Harnessing theories of the policy process for analysing the politics of sustainability transitions: A critical survey

By F. Kern, Karoline S. Rogge. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 2017

201 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper provides a survey of policy process theories and their usefulness in transitions research. Some research has already used such theories, but often in an ad hoc and relatively cursory way and with little attention to potential alternatives. However, it has been argued that transition scholars need to pay more attention to the politics of policy processes. We argue that a critical stocktaking of policy process theories is a prerequisite for future transition studies that more systematically respond to these challenges. Therefore, we review five prominent policy process theories and their applicability in transition studies. We point to two weaknesses of empirical applications of these approaches that are of particular relevance for transitions research: their focus on single instruments or policy packages, and their neglect of policy outcomes. We conclude by suggesting avenues for research on the linkages between policy processes, policy mixes, and socio-technical change.

Subfields: Global and Planetary Change, Political Science and International Relations, Public Administration

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/217509c1172bad90d8bfdeb3ac5747543e02c064

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Global and Planetary Change

1. F. Kern
2. Karoline S. Rogge
3. Benjamin Sovacool
4. D. Edmondson
5. S. Sorrell
6. Michael Howlett
7. Frank W. Geels
8. V. Litvinenko

In Political Science and International Relations

1. Karoline S. Rogge
2. S. Sorrell
3. Benjamin Sovacool
4. F. Kern
5. Michael Howlett

In Public Administration

1. Benjamin Sovacool
2. F. Kern
3. Karoline S. Rogge

Citations in the corpus

• The co-evolution of policy mixes and socio-technical systems: Towards a conceptual framework of policy mix feedback in sustainability transitions (2019, background): “Only few studies have started to draw on policy process theories in the context of transitions to better understand processes of policy change (Kern and Rogge 2017).”
• Promoting novelty, rigor, and style in energy social science: Towards codes of practice for appropriate methods and research design (2018, background): “’s comparison of the theoretical perspectives related to energy infrastructure [51]; • Jackson’s review of theories for consumer behavior and behavioral change [52]; • Kern and Rogge’s survey of theories of the policy process and their relevance to sustainability transitions [53]; • Peattie’s catalo”