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Journal ArticleDOI

Actors working the institutions in sustainability transitions: The case of Melbourne's stormwater management

TL;DR: In this article, a longitudinal case analysis of Melbourne's transition to improved stormwater quality treatment is presented, which reveals the importance of a small group of loosely connected frontrunners from across government, private, community and scientific sectors who, through a mix of creating and disrupting institutional strategies, managed to facilitate a growing actor-network that steered this transition over decades.
Abstract: The role of agency in overcoming path dependence and enabling sustainability transitions is receiving increasing attention. Currently lacking are more empirically derived explanations of the co-evolutionary dynamics between actors and institutional change that could potentially provide guidance on facilitating such transitions into the future. This paper investigates these dynamics through a longitudinal case analysis of Melbourne's transition to improved stormwater quality treatment. The complex data collection, analysis and validation approach, which included oral histories, semi-structured interviews, industry workshops and documentary analysis, examined the nuances of the actor-related strategies and institutional enabling processes throughout the different phases of the transition over the last fifty years. The results revealed the importance of a small group of loosely connected frontrunners from across government, private, community and scientific sectors who, through a mix of creating and disrupting institutional strategies, managed to facilitate a growing and diverse actor-network that steered this transition over decades. The establishment of networked bridging organisations was also instrumental because they formed different types of networks and alliances over time for protecting and deepening the reach of the transition dynamics across the city. The findings suggest there is no single cause–effect relationship nor one dominant intervention or action that shifted the urban stormwater management regime. Rather, it showed that the co-evolutionary processes between the broader transitional dynamics were played into by frontrunners and their actor-networks in such a way that emerging new narratives diffused, giving meaning to the evolving scientific agendas and on-the-ground experiments, which led to new institutional structures and enabling administrative tools. It seems as though each one of these dimensions is as crucial as the other in explaining the outcomes of this successful sustainability transition.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The field of sustainability transitions research has emerged in the past two decades in the context of a growing scientific and public interest in large-scale societal transformation toward sustainability as discussed by the authors, which has led three different types of approaches to dealing with agency in transitions: analytical, evaluative, and experimental.
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...

667 citations


Cites background from "Actors working the institutions in ..."

  • ...Acknowledging that some actors might be more related to regime contexts than others and that individuals might be more flexible in relating themselves to niches or regimes draws attention to issues of power asymmetries and the different types of influence actors have (63, 106, 107)....

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  • ...In the socio-institutional approach, institutional dynamics (62, 63) are addressed more prominently to explain inertia and lock-in as well as to critically explore issues of power, politics, and agency (64–66)....

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  • ...Examples are reconstructions of how individuals and transition arenas influenced or “managed” the course and direction of historical transitions such as in urban water management (63, 116, 125) and waste management (126)....

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  • ...This points to current research directions for transition management, such as explorations of institutional change and formal policy (27, 52, 62, 63, 74), new forms of power (25, 75, 155, 156), and the role of researchers (157)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a Multi-actor Perspective (MaP) framework is proposed for specifying shifting power relations between actors at different levels of aggregation, such as sectors, market, community, and individual actors.
Abstract: This paper contributes to understanding transition politics by conceptualizing (shifting) power relations between actors in sustainability transitions. The authors introduce a Multi-actor Perspective as a heuristic framework for specifying (shifting) power relations between different categories of actors at different levels of aggregation. First, an overview is provided of how power and empowerment have been treated in transition research, and remaining questions are identified on who exercises power and who is empowered by and with whom. It is argued that theoretical frameworks and empirical analyses in transition studies lack precision when it comes to distinguishing between different types and levels of actors. In response, a Multi-actor Perspective (MaP) is developed, which distinguishes among four sectors (state, market, community, third sector), and between actors at different levels of aggregation: (1) sectors, (2) organizational actors, and (3) individual actors. The paper moves on to spec...

489 citations


Cites background from "Actors working the institutions in ..."

  • ...…acting as ‘frontrunners’, who are ‘agents with the capacity to generate dissipative structures and operate within these deviant structures’ (Rotmans and Loorbach, 2010, p. 144), as ‘champions’ and/or ‘policy entrepreneurs’ (Brown et al. 2013, p. 703) or ‘intermediaries’ (Hargreaves et al., 2013)....

