Adoption and Use of Low-Carbon Technologies: Lessons from 100 Finnish Pilot Studies, Field Experiments and Demonstrations

Abstract

Abstract:Experimentation is critical for the deployment of low-carbon technologies. New solutions need to be selected and adapted to their contexts of use, and users need to learn new skills. Society as a whole needs to create new modes of production, consumption and governance. We investigated how local pilot projects, demonstrations and trials of low-carbon technologies promote learning in Finnish society, where the government has made a commitment to a culture of experimentation. We drew on a database of 100 pilot projects and experiments and 15 detailed case studies. We identified several types of learning, beyond the formal evaluation of "what works where and when": pilot projects served to inspire, to create commitment and to develop networks. We also investigated how lessons learned are transferred to other sites and into societal knowledge. We contribute by conceptualizing different forms of learning and transfer-particularly situated and embodied forms-alongside more techno-scientific ones. While highlighting this form of learning, we also note that it is not particularly strong in acknowledging challenges faced in experimentation. We argue that there is scope for more systematic evaluation, alongside more situated forms of learning and sharing. We also pinpoint tensions between these two forms of learning that need to be addressed.

Impacts of urban living labs on sustainability transitions: mechanisms and strategies for systemic change through experimentation

“…The lab setting allows students and researchers to experience new types of learning situated in and related to the respective socio-spatial context of the lab. This resonates with the analyses of learning presented by Heiskanen et al (2017), who distinguish the techno-scientific, cognitive type of learning and, in contrast, the situated type of learning. While the first refers to learning opportunities such as testing an innovations' functionality and market demand as well as improving solutions in its application context, the latter understands learning as 'emergent, involving opportunities to participate in the practices of the community' (p. 3).…”

“…Across these bodies of literature, there are a few commonly recognized characteristics of embedding. Heiskanen et al (2017) refer to the deployment of outcomes of experimentation as a form of embedding, defining it as 'processes of combining and adapting technologies, integrating them into existing structures, as well as processes of giving these technologies meaning' (p. 2). According to their conceptualization for the embedding of experimental solutions, learning is a mediating process catalyzing knowledge creation and 'adapting new technologies to existing regulations and infrastructures' (p. 3).…”

Learning in urban climate governance: concepts, key issues and challenges

“…With a view to learning, these insights have been further distilled in the recent literature on experimentation as a mode of governance for addressing complex (urban) sustainability challenges (Evans et al, 2016;Sengers et al, 2016;Ansell and Bartenberger, 2016;Heiskanen et al, 2017). It examines more specifically how different forms of experimentation and the interactions they imply are generative of different types of learning outcomes, and regarding the achievable depth of learning, in particular.…”

The Co-production of Pilot Projects and Society

“…Pilot projects often remain standalone learning sites where little knowledge travels beyond the project and the involved participants. This means that many projects bring little change to the broader systems they intend to transform (Heiskanen et al 2017). Naber et al (2017) and Frantzeskaki et al (2017) provide useful starting points for contemplating how movement beyond individual trials might, and do, unfold.…”