Linking the multi-level perspective with social representations theory: Gasifiers as a niche innovation reinforcing the energy-from-waste (EfW) regime

Les Levidow and Paul Upham

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2017, vol. 120, issue C, 1-13

Abstract: The multi-level perspective (MLP) theorises technological change as a process of niche innovations competing with incumbent socio-technical regimes. As a mid-range theoretical framework, the MLP invites complementary, more detailed theorisation of salient issues, especially the roles of socio-political agency in changing regime rules around technological competition. Taking a socio-cognitive perspective, this paper links the MLP with social representations theory, to show how a new technology is diversely ‘anchored’ in a familiar one for different agendas. The case study is a specific niche innovation – thermal treatments of municipal solid waste (MSW) within the UK's wider regime of energy-from-waste (EfW). Through landscape-level changes, controversy over incinerators has destabilised the EfW regime's rules. This instability has opened up opportunities for gasifiers as a niche innovation, yet gasifiers have also become an extra focus for conflict over incinerators' wider role in the waste hierarchy. Agents compare thermal-treatment options for MSW according to various criteria which have unstable, changing rules. These express different socio-cognitive frameworks, analysed here as diverse social representations of novelty. The case study offers an insiders' perspective on endogenous enactment, i.e. the conflicting roles of socio-political agency in shaping transition pathways.

Keywords: Multi-level perspective (MLP); Niche innovation; Social representations; Municipal solid waste (MSW); Advanced thermal treatment (ATT); Gasification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:120:y:2017:i:c:p:1-13

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2017.03.028

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