From institutional work to transition work: Actors creating, maintaining and disrupting transition processes

Löhr, Meike; Chlebna, Camilla; Mattes, Jannika

doi:10.1016/j.eist.2021.12.005

Cited by 22 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 60 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Agency is embedded within the institutional context of the socio-technical system and its structural characteristics may not only heavily shape the forms, types and modes of agency deployed by actors, but also constitute an important factor enabling actors to act upon their perceived interests and objectives (Fuenfschilling, 2019;Miörner, 2022;Battilana et al, 2009;DiMaggio, 1988;Garud et al, 2002;Simoens et al, 2022). Following previous studies in the transitions literature (Fuenfschilling, 2019;Binz et al, 2016;Duygan et al, 2019;Löhr et al, 2022), we operationalize our interest in agency by focusing on the 'institutional work' of actors (Lawrence and Suddaby, 2006;Lawrence et al, 2011). The focus on institutional work reflects a practice perspective on agency, allowing us to zoom in on the concrete actions and activities that actors engage in to shape institutional change processes (Jarzabkowski and Paul Spee, 2009;Fuenfschilling, 2019).…”

Section: Sector Characteristics and Agencymentioning

confidence: 88%

Axes of Contestation in Sustainability Transitions

Madsen,

Miörner,

Hansen

2022

SSRN Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Sector Characteristics and Agencymentioning

confidence: 88%

Axes of Contestation in Sustainability Transitions

Madsen,

Miörner,

Hansen

2022

SSRN Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Understanding how human agents contribute to such complex transformation dynamics has thus formed an important focus of a large and diverse body of literature. This has provided conceptual and empirical insights regarding the distinctive role of various types of "change agents" and their agency in system transformations [7,8,9,10,11]. On the one hand, high importance has been attributed to actors outside the mainstream that create innovation niches in which alternative system configurations of limited scale and scope are trialled.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epistemic outsiders: Unpacking and utilising the epistemic dimension of disruptive agency in sustainability transformations

Spatan,

Peter,

Thiele

et al. 2024

PLOS Sustain Transform

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Disruptions (systemic disturbances) are crucial to initiate and accelerate sustainability transformations of large-scale social systems (be they socio-ecological, socio-technical, or socio-institutional). Their emergence, characteristics and effects strongly relate to the role of agents who aim to disrupt and transform the status quo, and which thus possess what we call disruptive agency. In this paper, we highlight the epistemic dimension of disruptive agency in social transformations, first by conceptualizing disruptive agents as epistemic outsiders with respect to the social system that they intend to disrupt and transform, and second by connecting this conceptualization to notions of belief, social practices, social networks, discourses, or institutions. We identify five advantages of this approach. Firstly, it informs and conceptually enables various promising interdisciplinary avenues to explore and potentially influence transformative change towards sustainability. Secondly, an epistemic conception of disruptive agency offers a key for an integrated analysis of the individual and collective levels of agency involved in sustainability transformations. Thirdly, the notion of epistemic outsiders conceptually connects agent positions across system boundaries that are understood to be of crucial importance for sustainability transformations respectively (e.g., “niche innovators” or “regime intermediaries”) but which lack an integrated understanding. Fourthly, an epistemic perspective additionally highlights the changing requirements and challenges resulting in two principal stages of transformations unfolding over time, namely before/after a new epistemic layout is shared by a majority of agents. Finally, the above features allow to derive and conceive of new intervention formats and strategies.

show abstract

“…These changes necessitate the implementation of national and governmental policies that are consistent with the market participants who invest in low-carbon carbon sectors [2,3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy Chain of Energy Transition from Economic and Innovative Perspectives: Conceptual Framework and Consistency Analysis

Mohammadi,

Mostofi,

Dienel

2023

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Climate change mitigation in energy systems has experienced a remarkable evolution over the past decades. In recent years, renewable energy and energy efficiency have made significant technological and deployment advancements, spurred by policy support, technology development, and cost reduction. Despite advancements in the concepts of innovation and sustainability transition, policy mix studies face challenges in policy regarding the process of energy transition. In fact, there is a need to deepen knowledge of many relevant transition policy design dimensions in order to address unresolved questions about why policymakers choose some instruments over others in the context of an existing or desired mix, how specific policy instruments operate in a mix that has a direct impact on policy performance, and how the transition policy can be evaluated in terms of achieving the desired outcome of CO2 reduction. In an attempt to conceptualize a policy design for energy transition, this research develops a conceptual framework consisting of a policy chain in energy transition from economic and innovation perspectives. This chain has five links, corresponding to policies supporting decarbonization, transformation, renewable energy deployment, energy saving, and CO2 emissions. A consistency analysis of the sub-indicators using data from ten leading European countries was performed, and the reliability of four links, excluding energy saving, was confirmed. The economic and innovation perspectives of the developed framework, which are aligned with the reliability analysis of each index of the framework, answer the question posed in this paper regarding actual features in energy transition. A complete energy transition requires economic signals and a fiscal system (Link1: supportive policies of decarbonization) that are aligned with all of the policy contributions in terms of strategic investments for technology development (Link2: transformation and technological development). Energy policy schemes, including taxation, subsidization and RD&D in technology related to climate change mitigation, increase motivations for alternative energy exploitation (Link3: RE deployment), which adds to the advance actions by individuals and firms in terms of energy saving (Link4), all of which combine to result in a change in greenhouse gas emissions (Link5: CO2 emission).

show abstract

From institutional work to transition work: Actors creating, maintaining and disrupting transition processes

Cited by 22 publications

References 60 publications

Axes of Contestation in Sustainability Transitions

Axes of Contestation in Sustainability Transitions

Epistemic outsiders: Unpacking and utilising the epistemic dimension of disruptive agency in sustainability transformations

Policy Chain of Energy Transition from Economic and Innovative Perspectives: Conceptual Framework and Consistency Analysis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About