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Covid-19 has highlighted our fragile relationship with the planet. But it represents a minor challenge compared to the permanent havoc that runaway climate change threatens. Politicians and governments-some at least-are beginning to recognise the scale of the danger. In this article we assess the evolution of policy thinking on how to make climate transitions happen; the potential of the European Green Deal; and how progressives need to shape it and any UK counterpart to meet the challenges of modern society. The European initiative arises from a broad coalition spanning the political spectrum. Yet, its central thrust of active government offers the prospect of reviving a battered social democracy. We indicate the openings here for a pluralist, ecological left. The run-up to the next global climate conference-COP26-will be a vital period which will show whether parties and governments across the world are prepared to meet the climate change challenge.

This paper outlines a detailed and systematic method for revealing and mapping out the network mobilised in the development of a discrete innovation. This is termed a focal action-set. Important to the utility of this approach has been the development of a set of conventions for the graphical expression of the network and its components: actors, links and flows. It is argued that the network graphic provides a powerful, though underutilised, tool for the representation of relational data. It may be employed, for example, to reveal variations in network configuration and to highlight key networking or boundaryspanning actors. The network mapping approach is illustrated through three cases of small firm innovation drawn from a wider investigation of award-winning technological innovations. A comparison between the network maps show a variation in the key boundary-spanning interactions, which is related to the organisational background of the entrepreneurial actor.

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