Facing the Adaptive Management Challenge: Insights from Transition Management

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Recent research suggests that transitions toward adaptive water management regimes are needed because current water management regimes cannot adequately respond to uncertainty. The pivotal question is how to understand and manage such transitions. The literature on adaptive management addresses this question in part, but must now move beyond the descriptive toward a prescriptive management framework. Transition management theory could help in meeting this challenge. The similarity of the theoretical starting points yet different applications offer fertile conditions for cross-pollination. We investigate three central concepts from the transition management literature for their potential contribution to adaptive management. In particular, the notions of arenas and shadow networks merit further study through joint research.

Using transition management concepts for the evaluation of intersecting policy domains ('grand challenges'): the case of Swedish, Norwegian and UK biofuel policy

“…Instead and alongside formal processes, alternative, less-constrained policies and practices would be nurtured among networks of interested parties. For this, concepts and practices such as the transition management arena (Loorbach, 2007;Rotmans, Kemp and Asselt, 2001; Van der Brugge and Van Raak, 2007); transition scenarios (Sondeijkeret al, 2006) and transition experiments (e.g. Van den Bosch, 2010;Loorbach and Rotmans, 2010;Bos and Brown, 2012;Nevens et al, 2013) have all been explored.…”

Water Management and the Procedural Turn: Norms and Transitions in Alberta

“…Sensitivity to cross-scalar dynamics is designed to link TM with a general account of complex systems and to facilitate sustainability by fitting socio-technical systems of governance to complex social-ecological systems (van der Brugge and van Raak 2007;Rotmans and Loorbach 2009). Achieving normative legitimacy is key to TM because how stakeholders frame the problems, processes and solutions affecting socio-technical systems affects the role of knowledge within them (Meadowcroft, 2007;Loorbach 2010;Smith and Stirling 2010;Voß and Bornemann 2011).…”

Activating the adoption of innovation: lessons from a passive house network

“…Some researchers (Van der Brugge and Van Raak, 2007;Loorbach, 2010) identify four different types of governance activities that are relevant to societal transitions: strategic (vision-related), tactical (regime-related), operational (innovation-related) and reflexive (monitoring-related). Strategic and tactical activities are effective over the long term and medium term respectively, and it is therefore often difficult to identify lessons due to the long period of observation needed.…”