Grand societal challenges ask that we speed up transformations in markets towards sustainability. Speeding up market transformations in sustainability transitions is determined in part by the way in which law and legal institutions enable or obstruct these transformations. We investigate the role of law and organizations in relation to market transformation in sustainability transitions. We introduce

This paper gives an overview of the state of research on the role of incumbent firms in emission-intensive economic sectors (energy supply, transportation, food supply and processing industries) in sustainability transition processes. On the basis of a systematic review of 174 case studies, the paper comes to two conclusions: Firstly, there is a lack of clear definitions and therefore some conceptual

Tactical urbanism aims to rapidly transform urban environments through iterative experimentation. However, we know little about how learning shapes the long-term effectiveness and transformative potential of these interventions. This paper examines the role of local government implementers’ learning in sustaining tactical urbanism practices, specifically through the lens of street experiments implemented

Socio-technical transitions literature has so far engaged very little with the question of how international institutions could foster transitions. Conversely, international climate policy literature shows gaps in engaging with transformational change. To address these gaps, this article analyses the potential of the first Global Stocktake (GST) under the Paris Agreement to foster transitions. The

The Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) framework has been widely employed to analyze transitions in agri-food systems. However, its analytical capacity remains limited in addressing critical dimensions such as power asymmetries, territorial dynamics, and diverse forms of agency. To address these gaps, this paper integrates MLP with relational and evolutionary perspectives from social movements theory to

A mining boom to extract critical minerals for the global green energy transition is gathering momentum. However, a boom-time mentality may overlook key aspects of up-front design and planning for mine rehabilitation to ensure sustainable operation and closure with beneficial post-mining use. Australia has significant deposits of many critical minerals and, as a prominent mining country, exemplifies

Plant-based meat substitutes are becoming increasingly popular as an alternate protein source. We used input-output analysis to model the environmental and socio-economic impacts of transitioning to soy-based meat substitutes to replace macronutrients lost from reductions in livestock meat consumption. We found that soy-based meat substitutes can be macronutrient replacements for livestock meat with

With the rapid growth of the digital economy and the spread of digital technologies, there is a growing interest in the digital transformation of clean energy. Accordingly, this study discusses the impact of digital economy on clean energy transformation from multi-dimensional, multi-level and multi-regional perspective through spatial econometric model based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China

In this perspective paper, we advocate strengthening knowledge accumulation within transition research and provide suggestions on how to achieve it. Over the past decade, many transition papers have proposed new frameworks, contributing to a growing theoretical diversity in the field, which has posed challenges for knowledge accumulation. We address this issue by mobilizing ideas from management studies

Sustainable energy transitions are closely intertwined with digitalisation processes. In this paper, we analyse how the development and implementation of digital technologies are deeply embedded in socio-technical-ecological configurations of sustainable energy transitions and consequently reflect these configurations. We contribute to the emerging body of literature that investigates the complex relationship

The use of bio-based materials offers opportunities to mitigate the climate impacts of construction, with buildings potentially acting as carbon sinks. However, it remains unclear what a future bio-based construction sector will look like. One reason for this are diverse socio-technical visions for the use of bio-based construction materials. In this paper, we use discourse analysis across a comprehensive

Environmental activists increasingly seek to ban advertising of polluting products. Advertising bans (of tobacco and alcohol for example) have been widely used in support of public health objectives, but such bans have received little attention from environmental policy or sustainability transition scholars.

Hydrogen is considered a promising energy carrier that can potentially contribute to low-carbon energy systems and achieving climate goals. Its introduction, however, is complex, involving multiple emerging niches and developments across various sociotechnical systems. Despite its significance, the multi-system nature of hydrogen has received limited attention in sustainability transition scholarship

Lock-in mechanisms are common explanations for the persistence of undesirable system configurations in the present. However, studies often analyse lock-ins statically, without tracing and explaining underlying processes. In this article, we explore the development of lock-in over time, by analysing the case study of pesticide lock-in the Senegalese vegetable sector. To this end, we draw on extensive

Literature on intermediation in transitions has emphasised the importance of publicly promoting intermediation. To understand what drives authorities to financially promote intermediation, we conducted an exploratory study of 16 Swedish municipalities promoting an intermediary actor in the mobility transition, applying the framework of drivers of collaborative governance. The results highlight drivers

