Actor roles in transition: Insights from sociological perspectives

AbstractTo date, the field of transition research lacks a suitable vocabulary to analyse the (changing) interactions and relations of actors as part of a sustainability transition. This article addresses this knowledge gap by exploring the potential of the concept of ‘roles’ from social interaction research. The role concept is operationalized for transition research to allow the analysis of (changing) roles and relations between actor roles as indicative of changes in the social fabric and shared values, norms and beliefs. It also allows considering the use of roles as a transition governance intervention. This includes creating new roles, breaking down or altering existing ones and explicitly negotiating or purposefully assigning roles, as well as the flexible use of roles as resources

Linking transitions to sustainability: A study of the societal effects of transition management

Sustainability transitions as processes of fundamental change in societal systems are open-ended, nonlinear and uncertain. Respective research and governance approaches, e.g., transition management, propose a reflexive way of governing, aiming for a number of societal effects to help facilitating a transition. Effects include empowerment, social learning and social capital development. Jointly mentioned effects shall allow for reflexivity and innovation in developing socially robust and contextualized solutions to sustainability challenges that work in practice. But, understanding the mentioned societal effects and their interplay in more depth is necessary to design and assess transition management processes. While such understanding and related assessment framework is under development in the transition management literature, transdisciplinary sustainability research can provide a rich body of tools and experiences. Building on a review of the literature, this article develops an evaluation framework focusing on social learning, empowerment and social capital as important and hitherto under-conceptualised aspects of the sustainability transition literature. This framework is used to empirically investigate the effects of two specific transition management processes at the local scale. In doing so, the article provides a conceptual and empirical understanding of how social learning, empowerment and social capital contribute to a transition towards sustainability. The three effects are shown to be interrelated, mutually supportive and bridging different scale levels from individuals to groups, niches and beyond. Results highlight possibilities to facilitate and assess societal effects, addressing sustainability as their inherent quality

Linking transitions and sustainability: a study into social effects of transition management

Sustainability transitions as processes of fundamental change in societal systems are open-ended, nonlinear and uncertain. Respective research and governance approaches, e.g. transition management, propose a reflexive way of governing, aiming for a number of social effects to help facilitating a transition. Effects include empowerment, social learning and social capital development. Jointly mentioned social effects shall allow for reflexivity and innovation in developing socially robust and contextualized solutions to sustainability challenges that work in practice. Still, understanding mentioned social effects and their interplay more in depth is needed to design and assess transition management processes. While such understanding and related assessment framework is under development in transition management literature, transdisciplinary sustainability research can provide a rich body of tools and experiences. Building on a review of respective literature, this article develops an evaluation framework focusing on social effects as important and hitherto under conceptualised aspects of sustainability transitions literature. This framework is used to empirically investigate the effects of two specific transition management processes at local scale. Doing so, the article provides a conceptual and empirical understanding of how social effects contribute to a transition towards sustainability. Results highlight the importance and possibilities of addressing sustainability as an inherent quality of social effects aimed for

Transition Management, Action Research and Actor Roles: Understanding local sustainability transitions

This thesis is about the local scale of urban neighbourhoods, towns and cities and its interaction with global problems and sustainability questions. At this scale, we most notably interact with these problems and thereby question current role understandings, actor relations and activities that come with them. One of these role understandings is that of the researcher: what are suitable approaches and methods for studying and supporting sustainability transitions at that local scale. Set in the context of a Dutch neighbourhood (Rotterdam-Carnisse) and the issues it is facing as well as based on transition thinking and inspired by action-oriented research, this thesis addresses the following question: __How can we increase our understanding of sustainability transitions and their governance at the local scale, the changing role of actors therein, and in particular, the role of research and researchers?__. The main contributions can be summarized as follows: 1) It contributes to sustainability transition research by clarifying the concept of actor roles in local sustainability transitions; 2) It contextualise transition management as a governance approach for the local context as well as for addressing socio-economic dynamics, and 3) contributes to the development of action-oriented and transformative research approaches in sustainability transition research

