Sustainability transitions are crucial for addressing our most urgent environmental and societal challenges. This volume offers a clear and accessible introduction to key concepts, theories, and approaches to this rapidly evolving field. Readers will gain insights into the foundational approaches to sustainability transitions research, as well into the impact of power dynamics, politics, diverse actors, and geography on how transitions develop and unfold. Bringing together contributions from over sixty leading and up-and-coming scholars, this volume bridges disciplinary boundaries to examine how sustainable systems emerge and evolve. Designed for both newcomers and experienced professionals, this book serves as a foundational reference for understanding sustainability transitions and navigating the complexities of large-scale transformation. It is essential reading for advanced students and researchers working in sustainability transitions, as well as educators, sustainability policymakers, and practitioners. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
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A comprehensive guide for researchers to engage with two decades of sustainability transitions research and to explore future directions.
Preface;
Chapter
1. Sustainability transitions Research An
Introduction Abe Hendriks and Julius Wesch; Part I. Understanding
Sustainability Transitions:
Chapter
2. The Multi-Level Perspective on
Sustainability Transitions: background, overview, and current research topics
Frank Geels;
Chapter
3. Explorative transition governance: understanding by
engaging in transitions in the making Aniek Hebinck and Derk Loorbach;
Chapter
4. The rise of technological innovation systems in sustainability
transitions Adriaan van der Loos, Remi Elzinga, Simona O. Negro and Marko P.
Hekkert;
Chapter
5. Strategic Niche Management: past, present and future Rob
Raven;
Chapter
6. Social Practice Theories and Sustainability Transitions
Studies Senja Laakso, Margit Keller and Julia Backhaus;
Chapter
7. Deep
Transitions Jack Davies and Johan Schot; Part II. Dimensions of
Sustainability Transitions: Dynamics of transitions;
Chapter
8. Towards a
critical study of temporalities in sustainability transitions: speed,
duration, acceleration, and timescapes Laurence L. Delina;
Chapter
9.
Niche-regime interactions: post-automation in the Fourth Industrial
Revolution Adrian Smith and Mariano Fressoli;
Chapter
10. Multi-system
dynamics in sustainability transitions: introduction and outlook Allan Dahl
Andersen and Jochen Markard;
Chapter
11. Disruption in sustainability
transitions Paula Kivimaa, Annika Lonkila and Minna Kaljonen; Power &
politics in transitions;
Chapter
12. Power in sustainability transitions
Guilherme Raj, Flor Avelino and Marie-Claire Bribois;
Chapter
13.
Expectations, Visions, Imaginaries a subtle force in transition processes
Harald Rohracher and Kornelia Konrad;
Chapter
14. Policies for accelerating
sustainability transitions: bridging insights from transition studies and
policy studies Edgar Salas-Gironés, Nicholas Goedeking and Karoline S. Rogge;
Chapter
15. The Political Economy of Transitions Peter Newell and Parth
Bhatia;
Chapter
16. Issues of justice in sustainability transitions Sara
Heidenreich, Mari Martiskainen and Marianne Ryghaug; Actors & agency in
transitions;
Chapter
17. The roles of actors in sustainability transitions
Julia Wittmayer;
Chapter
18. Intermediaries and Intermediation in
Sustainability Transitions Wisdom Kanda, Thomas Magnusson and Olof Hjelm;
Chapter
19. Behaviour and the individual in sustainability transitions
Elisabeth Dütschke, Paul Upham and Aline Scherrer;
Chapter
20. Only changing
policy? The role of coalitions in sustainability transitions Julius Wesche,
Meike Löhr and David J. Hess; Geographies of transitions;
Chapter
21. Place
and Scale in Sustainability Transitions Lars Coenen, Christian Binz, Jim
Murphy and Bernhard Truffer;
Chapter
22. Urban Sustainability Transitions
Research Markus Egermann, Franziska Ehnert, Marc Wolfram and Niki
Frantzeskaki;
Chapter
23. Sustainability transitions in the Global South
Bipashyee Ghosh and Patience Mguni; Part III. Studying Sustainability
Transitions:
Chapter
24. How do we know what we know? Ontological and
epistemological debates in sustainability transitions research Tomas Moe
Skjølsvold;
Chapter
25. Transforming 'systems': Which? How? Whose? Why?
Whither? Whence? System Analysis and Critical Systems Thinking in Transitions
Research Bonno Pel and Andrew Stirling;
Chapter
26. Systems thinking and
complexity in transitions research: understanding system dynamics, feedback
loops, and non-linear change Floor Alkemade and George Papachristos;
Chapter
27. No neutrality here: mobilising reflexivity in sustainability transitions
research Kasper Ampe, Gert Goeminne, Abe Hendriks and Thomas Block; Part IV.
Future Directions and Challenges:
Chapter
28. Between deep roots and a broad
crown: reflections on the development of sustainability transitions as a
research field Machteld Catharina Simoens, Abe Hendriks and Leonard Frank.
Julius Wesche is a researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He has a Ph.D. from Utrecht University and has twelve years of experience working at Fraunhofer and NTNU. A former Steering Group member of the Sustainability Transitions Research Network, he has worked extensively on low-carbon technologies, and explores the interplay of technological change, policy, and societal dynamics in sustainability transitions. His podcasts have been streamed over a million times, and he helps scientists enhance their visibility and influence through social media, so that their research can have greater impact. Abe Hendriks studies sustainability transitions at the Copernicus Institute at Utrecht University. As a former representative to the Steering Group of the Sustainability Transitions Research Network, one of Abe's key objectives is to foster discussions about knowledge (dissemination) in sustainability transitions. In his on-going and previous research, he examines the role that imagined futures play in how sustainability transitions are being governed. His Ph.D. research was on the role that imaginaries of a circular economy play in sustainability transitions.