The adoption of photovoltaic panels (PV) by households is essential to meet residential Swiss energy transition targets. While previous studies have mostly focused on the factors influencing PV adoption by comparing adopters with non-adopters, few have acknowledged the heterogeneity of adopters and examined how these factors interrelate and differ among them. This study examines how factors associated

Financing sustainable technologies for energy transitions is a major policy focus in the Global South, where financing constraints have long hampered economic development. This paper focuses on Strategic Niche Management (SNM) as a framework to guide policymaking for sustainable innovation and transitions. While finance is central to niche processes, its theoretical role in niche development remains

In transition studies, the concept of policy mixes gains traction. Despite the crucial role actors play in both transition studies and policy processes, it is surprising that explicit conceptualisations of actors within the policy mix concept remain scarce. This paper addresses this gap by conducting a systematic literature review to assess how existing contributions in transition studies conceptualise

This systematic literature review inquires into the role of socio-technical experiments for autonomous driving and their potential to shape mobility transitions towards sustainability. As an emerging technology in an early stage of transition, AVs are increasingly being tested in different spatial contexts with diverse actor constellations in order to enhance the technology further. This article critically

This paper investigates the challenge of using hybrid technologies to accelerate the transition from incumbent to emerging technologies. It delves into the micro-dynamics of technology strategies: exploitation (a passive approach), exploration (a proactive approach), and a balanced exploitation-exploration stance during the transition. Based on technological innovation system (TIS) and Lotka-Volterra

Decarbonizing hard-to-abate-sectors (e.g., aviation) entails the development of novel technology value chains (TVCs) from scratch, likely resulting in new technological innovation systems (TISs). We build upon value chain complementarity literature to investigate the role of strategic agency in TVC development through a qualitative case-study based on Norwegian commercial aviation. We derive three

Cities are actively seeking pathways to localise the Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs] to address urban challenges and drive broader sustainability transitions. Despite increasing momentum, scholars note numerous barriers related to the translation of SDGs into local strategic planning, particularly the lack of consideration of synergies and trade-offs. Such hurdles risk weakening g the directionality

Within food systems transitions debates, various arguments are given for inclusive citizen participation in decision-making processes. This article critically discusses these arguments through an integrative literature study. We link scientific papers on transition studies, public participation, inclusivity, and food system research to discuss the need for and relevance of inclusive citizen participation

Households have so far received limited and narrow attention in the sustainability transitions literature. This is despite households being recognised routinely in sustainability policies, albeit also often from a rather narrow perspective. In this editorial to the special issue on household innovation and agency in sustainability transitions, we conceptualise households as a social unit, scale, and

This study analyzes how policy mixes influence the transition to a circular plastics economy, focusing on recycling in the electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) sector. Our research contributes to the literature on how policy mixes can accelerate sustainability transitions by proposing an adjusted framework tailored to the circular economy transition. We use qualitative content analysis of 14 EU

This article provides a perspective on concrete sustainability actions to avoid plastic at the household level in Australia to examine the contributions and involvement of household-level agency and social innovation in socio-technical systems transitions. Asking ‘what can household-level actions for sustainability reveal about the position of household agency in sustainability transitions?’ investigates

Starting from the observation that households are infrastructurally entangled, this conceptual article investigates the role of households’ agency in relation to socio-technical sustainability transitions. It is argued that when household members engage in infrastructuring activities such as developing and maintaining their household they perform practices that are relevant for sustainability transitions

Addressing the theoretical underpinnings of state involvement in transformative societal changes, this study employs a neo-Gramscian and functionalist framework to develop six Fast Sustainability Transitions (FST) scenarios: Greener growth (FST1), Greener inclusive growth (FST2), Survivalist capitalist economies (FST3), Greener South-led development (FST4), Sufficiency economies (FST5) and Gaia economies

Social tipping dynamics illustrate how minor interventions can catalyse non-linear changes in energy transitions. Despite their importance, the feedback loops driving these dynamics are often analysed in isolation and predominantly qualitatively. This study addresses this gap by employing a novel analytical approach to systematically explore intervention points that trigger feedback loops as a mechanism

Global South megacities have been adopting various policies to stimulate a shift towards a low-emission road passenger transport system but have yet to make progress. Simultaneously, sustainability transitions research has insufficiently studied policy interactions in Global South contexts. This paper applied a policy coherence analysis to a Global South context to study the policies adopted during

The last two decades have seen a rise of mission-oriented innovation policy with greater focus on sustainability challenges and problems as drivers for innovation and industrial policy and building prominently on transition research. Missions are often framed as spatially blind endeavors, disconnected from the intricate geographies of innovation and the socio-spatial contexts in which they unfold.

