Understanding actor roles in sustainability initiatives: an exploratory study in five European countries

Several strands of literature have developed around the ambition to influence or bring about transitions toward greater sustainability. In this context researchers have come to be interested in the types of actors involved in sustainability transitions and the roles these actors play. However, there is a lack of clear definitions of actors, and their roles. Our research takes an exploratory approach and is designed to describe and analyse the actors concerned and to identify their roles in sustainability initiatives. Our aim in doing so is to contribute to the body of scientific knowledge on transitions and to provide sustainability initiatives themselves with helpful information. Data were collected using the Net-Map tool, a well-established method in actor and stakeholder analysis. In our results we identify and define six actor roles: catalysts, opponents, intermediaries, frontrunners, drivers and visionaries. In the literature, particular roles are connected to common actor categories (civil society, governmental actors, private sector, etc.). Our results imply that sustainability initiatives are neither necessarily hindered by the absence of certain actors, nor are they hindered per se by the presence of an actor - rather, a broad mix seems to be helpful

Futures of Fixing : Exploring the life of product users in circular economy repair society scenarios

A Circular Economy (CE) constitutes one pathway towards realising sustainable productionand consumption. Here, the repair of broken products (compared to replacement) consti-tutes an important strategy to keep products in the economy for longer, thereby reducingwaste, as well as the need to extract resources and emit pollution in the manufacture of areplacement product. In today’s world, repair does not necessarily constitute the naturalresponse to product breakage. However, increasing legislative efforts and grassroots move-ments are attempting to change that and make repair accessible, affordable and culturallyacceptable. The question is what such a society – where repair is normalised – would be like

Green Lifestyles Alternative Models and Up-scaling Regional Sustainability (GLAMURS). Work Package 4. Deliverable 4.3: Report on Future Lifestyle Scenarios and Backcasting Vision Workshops

[Abstract] A participatory backcasting methodology has been developed for the GLAMURS project, entitled participatory backcasting for sustainable lifestyles and a green economy. It consists of two stakeholder workshops; a first workshop for problem exploration and development of visions for sustainable lifestyle and a green economy followed by a second workshop focussing on pathways and implementation.In six regions studied in the GLAMURS project vision workshops have been successfully executed. Thirteen visions have been generated. Visions have been compared on several dimensions including (1) sufficiency versus green growth, (2) individual versus community orientation, (3) governance by government or market, and (4) urban versus rural focus.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement Nº 61342

Gamification of Sustainable Consumption: a systematic literature review

As awareness about the need to shift current individual consumption practices towards more sustainable ones grows, broader sets of methods are being sought to encourage sustainable lifestyles, gamification being one of the most notorious due to its application via apps and other technology-related solutions. Building upon an intention-impact approach, this review used practice-theory to analyze academic literature addressing gamification approaches to shift individual consumption practices into more sustainable ones

Analysing the Role of Visions, Agency, and Niches in Historical Transitions in Watershed Management in the Lower Mississippi River

This paper analyses five major transitions in watershed management in the Lower Mississippi River from the early 19th century to the present. A conceptual framework is developed for analysing the role of visions, agency, and niches in water management transitions and applied to a historical case on water management in the Lower Mississippi River. It is shown that water management regimes change over time and that major transitions were preceded by niches, in which new visions were developed and empowered. The case shows that: (i) emerging visions play an important role in guiding transitions; (ii) agency enables the further diffusion of visions and niches; (iii) vision champions play an important role in transitions, but are not decisive; (iv) each transition has led to an extension of the number of societal functions provided, which has led to more complex water management regimes in which functions are combined and integrated; and (v) external landscape factors are important, as they can lead to awareness and urgency in important decision making processes

Building a Market for New Meat Alternatives: Business Activity and Consumer Appetite in the Netherlands

This chapter provides an overview of developments in the Netherlands on new meat alternatives with a focus on plant-based meat substitutes and lab-grown meat. It devotes attention to both the supply side of the market (business activity) and the demand side (consumer appetite). The first concerns developments in the meat substitutes' innovation system since the 1990s until now. It concludes that the Netherlands has become a major player. The latter concerns the supportive purchasing power of consumers regarding the building of a viable and strong market for new meat alternatives. It is concluded that available consumer studies provide evidence for being cautiously optimistic. The closing parts of this chapter, however, bring to the fore that a transition from the current high-meat diets to more sustainable and healthier diets with more non-meat sources of proteins is anything but self-evident. However encouraging and energetic modern developments in the Netherlands are, much progress is needed as it comes to consumer acceptance of new meat alternatives, producer capacity to innovate, concentrate strengths, and capture market share, as well as governmental support for reducing the adverse effects of today's meat consumption and production levels in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal 12 concerning responsible consumption and production

Gamification of backcasting for sustainability : The development of the gameful backcasting framework (GAMEBACK)

Considering how wicked problems, such as overconsumption, climate change, or the management of the COVID-19 pandemic rely on multiple stakeholder groups’ deliberation, this study investigates gamification's potential in participatory backcasting processes to support the emergence and growth of social innovations towards sustainability. Gameful methodologies have progressively been introduced into strategic planning processes, futures research, and transition studies, offering a powerful input to participatory backcasting processes. As gamification is a novel and impactful way to motivate and engage participants to take action during and after the participatory process, this study develops a framework for practitioners to gamify backcasting processes. Developed through state-of-the-art review of extant corpus as well as two cases of gamified participatory backcasting, the framework elucidates how participatory backcasting processes that include gamification elements designed to address engagement do have an impact on the participants, particularly in terms of the process being a positive, co-creative experience, and offer a good foundation for posterior actions.publishedVersionPeer reviewe