<strong>The Transformation Flower Approach for Leveraging Change Towards Multiple Value Creation and Institutional Change</strong>

Abstract

The Transformation Flower Approach (TFA) introduced in this paper attends to multiple value creation and institutional change as a dual design challenge. By integrating social scientific theories and models relevant for transformative change (in particular focusing on pathways, leverage points, governance, power, and values) and practical insights from an ongoing societal transformation (concerning the Dutch food system), the TFA provides a holistic, transdisciplinary and practically relevant approach that aims to support new social contract formation. This distinguishes the TFA from other transformative change approaches. Based on the notion of pathways, the TFA offers a toolbox that aids in working towards desirable futures, involving both incumbents and challengers in an effort to harness untapped yet proximal potentials in a forward-looking way. By embracing an innovation approach, it not only promises to circumvent a substantial amount of resistance to change, but also serves as a step-by-step approach to identify options for multiple value creation and effective cooperation. We demonstrate the analytical and practical value of the TFA by discussing action perspectives at various levels and scales in the context of the Dutch food system transition, including (1) area-oriented approaches, (2) acceleration agendas for specific transformation pathways, and (3) actor-specific transformation flowers. In developing these, we emphasize the importance of interdependencies between leverage points. Our approach helps to identify opportunities to link transformative options (the what), actors (the who) and levers (the how) in dynamic interaction to embark on transformative pathways.