User-Side Intermediaries and the Local Embedding of Low Carbon Technologies

Jake Barnes ()
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Jake Barnes: SPRU – Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9SL, UK, Department of Geography, University of Exeter, Rennes Drive, Exeter, EX4 4RJ

SPRU Working Paper Series from SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School

Abstract: This article draws on three theoretical fields, innovation intermediaries, socio-technical transitions and domestication studies to develop a process perspective of how user-side intermediary organisations seek to locally embed low carbon technologies. The term local embedding is increasingly used by transition researchers in a variety of ways. The first contribution of this paper is to explore and substantiate the concept of local embedding as the process of integrating technologies into local contexts of use. Intermediary organisations are conceived as contributing to local embedding where they facilitate, configure and broker change towards configurations that work. Nonetheless, understanding how these key intermediary processes relate as well as the influence of system dynamics on the work intermediaries undertake is still largely uncharted territory. The paper’s second contribution is a process perspective on the agency of intermediary organisations in local embedding. The resulting perspective offers insights into the agency of user-side intermediaries and later phases of transition processes.

Keywords: Intermediary organisations; local embedding; socio-technical transitions; domestication (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env and nep-ino
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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