René Audet

Bio: René Audet is an academic researcher from Université du Québec à Montréal. The author has contributed to research in topics: Humanities & Political science. The author has an hindex of 7, co-authored 32 publications receiving 244 citations. Previous affiliations of René Audet include Laval University.

Many pathways toward sustainability: not conflict but co-learning between transition narratives

Abstract: Sustainability transitions aim to comprehensively address key challenges of today’s societies through harmonizing ecological integrity and social viability. During the last decades, increasing attention has focused on the conceptual development and identification of trajectories that navigate societies toward sustainability. While a broad agreement exists with regard to the need for mainstreaming sustainability into the core of decision-making and everyday practices, different transition pathway narratives are advocated to foster urgently needed structural and societal changes. In this article, we describe four archetypes of present transition narratives, examining the system properties (from underpinning intent to mechanistic parameters) that each narrative seeks to transform. We review the articulated critiques of, and provide exemplary case studies for, each narrative. The four transition narratives are (1) the green economy, (2) low-carbon transformation, (3) ecotopian solutions and (4) transition movements. Based on our analysis, we argue that despite the assumption that these narratives represent competing pathways, there is considerable complementarity between them regarding where in a given system they seek to intervene. An integrative approach could potentially help bridge these intervention types and connect fragmented actors at multiple levels and across multiple phases of transition processes. Effectively mainstreaming sustainability will ultimately require sustainability scientists to navigate between, and learn from, multiple transition narratives.

Climate justice and bargaining coalitions: a discourse analysis

Abstract: This article adopts a perspective of climate justice as an object of discourse and takes the bargaining coalitions at the Conference of the Parties as the relevant units to map the heterogeneous discourse on climate justice at the Cancun COP16. Based on the statements of nine coalitions, the analysis identifies three discourses on climate justice. The conflict discourse articulates the North–South duality over issues of historical responsibility for climate change. The transition discourse points to solving the problem of sharing the cost of mitigating climate change through a process of global low-carbon growth. The vulnerability discourse focuses on the urgency of ambitious actions by all parties. These three discourses, and their appropriation by the bargaining coalitions, are inherent of new alignments among developed and developing countries alliances and blocs that simultaneously reproduce and surpass the North–South ideological divide.

The double hermeneutic of sustainability transitions

Abstract: How should sustainability transitions deal with the fact that ‘transition’ has become a buzzword in political discourse and a label for social ecology movements? Building on Giddens’ conception of a double hermeneutic, the paper explores the current appropriations and interpretations of the transition category by political and social actors, and outlines the challenges and opportunities of this double hermenetic in terms of symbolic politics and transformative research.

Structuring Tensions and Key Relations of Montreal Seasonal Food Markets in the Sustainability Transition of the Agri-Food Sector

Abstract: In cities across the world, local food networks aim to make food systems more sustainable and secure for all. As part of that effort, some of these networks also seek to introduce social innovation in the mode of selling food, namely as a way to initiate a broader transition of the sector. Based on two years of action research conducted together with promoters of Montreal’s seasonal markets, this article offers an account of the co-constructed narrative of a transition of the agri-food sector. On the one hand, transition theory anticipates that the transition to sustainability of the agri-food sector would depend on the protection and empowerment of innovative ‘niches’ that are facing the locked-in structure of the agri-food ‘sociotechnical regime’. Yet, on the other hand, the seasonal markets do not fit well in this portrait: they are shown to evolve at the intersection of the sociotechnical regime and innovative niches. For this reason, they are subject to regime rules and become difficult to protect as an entity. As such, seasonal markets face ‘structuring tensions’ that generate both practical dilemmas and innovative solutions in their modes of organization. These solutions, however, rely on webs of resources and supports that constitute ‘key relations’ for unlocking the agri-food regime rules. It is through managing these tensions and relations that the seasonal markets end up reconfiguring social and material relations and providing solutions for food security and a more sustainable food system. Therefore, we argue that the structuring tension and key relation concepts are useful for understanding the dynamics of social innovation in the transition to sustainability in food systems.

Transition in practice and action in research. A French case study in piloting eco-innovations

Abstract: Transition in practice means that diverse organizations – from private foundations to citizen-led movements for “cities in transition” – are experiencing ways to bring about sustainable transitions at the system level. While academic thinking on sustainability transitions can efficiently inform transition in practice, these organizations' initiatives can enrich the analytic understanding of transitions. It is this mutually beneficial trade-off that became the purpose of the action research project with the French private foundation Fondaterra, and which led to the drafting of Fondaterra's own model in piloting eco-innovations towards transition. This paper outlines the main features of the Fondaterra model: the territorial perspective, the idea of piloting change, espousing prospective visions, creating new chains of value, implementing demonstrators and monitoring. The comparison of this model with the transition management model suggests that the latter may resonate with other intervention methodologies...

