Energy transitions in small-scale regions – What we can learn from a regional innovation systems perspective

Boundary Bridging Arrangements: A Boundary Work Approach to Local Energy Transitions

“…Local energy transitions involve a heterogeneous variety of actors such as politicians, entrepreneurs, researchers, public administrators, citizen activists, and consumers [6,14,[26][27][28][29][30]. As these actors differ in their overall objectives, incorporate unlike values, interpret their environment in a dissimilar manner, communicate in distinct professional jargons, and organize their activities along different structures, they may face problems in collaboration and coordination (cf.…”

“…As local energy transition processes involve an array of social worlds (cf. [14,[57][58][59]), this article pursues a broader employment of this notion, exploring boundary processes between politicians, researchers, businesses, municipal administration, and engaged citizens.…”

“…This is paralleled by rising activities on the level of cities and towns (cf. [6,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]). Here, municipalities, grass-roots movements, and local businesses often act as pioneering actors [7,8,10,[21][22][23]: by encouraging transformations in their territories through experimentation, networking, bundling of interests, social learning, large investments in sustainable technologies, awareness-raising and other techniques, these local actors act as change agents and contribute through their micro-level activities to the national climate and energy goals.…”

The Incumbents’ Conservation Strategies in the German Energy Regime as an Impediment to Re-Municipalization—An Analysis Guided by the Multi-Level Perspective

“…They can sustain or hinder local energy transition, yet they are rarely analyzed. For this reason, there is a need to explore local energy transition processes in a more comprehensive way [23]. Our focus here is, therefore, not so much on spatial conditions, but, rather, on a regime analysis as the object of transition, substantiating a critique of the political economy.…”

“…In the context of energy transition, with its elements of decentralization and the resulting shifts in politics and society, MLP, and also strategic niche management, have been criticized for not sufficiently addressing spatial issues, particularly in relation to the processes of transition at the regional or local levels [23]. Coenen et al (2012) criticize the shortcomings in transition theory literature concerning how transitions take place in spatial contexts [24].…”