro-level (Niches,
individuals)
From: Rotmans et al, 2000 From: Geels and Kemp, 2001
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Towards transition governance
Propositions
Transitionprocess guidelines
Research questions
Basic claims
Operational framework
Scientific agenda
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Proposition 1
Sustainability transitions are long-term processes of fundamental societal change
that incorporate processes of societal, ecological, economic, cultural and
technological evolution.
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Research questions
• Which are the prevailing patterns of societal transitions?
• Can we distinguish different types of transitions and what does that mean in terms of societal dynamics?
• Is it possible to understand ongoing transitions in which we all are part and if so, are we able to influence these?
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Proposition 2
Enabling societal processes of change (transitions) implies deliberate and
reflexive strategies that allow for self-orientation of society towards a
sustainable development pathway.
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Research questions
• How can we better understand complex evolutions in society to make better use of complex system dynamics?
• Which are the means for governance that can deliberately promote societal transitions while allowing self-organization and self-orientation of the societal system?
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Proposition 3
Innovation and sustainable development are interlinked. More specifically, a focus on
sustainability could trigger innovations that comply with sustainability values as well
as that these innovations can be the stimuli for societal transitions to
sustainability.
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Research questions
• Which modes of governance can promote innovation while securing sustainability values?
• Which are means for governance that can create space for innovation that comply with sustainability values apart from regulation and institutionalization?
• Which are means for governance that can accommodate multiple visions while facilitating innovation and adaptation?
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Proposition 4
Governance for sustainability transitions has to secure sustainability values such as long-term orientation, balance between different domains and intergenerational
justice.
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Research questions
• How can governance deal with the tensions between promoting continuous innovation while at the same time offering social stability and institutional structure?
• Which are the means for governance that incorporate long-term orientation and its uncertainties?
• Which are the means for governance that ensure reflexivity and adaptability in face of long-term processes of transitions to sustainability?
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Transition governance perspective
Propositions
Transitionprocess guidelines
Research questions
Basic claims
Operational framework
Scientific agenda
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Transition process tenets
• System dynamics create feasible & non-feasible means• Learning-by-doing and doing-by-learning • Radical change in incremental steps• Flexible and adjustable objectives at the system level • Creating space in transition arenas and experiments • A focus on frontrunners • Guided variation and selection • Long-term thinking for shaping short-term policy• Anticipation and adaptation
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Operational framework
Strategic(emphasis on system)
Tactical(emphasis on subsystems)
Experimental (emphasis on niches)
Monitoring, evaluating
and learning
Developing images
coalitions and transition-agendas
Mobilizing actors and executing projects and
experiments
Problem structuring, establishment of the transition arena and
envisioning
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Health care transition in NL
• Transition arena: redefining health care systemreconnecting to the human, formulating basic
sustainability principles
• Innovation program: transition experiments and learning communityover 30 innovative experiments with new health-care
concepts linked to vision and pathways
• Transition agenda linking vision to experimentsmultiple pathways, qualitative and quantitative goals
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Role of researchers
• Transition research poses a challenge to the scientific community at large: – To step over the boundaries of their scientific
disciplines so as to develop new insights, – To do research actively in interaction with
practitioners and society– To co-produce new tools, methods and
approaches
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Towards transitions research
• The transition approach focuses on understanding and promoting long-term societal innovation to sustainability
• Research questions formulated cannot be answered in a traditional way: the empirical object (transitions) is continuously on the move.
• At the end of the day, it is the responsibility of us, scientists, to contribute to sustainability transitions in our own personal way
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Transition management radical change in incremental
steps • Complex system approach – Reframing social problems and developing shared long term
perspectives, interests and strategies
• Basic tenets and framework guide experimental governance strategy development– Visions, experiments, agenda’s, reflection inform one another
• Building up societal pressure on regime, and seducing regime actors to participate– Multi-actor, frontrunners, experimenting
• Framework for science-policy co-production– Iteration between theory and practice
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Transitionizing research: activist science
History Policy sciences
Complexity researchSociology
Ecology
ActionGrounded
theory
consultancyApplied
Participatory
Sustainability Sciences
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Co-evolutionary process
Basic starting pointsrough model (arena)exp./evaluationprescriptive modelformalisation
Basic concept policy/governance complexity framework refined and grounded TM concept
Theoretical stream
Operational stream:
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