Zonder marge geen centrum: Een pleidooi voor rechtvaardige transities

How can processes of social in- and exclusion be understood from a perspective of radical systems change? This question is addressed by exploring the dialectics of in- and exclusion both theoretically and empirically. A study of historical and current innovation processes focused on ‘poverty care’, ‘homeless youth’ and ‘deprived neighborhoods’ shows that while such processes strive for just transitions, at the same time reproduce existing inequalities

Breaking patterns on the Amsterdam Youth Domain

In juli 2007 besloot Lodewijk Asscher, toen wethouder in Amsterdam, een onderzoek in te stellen naar de mazen in het ‘systeem’ van de jeugdzorg. Dit naar aanleiding van aangrijpende incidenten waarbij veel hulpverleners betrokken waren. Het onderzoek, ‘Operatie Frankenstein’ genoemd maar met de officiële naam ‘Systeem in Beeld’ (SIB), vormde het begin van een verandertraject van de gemeente Amsterdam en onderwijs, welzijns- en zorginstellingen om de jeugdzorg meer op het kind te richten, minderbureaucratisch te maken en meer ruimte te geven aan het vakmanschap van de professionals. In meer abstracte en Habermasiaanse termen, ging het erom de ‘systeemwereld’ van de zorg beter te laten aansluiten bij de ‘leefwereld’ van de kinderen, gezinnen en hulpverleners (zie Habermas, 1968)

Happy Protest Voters: The Case of Rotterdam 1997–2009

Protest parties are on the rise in several European countries. This development is commonly attributed to a growing dissatisfaction with life and associated with declining quality of life in modern society of the lowest social strata. This explanation is tested in a cross-sectional analysis of voting and life-satisfaction in 63 districts of the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where the share of protest voters increased from 10 % in 1994 to 31 % in 2009. Contrary to this explanation protest voting appeared not to be the most frequent in the least happy districts of Rotterdam, but in the medium happy segment. Also divergent from this explanation was that average happiness in city districts is largely independent of local living conditions, but is rather a matter of personal vulnerability in terms of education, income and health. These results fit alternative explanations in terms of mid

Happy protest voters: The case of Rotterdam 1997-2009

Protest parties are on the rise in several European countries. This development is commonly attributed to a growing dissatisfaction with life and associated with declining quality of life in modern society of the lowest social strata. This explanation is tested in a cross-sectional analysis of voting and life-satisfactrion in 63 districts of the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where the share of protest voters increased from 10% in 1994 to 31% in 2009. Contrary to this explanation protest voting appeared not to be the most frequent in the least happy districts of Rotterdam, but in the medium happy segment. Also divergent from this explanation was that average happiness in city districts is largely independent of local living conditions, but is rather a matter of personal vulnerability in terms of education, income and health. These results fit alternative explanations in terms of middle class status anxiet

Sustainability-oriented labs in transitions: An empirically grounded typology

Sustainability is high on the political agenda, with its analytical and practical importance underscored in the field of sustainability transitions. Experiments, arenas, and laboratories are frequently highlighted as real-world objects to investigate sustainability in place. Despite existing lab studies, attempts at comparison at the empirical level remain unconvincing. Here, sustainability remains oversimplified, warranting further investigation to unpack how labs compare in their orientation towards sustainability. This article presents a rigorous and transparent empirically grounded typology, intended to discern ways to engage with sustainability. We outline and elaborate upon six distinctive types entitled: 1) Fix and control, 2) (Re-)Design and optimize, 3) Make and relate, 4) Educate and engage, 5) Empower and govern, and 6) Explore and shape. This study highlights similarities and differences between labs, and across different types. These findings are discussed with reference to ongoing conceptualizations on directionality, providing a fruitful point of departure for ongoing transitions research