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Toward a spatial perspective on sustainability transitions |
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| Authors: | Lars Coenen Paul Benneworth |
| Institution: | a Centre for Innovation, Research and Competence in the Learning Economy (CIRCLE), Lund University, P.O. Box 117, S-22100 Lund, Sweden b NIFU: Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education, Wergelandsveien 7, NO-0302 Oslo, Norway c Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS), University of Twente, P.O. Box 216, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands d Eawag (Acquatic Research Institute), Ueberlandstrasse 133, P.O. Box 611, 8600 Duebendorf, Switzerland e Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Hallerstrasse 12, 3012 Bern, Switzerland |
| Abstract: | In the past decade, the literature on transitions toward sustainable socio-technical systems has made a considerable contribution in understanding the complex and multi-dimensional shifts considered necessary to adapt societies and economies to sustainable modes of production and consumption. However, transition analyses have often neglected where transitions take place, and the spatial configurations and dynamics of the networks within which transitions evolve. A more explicit spatial perspective on sustainability transitions contributes to the extant transitions literature in three ways. Firstly it provides a contextualization on the limited territorial sensitivity of existing literature. Secondly, it explicitly acknowledges and investigates diversity in transition processes, which follows from a ‘natural’ variety in institutional conditions, networks, actor strategies and resources across space. Thirdly, it encompasses not only greater emphasis but also an opportunity to connect to a body of literature geared to understanding the international, trans-local nature of transition dynamics. Concerned with the prevalent lack of attention for the spatial dimensions of sustainability transitions in most studies, this paper seeks to unpick and make explicit sustainability transition geographies from the vantage point of economic geography. The paper argues that there are two interrelated problems requiring attention: the institutional embeddedness of socio-technical development processes within specific territorial spaces, and an explicit multi-scalar conception of socio-technical trajectories. Following these arguments, the paper concludes that transitions research would do well to take a closer look at the geographical unevenness of transition processes from the perspective of global networks and local nodes. |
| Keywords: | Geographies of transitions Multi-level perspective Technological innovation systems Economic geography |
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