The (non-)politics of managing low carbon socio-technical transitions

By I. Scrase, Adrian Smith. 2009

165 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Whilst not originating in political analysis, a transitions problem framing nevertheless provides a heuristic for understanding certain features of climate politics. A multi-level perspective on transitions to low carbon socio-technical regimes is introduced, and illustrated through the example of electricity supply. An associated ‘transition management’ (TM) approach, which considers policy measures to induce low carbon transitions, is then adopted as the central focus. A diagnosis of the climate challenge from a TM perspective is developed, and a range of familiar strategies for reducing emissions is considered in light thereof. Although political realities and difficulties have been given little emphasis in the TM literature, strategies with political implications are identifiable. These recommendations have technocratic overtones and assume a consensual or corporatist model of politics. A committed and explicitly political programme for transitions, rather than TM, may be necessary.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Global and Planetary Change, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cd60acb81c4d7ecd90a9fcb5770598281d93b1cb

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Citations in the corpus

Food as Commons or Commodity? Exploring the Links between Normative Valuations and Agency in Food Transition (2017, background): “Along those lines, agency in transition can be understood as motivations, beliefs and values of individual agents steering or influencing the transition pathways [66], and its conceptualization in transition theory has not been properly addressed, being a recurrent subject of critique by authors tha”
Building a green economy? Sustainability transitions in the UK building sector (2015, background): “…system transformation goals (such as zero carbon housing) would consider standards “in the light of practices in existing low carbon housing niches and would point volume house builders (and conventional householders) towards adopting practices found in those niches” (Scrase and Smith, 2009: 716).”
A Comparison of Energy Transition Governance in Germany, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom (2014, background): “The question here is whether the institutional and infrastructural pathways towards the RES option can be made compatible with the further development of nuclear power and coal + carbon capture and storage (CCS) [22].”
The Politics of Reflexive Governance: Challenges for Designing Adaptive Management and Transition Management (2011, background): “…2007, Smith and Kern 2009), which, more recently, are accompanied by critical accounts on the political and democratic implications of the concept (Hendriks and Grin 2007, Shove and Walker 2007, 2008, Rotmans and Kemp 2008, Hendriks 2009b, Meadowcroft 2009, Scrase and Smith 2009, Voß et al. 2009a).”
The politics of sustainability transitions (2016, background): “These critiques sit within a broader debate on the politics of sustainable development (e.g. Meadowcroft, 2007; Scrase & Smith, 2009; Swyngedouw, 2010), particularly the tensions between democratic governance and the radical steps deemed necessary for sustainable development (Blühdorn, 2013;…”
Harnessing theories of the policy process for analysing the politics of sustainability transitions: A critical survey (2017, background): “Transition scholars have so far made relatively limited use of these theories in studies of the politics of transitions (Grin et al., 2011; Meadowcroft, 2011; Scrase and Smith, 2009), even though it is a commonplace to point to the importance of supportive policy instruments (Jacobsson and Bergek, 2”
Policy mixes for incumbency: Exploring the destructive recreation of renewable energy, shale gas ‘fracking,’ and nuclear power in the United Kingdom (2017, unknown): “If regime resistance is itself to be countered by deliberate efforts at ‘regime destabilisation’ (Scrase & Smith 2009; Turnheim & Geels 2012; Turnheim & Geels 2013; Bosman et al. 2014; Karltorp & Sandén 2012) then the scope of what constitutes the politics of transitions becomes significantly wider…”
The co-evolution of policy mixes and socio-technical systems: Towards a conceptual framework of policy mix feedback in sustainability transitions (2019, background): “Studies have for example focused on the way in which ideas are presented (Kern, 2011; Scrase and Smith, 2009), the role of coalitions (Hess, 2014, 2015; Markard et al.”
Historical institutionalism and the politics of sustainable energy transitions: A research agenda (2017, background): “…are profoundly political in nature because of the degree to which policy and wider societal choice are involved (Smith et al 2005, Meadowcroft 2005), it is also clear that the STS approach has lacked a good account of politics (Shove and Walker 2007, Meadowcroft 2009, 2011, Scrase and Smith 2009).”
The Political Economy of Energy Transitions: The Case of South Africa (2014, background): “TM uses analytical insights from the literature on socio-technical regimes to bring about gradual low-carbon transitions in unsustainable regimes by ‘steering evolutionary dynamics towards specific visions’ through a consensus-based approach (Scrase and Smith 2009: 708).”
Keeping sustainable innovation on a leash? Exploring incumbents’ institutional strategies (2015, background): “Several authors show that incumbents have been able to (partially) capture the Dutch energy transition initiatives, which has reduced the potential for change (Avelino, 2009; Kern and Smith, 2008; Scrase and Smith, 2009; Voß et al., 2009).”