A socio-technical transitions perspective for assessing future sustainability following the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This policy brief argues that the COVID-19 pandemic exposes the fractures in the contemporary global socio-technical order and offers the prospects of several different alternative futures. The policy brief explores the pandemic through the lens of the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions. The pandemic is framed as a meta-transition event at the landscape level of unprecedented scale, pace, and pervasiveness such that it permeates all socio-technical regimes simultaneously. The prospects for the future are then defined on a matrix that compares the strength of civil society and that of economic structures. The result is four distinct scenarios that are linked to contemporary discourses on socioeconomic futures: business as usual; managed transition; chaotic transition; and managed degrowth. The scenarios are presented as a starting point for policy discussion and the engagement of societal actors to define social and economic possibilities for the future, and the implications that the different futures would have for ecological burdens. It is concluded that the COVID 19 pandemic can act as a catalytic event in which the legitimacy and efficacy of existing economic and political structures will be challenged and reshaped, and hence is an opportunity to redefine the ecological burdens our activities create.

Food from the Campus: Understanding Africa’s Transition to Sustainable Urban FoodSecurity during the Covid-19 Pandemic

“…On the other hand, the public and private sector have duty to make more investments in sustainable food infrastructure in developing countries. Thus, it is not surprising that some scholars have embedded provisioning of infrastructure in the strategies for achieving postnormal food security which is explained in the context of sociotechnical transition pathways(Wells et al, 2020).This study has highlighted the role played by the CDA farm to supporting 22 neighbouring peri-urban farming communities with improved seeds during the lockdown. It is pertinent to revisit the role of universities in community development and particularly in the context of environmental ethics, values, and social responsibility.…”

“…It has been pointed out that investment in bioeconomy is a solution for grand challenges and disruptions as it ensures sustainability in the food industry (Kristinsson & Jörundsdóttir, 2019). One of the lessons that coronavirus pandemic has brought up is the imperative for preparing for the alternative futures-which social scientists consider to be either in the fashion of business as usual; managed transition; chaotic transition; and managed degrowth (Wells et al, 2020). The authors have also conceptualized the Coronavirus pandemics as a kind of unprecedented meta-transition event that cuts across socio-technical regimes simultaneously and at different scale, pace, and pervasiveness.…”

Automobilities after SARS-CoV-2: A Socio-Technical Perspective

“…The role of a landscape 'crisis' event as a decisive historical moment that transforms a socio-technical system is not well developed in the socio-technical transitions network (STRN) literature, where the focus has been on the gradual unfolding of transition processes [30,31]. Again, some research has sought to understand how transitions might be accelerated [32], in part because of the perception that sustainability problems were still growing, and planetary boundaries were in danger of being breached despite decades of policy intervention [33].…”

“…Again, the focus of transitions research has mostly been on technological innovation as the primary trigger to initiate system change [34], around which behaviours and attitudes, infrastructures, and institutions, might change with time. However, it has been recognised that the 'lens' of socio-technical transitions can contribute important insights into understanding the impact of the pandemic crisis event [30,31]. In part, the contribution of socio-technical transitions theory draws on the insights from research into the history of previous transitions in which a constellation of agents has acted as participants in system change processes wherein technological diffusion arises out of the co-construction of a technology in its contextual setting [35].…”

Arab Spring and COVID-19: Ex post facto examination of the Lebanese banking sector (the contemporary stakeholder analysis)

“…The two situations -Arab Spring and COVID-19need to be examined at the structural level. The former led to economic crises in the regions affected by revolution, while the latter is a health-related crisis, although its immediate impact is also economic recession (Wells et. al., 2020; Goffman, 2020; Brown & Rocha, 2020; Nzediegwu, 2020; Saha et.…”