Ecologies of intermediation are important in facilitating the adoption of renewable electricity technologies by supporting adopters. However, previous research has suggested that this support is fragmented and uncoordinated. This paper draws attention to the support provided by two actor-types co-existing in an ecology of intermediation: public and private intermediaries. While differences between

While climate change is arguably the most urgent global environmental challenge, there are further, and often related, worrying human overshoots of planetary boundaries. These multiple challenges can express themselves differently in regions and have, therefore, implications for the course and shape of regional industrial transitions. This article focuses on specific regional industrial transitions

Urban experimentation has gained traction with (supra-)national and local politics as a method for catalyzing change in urban systems and practices. Yet, with experiments becoming more commonly driven by established actors, concerns persist about their potential to sidestep political issues of power, exclusion and conflict fundamental to societal change. This paper seeks to unpack what exactly is at

While the literature increasingly highlights the importance of governance capacities for transformative change, their development remains understudied. This paper responds to this research gap by proposing an integrative analytical framework to study how governance actors exercise their collective agency to develop governance capacities for transformative change. We introduce shared intentions as a

Innovation systems are relational, with actors forming connections to enhance system functions. What drives these connections? The resource-based theory of system building suggests actors pursue relationships based on resource availability and distribution. Network theory adds that social processes vary across innovation system functions, affecting configurations and actor involvement. This study examines

Climate change and chemical pollution are interdependent planetary threats, but climate change mitigation efforts typically do not consider chemicals and materials. This may exacerbate chemical pollution and associated harm to human and environmental health. Because most chemicals and materials are currently derived from petrochemicals, the extraction of fossil fuels cannot be limited without transitioning

This paper analyses how uncertainties around the uptake of heat pumps and electric vehicles (low carbon technologies) are being managed within the regulatory regime for electricity distribution networks in Britain. Within the sustainability transitions field several studies have identified electricity networks and regulation as an important topic and have focused on the introduction of innovation incentives

The German transportation sector's negative contribution to climate change amongst broader social, environmental, and economic problems is applying evermore pressure to the prevailing automobility regime to bring about its transformation. However, the vision of this transition, referred to as the Verkehrswende or Mobilitätswende, is highly contested, with varying conceptions of different actors about

Regions reliant on declining fossil fuel production often grapple with upcoming deindustrialisation, economic decline, and deterioration of liveability. In attempts to address these issues proactively, local change agents, including sub-national government authorities, increasingly collaborate to develop new, more sustainable and just regional pathways. A potential yet not uncontested stepping stone

Households are moving beyond the adoption of single renewable energy technologies. Additive adoption of heating systems has resulted in ‘hybrid heating’ comprised of several complementary energy systems. The hybridization of heating is spreading rapidly among households, featuring high diversity regarding both the make-up of hybrid solutions and the householders who create them. Our close-up study

While clean energy facilities (CEFs) play a crucial role in advancing the energy transition and in achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7, incumbents in the clean energy market often face public concerns stemming from wrongdoing and accidents within the industry, prompting them to engage in legitimacy maintenance for their CEFs. We know little about the specific strategies incumbents employ

This article describes the current and potential engagement of households in decarbonizing a residential heating system in Poland. Using the discussion on energy citizenship, we identified modes of householder engagement – material and discursive – in low-carbon energy transitions. Next, based on empirical data from a survey, desk research, interviews, and citizen workshops, we established enabling

Cultivated protein has the potential to provide animal protein-based food products in a much more environmentally sustainable way than conventional livestock production. A few products are now available on the market, yet little is known of what increasing market penetration by this potentially disruptive technology could mean for conventional agriculture and the food system as a whole. To address

