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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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