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  • ...As outlined by others (Brown et al., 2013; Farla et al., 2012), drawing on work by institutional scholarship can be useful for analysing actors in transition studies....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Transformative governance has the potential to actively respond to regime shifts triggered by climate change, and thus future research should focus on identifying system drivers and leading indicators associated with social-ecological thresholds.
Abstract: Transformative governance is an approach to environmental governance that has the capacity to respond to, manage, and trigger regime shifts in coupled social-ecological systems (SESs) at multiple scales. The goal of transformative governance is to actively shift degraded SESs to alternative, more desirable, or more functional regimes by altering the structures and processes that define the system. Transformative governance is rooted in ecological theories to explain cross-scale dynamics in complex systems, as well as social theories of change, innovation, and technological transformation. Similar to adaptive governance, transformative governance involves a broad set of governance components, but requires additional capacity to foster new social-ecological regimes including increased risk tolerance, significant systemic investment, and restructured economies and power relations. Transformative governance has the potential to actively respond to regime shifts triggered by climate change, and thus future research should focus on identifying system drivers and leading indicators associated with social-ecological thresholds.

208 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
17 Sep 2015-Nature
TL;DR: A report on the state of play worldwide is being commissioned by RCUK, on behalf of the GRC, and will survey current policy and practice among global research funders.
Abstract: Turn the fraught flirtation between the social and biophysical sciences into fruitful partnerships with these five principles, urge Rebekah R. Brown, Ana Deletic and Tony H. F. Wong.

206 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a strategic program for long-term urban infrastructure management related to path-dependencies, the direction of transformative change, system complexity and future uncertainty.

198 citations

References
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Book
01 Oct 1984
TL;DR: In this article, buku ini mencakup lebih dari 50 studi kasus, memberikan perhatian untuk analisis kuantitatif, membahas lebah lengkap penggunaan desain metode campuran penelitian, and termasuk wawasan metodologi baru.
Abstract: Buku ini menyediakan sebuah portal lengkap untuk dunia penelitian studi kasus, buku ini menawarkan cakupan yang luas dari desain dan penggunaan metode studi kasus sebagai alat penelitian yang valid. Dalam buku ini mencakup lebih dari 50 studi kasus, memberikan perhatian untuk analisis kuantitatif, membahas lebih lengkap penggunaan desain metode campuran penelitian, dan termasuk wawasan metodologi baru.

78,012 citations

Book
10 Apr 2017
TL;DR: Poth mengeksplorasi dasar filosofis, sejarah, and elemen kunci dari lima pendekatan penelitian kualitatif as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Dalam edisi revisi keempat dari buku terlaris, John W. Creswell dan rekan penulis baru Cheryl N.Poth mengeksplorasi dasar filosofis, sejarah, dan elemen kunci dari lima pendekatan penelitian kualitatif: penelitian naratif, fenomenologi, teori dasar, etnografi, dan studi kasus. Mempertahankan gaya penulisannya, penulis membandingkan pendekatan dan menghubungkan desain penelitian dengan masing-masing tradisi penyelidikan dengan cara yang sangat mudah diakses. Menampilkan konten baru, artikel, pedagogi, referensi, dan cakupan etika yang diperluas. Edisi Keempat adalah pengantar yang ideal untuk teori, strategi, dan praktik penelitian kualitatif.

17,770 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Giddens as mentioned in this paper has been in the forefront of developments in social theory for the past decade and outlines the distinctive position he has evolved during that period and offers a full statement of a major new perspective in social thought, a synthesis and elaboration of ideas touched on in previous works but described here for the first time in an integrated and comprehensive form.
Abstract: Anthony Giddens has been in the forefront of developments in social theory for the past decade. In "The Constitution of Society" he outlines the distinctive position he has evolved during that period and offers a full statement of a major new perspective in social thought, a synthesis and elaboration of ideas touched on in previous works but described here for the first time in an integrated and comprehensive form. A particular feature is Giddens' concern to connect abstract problems of theory to an interpretation of the nature of empirical method in the social sciences. In presenting his own ideas, Giddens mounts a critical attack on some of the more orthodox sociological views. "The Constitution of Society" is an invaluable reference book for all those concerned with the basic issues in contemporary social theory.

16,208 citations

Book
01 Jan 1984
TL;DR: Giddens as discussed by the authors has been in the forefront of developments in social theory for the past decade and outlines the distinctive position he has evolved during that period and offers a full statement of a major new perspective in social thought, a synthesis and elaboration of ideas touched on in previous works but described here for the first time in an integrated and comprehensive form.
Abstract: Anthony Giddens has been in the forefront of developments in social theory for the past decade. In "The Constitution of Society" he outlines the distinctive position he has evolved during that period and offers a full statement of a major new perspective in social thought, a synthesis and elaboration of ideas touched on in previous works but described here for the first time in an integrated and comprehensive form. A particular feature is Giddens' concern to connect abstract problems of theory to an interpretation of the nature of empirical method in the social sciences. In presenting his own ideas, Giddens mounts a critical attack on some of the more orthodox sociological views. "The Constitution of Society" is an invaluable reference book for all those concerned with the basic issues in contemporary social theory.

13,552 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors address the question of how technological transitions (TT) come about and identify particular patterns and mechanisms in transition processes, defined as major, long-term technological changes in the way societal functions are fulfilled.

5,020 citations