Linking Transitions to Sustainability: A Study of the Societal Effects of Transition Management

Niko Schäpke, Ines Omann, Julia M. Wittmayer, Frank Van Steenbergen and Mirijam Mock
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Niko Schäpke: Faculty for Sustainability, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany
Ines Omann: UFZ—Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department for Environmental Politics, 04318 Leipzig, Germany
Julia M. Wittmayer: DRIFT—Dutch Research Institute for Transitions, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Frank Van Steenbergen: DRIFT—Dutch Research Institute for Transitions, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Mirijam Mock: UFZ—Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department for Environmental Politics, 04318 Leipzig, Germany

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 5, 1-36

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: assessment; case study; empowerment; social capital; societal effects; social learning; sustainability transition; transition management; sustainability transformation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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