Translating Sustainabilities between Green Niches and Socio-Technical Regimes

By Adrian Smith. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 2007

895 citations recorded by the source corpus.

A role for green niches has risen to prominence in the environment and innovation literature. The role of idealistic enthusiasts in the creation of sustainability initiatives in niches is widely recognized. The importance of tensions in incumbent socio-technical regimes is acknowledged to provide niches with development opportunities. However, the literature currently gives insufficient consideration to the processes by which niches and regimes interact and are interdependent. This paper addresses this by considering socio-technical translations between niches and regimes. It does so by analysing niche-regime interactions in the areas of food and housing and the development of eco-housing and organic food in the UK. Three kinds of translations are identified that affect the sustainabilities practiced in niches and regimes, and which do not all flow from green niche to incumbent regime.

Subfields: Global and Planetary Change, Management of Technology and Innovation, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8928897e9b7f8ed3722d2eb51853493c8c552dde

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

In Management of Technology and Innovation

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

From laggard to leader: Explaining offshore wind developments in the UK (2014, background): “A policy analysis would highlight renewable energy policy developments and assess their contribution to economic prospects of offshore wind.”
Building a green economy? Sustainability transitions in the UK building sector (2015, background): “The development and promotion of green building in the UK has a history that dates back to the 1970s, with early developments frequently driven by individuals and informal organisations motivated by deep green views and a perception of a need for radical social change1 (Smith, 2007; Lovell, 2008).”
The Multi-Level Perspective in Research on Sustainability Transitions in Agriculture and Food Systems: A Systematic Review (2019, background): “Linking processes can involve networking niche actors and regime entities [127], reinvention and adaptation [105], translation [123], hybridization of niche experiments and regime practices in multi-actor forums [86,126].”
Of solar collectors, wind power, and car sharing: Comparing and understanding successful cases of grassroots innovations (2013, background): “Without doubt, these are not the only examples of grassroots innovations (see e.g. Smith, 2007, on alternative housing constructions or organic agriculture) nor can they claim to be representative.”
The role of intermediaries in low carbon transitions – Empowering innovations to unlock district heating in the UK (2017, background): “In practice, actors’ approaches to empowering processes are known to change and evolve over time, depending on the wider socio-political context or who is being addressed (Raven et al., 2016; Smith, 2007; Smith and Raven, 2012).”
What role for microgeneration in a shift to a low carbon domestic energy sector in the UK? (2011, background): “The regime can be pulled closer to the prevailing paradigm of the niche, but often when innovative lessons from the niche are translated to the regime, they are reinterpreted to fit the regime’s sociotechnical context (Smith 2007).”
Local Demonstrations for Global Transitions—Dynamics across Governance Levels Fostering Socio-Technical Regime Change Towards Sustainability (2012, background): “The governance of these problems therefore particularly calls for Multi-Level Governance approaches both in practice and in its analysis (Knill & Liefferink, 2007; Mirumachi & Van Wyk, 2010).”
Strategic niche management and sustainable innovation journeys: theory, findings, research agenda, and policy (2008, neutral): “Another co-evolution pattern, translation from niche experiences to the regime, was found by Smith (2007) in a study of organic food and green housing in the UK.”
Summary for Policymakers (2022, neutral): “This differentiation is most apparent within the literature on systems innovation (Hargreaves et al. 2013; Hoffman & High-Pippert 2005; Kirwan et al. 2013; Seyfang & Haxeltine 2012; Seyfang & Longhurst 2013; Smith 2007), but can also be observed with regard to incremental innovations, e.”