Transformational change: governance interventions for climate change adaptation from a continuous change perspective
By C. Termeer, Art Dewulf, R. Biesbroek. 2017
282 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Although transformational change is a rather new topic in climate change adaptation literature, it has been studied in organisational theory for over 30 years. This paper argues that governance scholars can learn much from organisation theory, more specifically regarding the conceptualisation of change and intervention strategies. We reconceptualise the divide between transformational change and incremental change by questioning the feasibility of changes that are concurrently in-depth, large scale, and quick; and the assumption that incremental change is necessarily slow and can only result in superficial changes. To go beyond this dichotomy, we introduce the conceptualisation of continuous transformational change. Resulting intervention strategies include (1) providing basic conditions for enabling small in-depth wins; (2) amplifying small wins through sensemaking, coupling, and integrating; and (3) unblocking stagnations by confronting social and cognitive fixations with counterintuitive interventions. These interventions necessitate a modest leadership. Governing transformational change thus requires transformation of the governance systems themselves.
Subfields: Global and Planetary Change, Management of Technology and Innovation, Management Science and Operations Research
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a023193fbd2061862b79336fb428abc1e4176fa2
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
- Jeroen J. L. Candel
- S. Bracking
- Benjamin Leffel
- K. O’Brien
- Alfons Balmann
- Erwin Wauters
- Pytrik Reidsma
- C. Termeer
In Management of Technology and Innovation
In Management Science and Operations Research
Citations in the corpus
- Is the 1.5°C target possible? Exploring the three spheres of transformation (2018, background): “This suggests that transformations are better conceived as continuous and messy processes of change that cannot be controlled and managed within existing paradigms [40].”
- A framework to assess the resilience of farming systems (2019, background): “4c illustrates that transformation can occur after tipping points and collapse, but may also result from a sequence of small and incremental changes (Termeer et al., 2017).”
- Climate finance governance: Fit for purpose? (2021, background): “In particular how a concept such as “transformatory change” affects soft law and policy change (Henriksen, 2013; Skogstad, 2011) to gain fundamental rather than incremental change (Fazey et al., 2018; Kasdan et al., 2020; Pelling, 2011; Pelling & Garschagen, 2019; Puri, 2018; Termeer et al., 2017) i”