World wars and sociotechnical change in energy, food, and transport: A deep transitions perspective

Phil Johnstone and Caitriona McLeish

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2022, vol. 174, issue C

Abstract: This paper explores the relationship between world wars and sociotechnical transitions in energy, food, and transport. We utilise and contribute to the Deep Transitions framework, which explores long-term, multi-systemic sociotechnical transitions and integrate a conceptual approach tailored to this particular topic. This approach bridges between historical literatures focused on world wars and sociotechnical perspectives. We explore in what ways the three sociotechnical systems of energy, food, and transport were influenced by the conditions of the First and Second World War and the extent to which these developments influenced lasting change. Our framework is based around three analytical steps: first, we analyse sociotechnical developments during wartime through the interpretive lens of mechanisms of total war. Second, we examine these developments in terms of how they can be interpreted as influencing the development of rules and meta-rules in sociotechnical systems. Third, we focus on the legacy of ‘total war’ utilising the concept of imprinting to examine the rules-based, infrastructural, and wider symbolic and cultural legacy of world wars in peacetime. This paper presents a novel interpretation of world war and sociotechnical transitions and contributes to a specific query of the Deep Transitions framework regarding the role of war in the emergence of the first deep transition. We consider the significance of this analysis in the context of sustainability transitions research.

Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:174:y:2022:i:c:s0040162521006399

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121206

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