Discourse and innovation journeys: the case of low energy housing in the UK

Lovell, Heather

doi:10.1080/09537320802292883

Cited by 53 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…With the notable exception of Lovell's work on discourse, politics and power in sustainable innovation journeys (Lovell, 2008) what people do cannot be reduced to individuals' attitudes, behaviour and choices (Shove, 2010). Analysis centres upon practises rather than individuals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable innovation journeys: exploring the dynamics of firm practices as part of transitions to more sustainable food and farming

2014

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Deep structural and sustained change is necessary to tackle contemporary environmental challenges. How such change emerges and can be governed has been explored through the notion of sustainable innovation journeys. To date research had conceptualised such journeys as transitions to more sustainable socio-technical systems, e.g. mobility, shelter, food and farming. However, there is a paucity of how innovation proceeds in firms as part of sustainable innovation journeys. This paper begins to address this gap in knowledge. A longitudinal case study was completed of a medium sized food processing firm in the UK.Qualitative data were collected using ethnographic methods such as participant observation.Drawing on practice theory, a conceptual framework was developed which enabled us to explore and make sense of the Firm's sustainable innovation journey conceptualized as practices. Findings show that we can usefully treat a firm as a flow of practices that either resist or otherwise accommodate new practices deemed more sustainable. Previous studies framed by the journey metaphor explored the dynamics of product innovation in discrete organisational entities ( Van de Ven, et al., 1999). In contrast sustainable innovation journeys have been studied at various scales including societies, sectors and nations in order to identify policy lessons for management (Geels et al., 2008). Also in the context of structural change to resolve contemporary environmental challenges the term 'sustainable' has been used to recognise that in order to address contemporary environmental challenges, innovation needs to be sustained for long periods of time -decades rather than years ibid.In terms of characteristics, research suggests that sustainable innovation journeys arelikely to be open and uncertain, full of search and exploration processes, twists and turns to be explored and involve actors navigating, negotiating, and struggling their way forward and sometimes backward (Van de Ven et al., 1999;Geels et al., 2008).Also and importantly, actors involved in such journeys may not know the final Importantly, proponents claim that innovation processes conceptualised as systems of practices cannot be explained in terms of niche and regime dynamics which lie at the heart of TM conceptual apparatus, e.g. the MLP. Instead, such processes are primarily understood as the co-evolution of practices: practices of recruitment to ! 5! cycling and defection from driving. However, it is also recognised that opportunities to change such practices are somewhat dependent upon changes to the practices which constitute associated systems. In the case of mobility these might include practices of: 1) road building and maintenance;2) legislation and governing;3) manufacturing and retailing.Here authors draw attention to the need to understand how practices co-evolve across diverse locales comprising the different levels of the socio-technical system through which transition comes about. While patterns of recruitment to different mobility practices are...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable innovation journeys: exploring the dynamics of firm practices as part of transitions to more sustainable food and farming

2014

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“…The challenges that residents encounter in developing these practices and how they overcome these problems are likely representative of many of the issues that others would also face in implementing more sustainable practices. Some of the institutional and structural barriers to sustainable practices in, for example, eco-housing, are already understood (Lovell 2008;Rogers 2010;Faulconbridge 2013), but there is far less work on how to overcome, challenge, and negotiate these challenges.…”

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confidence: 99%

Cold Comfort? Reconceiving the Practices of Bathing in British Self-Build Eco-Homes

Pickerill

2015

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

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“…. discourse has the power to retrospectively 'reframe' the course of an innovation journey, leaving out inconsistent parts and ignoring twists and turns, so past innovation journeys are in effect reconstructed in the present" [74]. Similarly, Pesch [75] has argued that discursive analysis led to insight on agency and change in transitions.…”

Section: Technology Constituenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lovell [74], for example, has characterized the actors responsible for the discursive reframing of sustainable housing first to low energy housing and subsequently, to low carbon housing in the United Kingdom as discourse coalitions. She argued that "discourse unites the often disparate organizations involved in innovation, and thereby gives structure and direction to the innovation journey .…”

Section: Technology Constituenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technology and Instrument Constituencies as Agents of Innovation: Sustainability Transitions and the Governance of Urban Transport

Goyal

Howlett

2018

Energies

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Sustainable urban transport is a complex challenge requiring innovation in technologies, culture, and policies. Given the systemic nature of the issues involved, numerous studies have applied the transitions approach to urban transport. However, relatively weak conceptualization of agency in the transitions literature limits the usefulness of this approach for the governance of urban transport. The objective of this study is to contribute to the conceptualization of agency in the multilevel perspective to sustainability transitions. We propose that two types of actors exercise agency to foster innovation: technology constituencies, who promote the adoption of specific technologies by citizens, businesses, or governments; and instrument constituencies, who promote the adoption of specific policy instruments. In focusing predominantly on technological innovation, the transitions literature has generally juxtaposed these constituencies or considered them to be the same. We posit that the two constitute distinct, albeit possibly overlapping, actors and that their relationship(s) help better understand and explain how transitions evolve. We discuss the implications of this distinction for the governance of urban transport and argue that the presence of instrument and technology constituencies, and their relationship(s), should be examined empirically in future research.

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Discourse and innovation journeys: the case of low energy housing in the UK

Cited by 53 publications

References 33 publications

Sustainable innovation journeys: exploring the dynamics of firm practices as part of transitions to more sustainable food and farming

Sustainable innovation journeys: exploring the dynamics of firm practices as part of transitions to more sustainable food and farming

Cold Comfort? Reconceiving the Practices of Bathing in British Self-Build Eco-Homes

Technology and Instrument Constituencies as Agents of Innovation: Sustainability Transitions and the Governance of Urban Transport

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