The rapid expansion of the public discussion and research on just transition implies the risk of watering down either justice or the (eco-)socio-technical transition itself. We create a theoretical notion of just transition boundaries and propose it to help consider non-negotiable limits to just transition discourse and make sense of negotiations within such limits. Just transition boundaries are comprised

The mobility sector is undergoing a transformation towards a multimodal, sustainable, and user-centric system, driven by technological advancements and evolving business models. Super apps, which have already matured in Eastern markets, are now entering Western markets through the mobility sector, where they are poised to play a pivotal role in the mobility transition. We argue that the expected uptake

Policymaking communities across a wide breadth of contexts are increasingly turning to the field of sustainability transitions to help inform the societal response to critical sustainability crises. Building on a legacy of science-policy affinity and after nearly a decade of rising policy engagement, the field is now poised to build momentum for a ‘policy turn’. However, to make more rapid progress

This article explores the usefulness of the notion of alterity in waste management through a case study of Traperos de Emaús-Navarra, a bulky waste collection and recovery initiative in Spain. Guided by the principle of distributing work among more people, the initiative pursues shorter working hours and wage equality among its >300 employees. Drawing on this experience, the article explores alterity

The policy brief discusses how a challenge-oriented approach to place-based innovation policies can bring added value to EU Cohesion Policy. In so doing, it looks at the potential implications of a challenge-led logic on three dimensions: the rationale of Cohesion Policy, its operational aspects as well as its challenges in terms of governance and coordination. Three areas are explored: how a challenge-driven

Regional studies show that regions develop new technologies related to their existing knowledge base. R&D expenditure targeting sectors related to this knowledge base is, therefore, more promising to create innovative output. Using global patent data, we investigate whether path-dependency of innovation in climate-change mitigation and adaptation technologies (CCMTs) holds at the country level and

This study contributes to the understanding of the spatiality of energy transitions in the East African Community (EAC) and to cross-regional conceptual learning. It is situated at the intersection of Sustainability Transitions and Energy Geography. Building on a conceptual framework developed by energy geographers, we conduct a conceptual review and examine the production of locations, landscapes

High shares of renewable energy generation, digitalisation, and increased electrification are putting energy systems in flux. In this article we examine the ways households actively re-configure energy system relations at the local level and become agents in the ongoing energy transition. Drawing on assemblage theory, we foreground processes of emergence, the multiplicity of current configurations

Transitions to a circular economy in Europe have not accelerated despite being a priority of the Green Deal. One reason behind the slow uptake is the active resistance by incumbent actors. This article explores the case of Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation to uncover resistance and capture strategies of incumbent single-use and takeaway industry actors that succeeded in reducing the ambition

The role of gender relations in shaping technological transitions is widely acknowledged but remains understudied. This study uses historical data to analyze the gendering of early 20th century American cars and its consequences. Previous research has argued that early electric vehicles were construed as a women’s car, contributing to its demise. Other work has questioned to what extent automotive

As primary sites of everyday consumption households play a key role in sustainability transitions. Yet neither everyday consumption nor what goes on within households have received much attention within the sustainability transitions literature. This paper contributes to this research gap by exploring how everyday practices of mothering intersect with aspects of the sustainability of everyday food

This paper reviews the literature on technological innovation systems (TIS) to explore how TIS studies have contributed to building the understanding of innovation processes driving sustainability transitions. We summarise the conceptual and methodological advancements in the TIS studies at three levels: (1) meso-level focused on TIS functions and structures; (2) macro-level explaining the TIS-context

Cross-sector collaborations—partnerships between organizations from multiple sectors (e.g., the public and nonprofit and voluntary sectors)—are key to sustainability transitions yet remain understudied. In this study, we assess the readiness of nonprofit organizations for engaging in collaborative sustainability efforts. We develop and empirically validate a theoretical framework focusing on three

The paper examines local sustainable transition processes related to the introduction of large-scale sustainable energy infrastructure projects in peripheralized areas, with a specific focus on understanding their role and complex development considerations, potentials, and dilemmas. Experiences are reported from the Danish `Energy Island Bornholm´, where a 3,8 GW offshore wind farm field is planned