Towards a theory of regional diversification: combining insights from Evolutionary Economic Geography and Transition Studies. Regional Studies. This paper develops a theoretical framework of regional ...diversification by combining insights from Evolutionary Economic Geography and Transition Studies. It argues that a theory of regional diversification should not only build on the current understanding of related diversification but also account for processes of unrelated diversification by looking at the role of agency in processes of institutional entrepreneurship, and at enabling and constraining factors at various spatial scales. This paper proposes a typology of four regional diversification trajectories by cross-tabulating related versus unrelated diversification with niche creation versus regime adoption, and it develops a number of propositions.
► Extensive critique of existing transition studies regarding the neglect of space and scale. ► Core elements of a geography of transitions: institutional embeddedness and multiscalarity. ► Future ...research in transitions should consider contributions from cognate fields such as economic geography.
In the past decade, the literature on transitions toward sustainable socio-technical systems has made a considerable contribution in understanding the complex and multi-dimensional shifts considered necessary to adapt societies and economies to sustainable modes of production and consumption. However, transition analyses have often neglected where transitions take place, and the spatial configurations and dynamics of the networks within which transitions evolve. A more explicit spatial perspective on sustainability transitions contributes to the extant transitions literature in three ways. Firstly it provides a contextualization on the limited territorial sensitivity of existing literature. Secondly, it explicitly acknowledges and investigates diversity in transition processes, which follows from a ‘natural’ variety in institutional conditions, networks, actor strategies and resources across space. Thirdly, it encompasses not only greater emphasis but also an opportunity to connect to a body of literature geared to understanding the international, trans-local nature of transition dynamics. Concerned with the prevalent lack of attention for the spatial dimensions of sustainability transitions in most studies, this paper seeks to unpick and make explicit sustainability transition geographies from the vantage point of economic geography. The paper argues that there are two interrelated problems requiring attention: the institutional embeddedness of socio-technical development processes within specific territorial spaces, and an explicit multi-scalar conception of socio-technical trajectories. Following these arguments, the paper concludes that transitions research would do well to take a closer look at the geographical unevenness of transition processes from the perspective of global networks and local nodes.
Urban Living Labs (ULL) are considered spaces to facilitate experimentation about sustainability solutions. ULL represent sites that allow different urban actors to design, test and learn from ...socio-technical innovations. However, despite their recent proliferation in the European policy sphere, the underlying processes through which ULL might be able to generate and diffuse new socio-technical configurations beyond their immediate boundaries have been largely disregarded and it remains to be examined how they contribute to urban sustainability transitions. With this study, we contribute to a better understanding of the diffusion mechanisms and strategies through which ULL (seek to) create a wider impact using the conceptual lens of transition studies. The mechanisms of diffusion are investigated in four distinct ULL in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and Malmö, Sweden. The empirical results indicate six specific strategies that aim to support the diffusion of innovations and know-how developed within ULL to a broader context: transformative place-making, activating network partners, replication of lab structure, education and training, stimulating entrepreneurial growth and narratives of impact.
Networked urban governance is emerging as a major feature of metropolitan strategy and activity. The field of urban studies is yet to deeply engage in the debates on the new forms of cross national ...networking that are potentially framing and reframing urban governance and strategy. Yet this dimension of urban governance can no longer go unnoticed. In this article we draw together insights from the extant literature into a research agenda on reconfiguring urban governance. We propose a research agenda centred on three themes: the political economy of ‘new-gen’ networks, especially in relation to the role of economic power in determining participation and influence; the knowledge dynamics in city networks in understanding the socio-spatial configurations that are underpinning the decision-making processes and outcomes; and the implications of city networks for traditional institutions that have in the past shaped cities’ strategies, development and government. Our commentary considers and links these emergent themes, noting how these bear serious and urgent consideration for mainstream urban studies.
网络化城市治理正在成为大都市战略和活动的一个主要特征。城市研究学界尚未深入开展可能构建和重新构建城市治理和战略的新形式跨国网络的辩论。然而，城市治理的这一维度再也不能被忽视。在本文中，我们将现有文献中的见解汇总，形成了关于重新配置城市治理的研究议程。我们提出了一个以三个主题为中心的研究议程：“新一代”网络的政治经济学（特别是联系经济权力在决定参与和影响方面的作用）；在了解支撑决策过程和结果的社会空间配置方面的城市网络知识动态；以及城市网络对过去曾决定城市战略、发展和政府的传统制度的影响。我们的评论考虑并联系了这些新主题，并指出这些主题急需主流城市研究学者进行严肃的思考。
Modern societies face fundamental sustainability problems in several domains, such as energy, transportation and food. 'Technological fixes' have often provided only temporary and partial solutions ...due to negative externalities, rebound effects or other unintended consequences. In fact, some solutions reinforced technological and institutional lock-in, thus strengthening existing systems. It has therefore been suggested that societies need to fundamentally restructure systems of consumption and production by initiating so-called sustainability transitions. Whereas it is known that such transformation processes are sluggish and unfold over many decades, the nature of sustainability problems requires imminent action. This tension is further aggravated by citizens' short-term focus and firms' need to secure short-term survival, which makes it difficult for policymakers to implement ambitious sustainability programs. Resolving these problems is critical in addressing the sustainability challenges of the 21st century. Over the last decade a research community has developed around these topics, which can be short-handed as 'the field of sustainability transitions research'. The field has matured through the establishment of the Sustainability Transitions Research Network (STRN1), a dedicated journal 'Environmental Innovations and Societal Transitions' and a series of international conferences in Amsterdam (2009), Lund (2011) and Copenhagen (2012, forthcoming). There is a rapidly increasing body of literature, which also includes a number of special issues on topics such as transitions in infrastructure systems, the multi-level perspective, governance and policy issues, sustainability transitions in Asia and the role of spaces and places of sustainability transitions. See Markard et al. for a review of how the field has evolved and what the key journals and topics are. The emerging field is characterized by a wide variety of topics, approaches and methodologies, but a general feature is that transitions towards sustainability are framed from a systems perspective. Copyright Elsevier Inc.