Sustainability Transitions Research: Transforming Science and Practice for Societal Change

Abstract: The article describes the field of sustainability transitions research, which emerged in the past two decades in the context of a growing scientific and public interest in large-scale societal transformation toward sustainability. We describe how different scientific approaches and methodological positions explore diverse types of transitions and provide the basis for multiple theories and models for governance of sustainability transitions. We distinguish three perspectives in studying transitions: socio-technical, socio-institutional, and socio-ecological. Although the field as a whole is very heterogeneous, commonalities can be characterized in notions such as path dependencies, regimes, niches, experiments, and governance. These more generic concepts have been adopted within the analytical perspective of transitions, which has led three different types of approaches to dealing with agency in transitions: analytical, evaluative, and experimental. The field has by now produced a broad theoretical and em...

Review: The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience

Abstract: Review: The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience By Rob Hopkins Reviewed by Alex Alkhoury University of Western Ontario, Canada Hopkins, Rob. The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008. 240 pp. ISBN: 9781900322188. US$24.95, paper. Chlorine-free recycled paper. The intertwined emergencies of peak oil and climate change demand dramatic, urgent action across a range of scales, the magnitude of which can threaten to overwhelm people, particularly those who are just learning about these issues. When problems seem overwhelming it can easily lead to individual inaction and collective inertia, and this is precisely what Rob Hopkins seeks to overcome in The Transition Handbook. His essential goal is to outline a realistic and hopeful vision of post-carbon communities and the practical steps needed to get there. The starting point for Transition is the essential problem now widely understood as ‘peak oil’: as the production of conventional oil declines, its growing scarcity will drive increasingly higher fuel prices with profound implications for industrial economies. Hopkins argues that while climate change exists in the public consciousness as an intangible or, at most, distant fear, the decline of cheap fossil energy is a much more proximate and understandable problem for many – as barrels of oil are easier to visualize than tonnes of [greenhouse] gas (p.40) – and can thus simultaneously spark necessary action on both issues. Hopkins begins by succinctly describing the nature of the problems (what he calls ‘The Head’), then appeals for a rational, composed response (in a section called the 'The Heart'), before digging into the crux of the book, ‘The Hands,’ a discussion of specific, transitional steps and strategies to move beyond economies centred on fossil energy. His 'Twelve Steps of Transition' are underpinned by a clear statement of six core principles, including positive 'visioning', 'inclusion' of all members of the community, 'awareness-raising', 'resilience', using 'psychological insights' to counter the threat of inaction, and focusing on the community level to attain 'credible and appropriate solutions'. For Hopkins, a community's resilience hinges on its ability to produce core goods and services, while only importing what cannot be sourced locally. Building momentum for re-localization depends upon first building a strong foundation of community-level understanding of the issues and rebuilding connections among people. Hopkins provides great, practical detail here, outlining strategies on running successful public meetings, and providing tips on organizing things like empowering re- skilling group events, and how best to obtain publicity for both these and also the launch of a given Transition Initiative. In this, Transition also doubles as a best practices guide for the logistical elements of community organization and activism. This practical and optimistic ‘how to’ dimension is undoubtedly the book’s great objective and strength, and for this it should appeal to those eager to inspire action in their own communities. However, it is not Hopkins' intention to provide a precise, universal plan, but rather a general set of guidelines backed by motivating examples of contemporary re-localization efforts. At times, this does leave difficult questions of scale underdeveloped, with much of the discussion directed at the level of relatively small communities. With a background in permaculture and as the founder of the UK Transition movement, Hopkins is well-positioned to offer both a broader vision and a practical plan for re-localization and self-reliance. His achievement in this book is to give concrete grounds for optimism in a captivating and highly accessible way. In this, it is a particularly useful antidote to those who are concerned but overwhelmed, as well as being a useful starting point into peak oil and transition issues for progressive scholars, students, activists and the general public alike. Alex Alkhoury. , MA Student, Department of Geography, University of Western Ontario, Social Science Centre, London, Ontario N6A 5C2, Canada. Electronic Green Journal, Issue 29, Winter 2009, ISSN:1076-7975