From sectoral to integrative action situations: an institutional perspective on the energy transition implementation in the Netherlands

Abstract

The interlinked nature of today’s societal challenges asks for integrative approaches. The energy transition is an especially impactful challenge and presents a compelling opportunity to pursue integration, as it requires changes to space, landscape, infrastructure and organizations at different scales. While the added value of integrative approaches that address the energy transition alongside other societal challenges is widely acknowledged, it is not the status quo. The aim of this study is to uncover the institutional barriers to integration and suggest possibilities for redesign. The paper sheds light on a hitherto relatively understudied phase of integration, namely implementation. Two illustrative cases for energy transition integration are discussed; (i) sustainable residential heating combined with climate adaptation in the urban context, and (ii) biogas production from livestock manure for rural residential heating and nitrogen reduction in the Netherlands. Inspired by the Institutional Analysis and Development framework (IAD) and networks of action situations (NAS) concept, the study shows that in the context of energy transition integration, action situations are pillarized with incidental interactions happening between sectors and across scales. The rules that govern actor interactions stem from sectoral institutional arrangements and produce sectoral action situations. Factors that especially obstruct integration are financial streams, budgeting and designated task responsibilities of actors that favour sectoral, one-dimensional projects. Actors interact in sectoral action situations and struggle to establish links to plan for more integrative outcomes. As a way forward, the study illustrates how rules can be redesigned to create integrative action situations and what mechanisms may help to achieve this in practice.

Networks of action situations in social–ecological systems: current approaches and potential futures

“…Disconnects between ASs hindered emergence of collective action in Colombia, whereas the intervention in Peru coordinated actors across linked ASs and collective action emerged. Warbroek et al (2022) focus on ASs in the implementation of renewable energy in the Netherlands. They find that intrasectoral institutions produce sector-specific ASs and imply less integrative outcomes, which could be achieved through redesign of rules for integrative ASs spanning across sectors.…”

“…Because the NAS approach helps identifying connected ASs it prevents omission of key governance variables impacting ASs (Delaroche et al 2022). Institutional silos arranged around a particular sustainability problem or established sectors are typically not fit for purpose when multiple sustainability problems need to be addressed (Kellner 2022;Warbroek et al 2022). Looking at NAS in governing relational resources such as groundwater can uncover adjacent ASs of resource users in and peripheral ASs that are important context (Oberhauser et al 2022).…”

“…Spatially distant biophysical relations of different sustainability problems are a challenge that can be addressed with the explicit study of information flows and telecoupling that connects different ASs (Delaroche et al 2022). Relating ASs effectively requires integrative institutions and ASs that connect the siloed ASs through reinterpretation of rules and mutual learning (Warbroek et al 2022).…”

“…The NAS approach invites analysts to look beyond local cases and to identify governance factors that originate from other locations, sectors or environmental issues (Delaroche et al 2022). Attention to issues and evolving insights into them require evolving NAS and respective flexibility of institutions (Warbroek et al 2022). However, care is needed that identification of NAS is not guided too much by formal institutions, because informal institutions can be important in explaining governance networks (Oberhauser et al 2022).…”

“…An archetypal NAS could be the integration of sectorspecific governance approaches (Warbroek et al 2022), for example. There also appears some promise in identifying archetypal NAS even when NAS tend to be different across cases of a similar issue area such as irrigation modernization (Hoffmann and Villamayor-Tomas 2022).…”