Exploring local projects for sustainable energy in system transition: local perceptions of success

Abstract

In the sustainability transitions literature, 'success' is conceived as the transition from an unsustainable system to a sustainable one. However, this view hides a more profound complexity in individual projects which can contribute to system transition. This paper focuses instead on local projects as key sites for change. In two case studies of UK sustainable energy projects, success is shown to be characterised by different causative beliefs held by different people about the problems being addressed, which predetermines solutions to those problems; and hence the nature of success. By acknowledging this multiplicity of success, as perceived by ordinary residents and project organisers as well as transition scholars, 'narratives of success' can be recognised, enabling future projects to build on success, and continue along the path to transition. This reconceptualization provides transition scholars with new ways of understanding and effecting transitions; by focusing on the project level, which is useful in contexts with varying commitment to sustainability.

Innovation intermediary challenging the energy incumbent: enactment of local socio-technical transition pathways by destabilisation of regime rules

“…Enactment has been studied in national politics, especially in bipartisan political structures where enactment is shown in dramatic shifts between policies (Geels et al 2016), though recent research has threaded together different strands on local, national and global levels (Kern and Rogge 2016). However, a focus on the local level enables us to zoom in on the tactical moves that players can make to promote energy transitions (Hodson and Marvin 2009;Collins, Boyd, and Curzon 2017), and in particular, the opportunities that local innovation intermediaries have to make small disruptive moves vis-à-vis, yet within, the regime.…”

“…The popularity of the MLP perspective has been followed by debate on whether it is sufficiently sensitive to agency and scale (Hodson and Marvin 2009;Raven et al 2016;Rocholl and Bolton 2016;Collins, Boyd, and Curzon 2017;Svensson and Nikoleris 2018) for example, the agency of incumbent actors (Hess 2014) and the diverse interests involved in local energy systems change (Collins, Boyd, and Curzon 2017). In response, Geels et al (2016) developed an approach to study the enactment of transition pathways (see Geels and Schot 2007).…”

“…Geels et al (2016) argue that this framework can be used at various degrees of granularity. However, most of the research building on this perspective has focused on the national and global levels (Geels et al 2016;Kern and Rogge 2016) and there is still a dearth of research linking this framework to the most granular level of local projects, which offers the best insight on agency in action (Collins, Boyd, and Curzon 2017) and connects to a vibrant literature on agency in urban sustainability transitions (Hodson and Marvin 2009;Bulkeley and Castán Broto 2013;Rocholl and Bolton 2016) as well as to the emerging literature on the geography of transitions and the role of spatial proximity in transitions (e.g. Coenen, Benneworth, and Truffer 2012;Hansen and Coenen 2015).…”

“…By studying the mechanisms through which an intermediary organisation enacts a local transition pathway together with other stakeholders (including the local energy incumbent), we address important gaps in research on sociotechnical transitions. We investigate the enactment of transition pathways on a local level, taking into account the (intentional and unintentional) agency of individuals; moreover, we do so in everyday and commonplace contexts that are not directed toward a particular vision of sustainability transition (Collins, Boyd, and Curzon 2017). We examine the role of intermediaries in not only facilitating and supporting actors, but also destabilising existing regime rules, and identify mechanisms of local destabilisation: the convening of innovation champions from different constituencies, the negotiation of exemptions to regime rules, and the disruption of existing innovation alliances and consortia.…”

“It’s not talked about”: The risk of failure in practice in sustainability experiments

“…And yet despite the language of "testing" an innovation in the "metaphorical laboratory … with the eventual aim to achieve a societal transition" (Sengers et al, 2019, p19) seeming value free, not all stakeholders in real world experiments will value equally all potential outcomes. Collins et al (2017) point out that there are many different perceptions of success in their presentation of local sustainable energy projects, prioritised differently by different stakeholders. Heiskanen et al (2015) points out that for local residents in their study, success meant concrete benefits for themselves; learning about what solutions are unfeasible was secondary to them.…”