Considering intractable uncertainties and the wicked nature of many sustainability challenges, there is a need to both forecast and assess the potential for improvements in sustainability with new ...ventures. While it is tempting to think of forecasting in terms of ‘predicting outcomes’, such an interpretation assumes a causal logic, failing to acknowledge the effectuation processes often at work in sustainability-focused innovative and entrepreneurial activity. In this paper, we argue that effectuation theory implies a new way of conceptualizing sustainability impact in such contexts. Leveraging the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) concept, we develop an arena in which both impact forecasting and assessment can be achieved in line with effectuation processes via what we term a Responsible Innovation Lab (RIL), understood as a type of living lab. After examining the concept of RRI, we delve into effectuation theory, deriving relevant insights for sustainability impact in new venture contexts. We then present the RIL as a conceptual synthesis of RRI, living labs, and effectuation theory. Further leveraging effectuation theory, we develop two tools (the Responsible Innovation Tool and Responsible Impact Tool) to both guide multi-stakeholder sustainability-focused innovation activity in a RIL, as well as facilitate the development of context-specific methodologies for forecasting and assessing sustainability impacts.
•Impact forecasting and assessment should consider effectuation processes.•Paper presents the Responsible Innovation Lab concept.•Connects effectuation with sustainability-focused innovation.•Merges RRI, living labs, and effectuation theory with sustainability impacts.•Two tools developed: Responsible Innovation Tool and Responsible Impact Tool.
Under pressure from fiscal austerity measures, rapidly rising housing prices and growing wealth disparities, cities are increasingly unable to meet the need for affordable and accessible housing for ...their citizens. Across many regions, including Australia, the UK, the US and much of mainland Europe, responsibility for the delivery of this housing is being devolved from the government to cross-sectoral partnerships between state, for-profit and not-for-profit actors. At the same time, access to affordable housing in many of these regions has drastically declined. New partnerships, models of delivery and governance structures are emerging in this context, often conceptualized through the lens of organizational hybridity. While literature has substantially unpacked the overarching trend towards organizational hybridity, it hasn’t examined the business models that make this possible. In this paper, we argue that understanding the governance arrangements and partnerships, target populations, prioritization of social and economic values and institutional frameworks within which housing is delivered can elucidate the capacity (or lack thereof) for housing projects and organizations to scale. Understanding these business models reveals the strategies that are currently privileged or constrained in current housing policy, the residents most likely to benefit from existing housing delivery and the pathways that may allow for the scaling of housing solutions.
Universities are increasingly recognized for playing a proactive role in supporting culture and creativity-led regional development. Meanwhile, they are also expected to distinguish themselves in ...their core activities via mission differentiation. Often these two demands are pitched against each other while little attention has been paid to the way universities can manage them. Drawing on a case study involving 29 semi-structured interviews carried out with key actors, this article examines the way a public university located in a peripheral region in the Netherlands navigated such a complex institutional environment. The findings suggest that the university formulated a hybrid response strategy, engaging in both institutional demands simultaneously while prioritizing collaboration with cultural and creative industries and talent attraction over other sub-demands. More importantly, the authors demonstrate that organizational identity, which itself is influenced by peripheral characteristics as well as other institutional factors, plays a significant role in the formulation of a hybrid response strategy. They therefore argue that universities’ contribution to culture and creativity-led regional development is not only dependent on their resource capacity – as is often suggested in the literature – but also on how they envision their organizational identity; that is, the type of institutional profiling they want to pursue.
This paper discusses how the approach of Strategic Niche Management (SNM) relates to proximity advantages in innovation processes as identified in the geography of innovation literature. The latter ...claims that the locations where innovation emerge and thrive are not coincidental, but that they follow certain patterns and explanatory logics. Such specific attention for explaining locations is not explicitly present in SNM, although this literature makes claims about the importance of experimentation in local settings, and local and global dynamics. Hence a confrontation of both literatures is thought to be promising. The paper draws on a theoretical discussion and a case study about aquifer thermal energy storage to conclude (1) that there is sufficient evidence for proximity dimensions in niche development; (2) that taking proximity dimensions seriously in SNM helps to unpack processes of upscaling and aggregation; (3) that literature on proximity and innovation can benefit from a more agency-based and dynamic perspective on proximity advantages; and (4) that there is a bias in proximity literature towards advantages of proximity while neglecting potential disadvantages for innovation, aggregation and upscaling.
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