Transition Pathways of Agroecological Innovation in Portugal’s Douro Wine Region. A Multi-Level Perspective

Abstract

The Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) is an analytical framework developed to explain transitions towards sustainability. This article aims to contribute to enhancing the use of the MLP to understand the transitions towards sustainability in agriculture. We propose that MLP is an insightful framework to capture particular micro-level trajectories of adopting innovations. The Douro wine region in Northern Portugal, known worldwide for the wines that are produced there, was the study area of our empirical research. This region has become the stage for developing a complex agroecological innovation, the Ecological Infrastructures (EIs). These consist of a combination of techniques that aim to expand the ecosystem services of the vineyards. The uniqueness of its development at the farm level originates a multiplicity of innovation trajectories, which are the focus of this study. Content analysis of 20 interviews with winegrowers was performed, and the results were analysed through the MLP framework. This allowed us to conclude that a process of transition towards the sustainability of region-level winegrowing is underway, and that it can be explained by the overlapping of different paths of adopting innovation. Our research shows that in-depth analysis of qualitative data, done through content analysis, can be used to amplify the insightfulness of MLP by enabling it to uncover the microscale transition pathways that shape uneven region-level transitions.

The Transition of Cities towards Innovations in Mobility: Searching for a Global Perspective

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“…The purpose of this article was to identify how the conditions that determine the level of readiness among cities for implementing urban mobility innovations could be combined. To achieve this, we developed a model supported by the MLP, since it has been used to explain the implementation and adoption of innovative mobility solutions [ 13 , 35 , 36 , 37 ]. Next, we explained the justification of the propositions and the choice of data source.…”

“…The study of environmental transformations acting across different levels commonly employs the MLP of sustainable transitions in socio-technical systems [ 37 , 42 ]. A socio-technical system is a network of actors, institutions and norms linked to technologies [ 27 ].…”

Growing agroecology in Nicaragua : Towards a multi-scale perspective on agroecological transitions

“…In the multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions (MLP), one of the main strands of STST which has been applied to agroecological transitions (e.g. (Isgren and Ness 2017;Cerdan et al 2019;Anderson et al 2021;Bui 2021;Polita and Madureira 2021), transitions are conceptualized as changes to a dominant 'regime' -the entrenched 'rules of the game' that account for the stability of existing systems (Geels and Schot 2007;Geels, Hekkert, and Jacobsson 2008). Regimes encompass networks of actors and social groups, the formal and informal rules used to maintain the dominant system, and related technical and material elements (Geels 2004;.…”

“…Agroecology begins as to be practiced as a niche innovation, with farmers, facilitators, or grassroots political activists experimenting with ways of implementing agroecology locally and according to their needs (Holt-Giménez 2006;Bergez, Audoin, and Therond 2019;Magrini et al 2019;Polita and Madureira 2021;Rossing et al 2020). Agroecology continues to spread in co-innovative and co-created processes by heterogeneous actors -farmers decide to adopt agroecological practices on their farms and farmers' organizations begin to scale agroecology horizontally, over large areas; agroecological input and product market infrastructures are created; agroecological knowledge is formalized and taught through farmer extension and advisory services as well as at universities (Gonzálvez, Salmerón, and Zamora 2015;Henderson and Casey 2015;McCune et al 2016;Khadse et al 2017; (Anderson et al 2021).…”