Multi-level Perspective

The continuing decline of arable land per person and global human population growth are raising concerns about food security. Recent advances in horticultural technology (i.e., growing using light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, hydroponics, vertical farming, and controlled environments) have changed the ways in which vegetables can be produced and supplied. The emerging technology makes it possible to produce more food using fewer resources, independent of the weather and the need for land. They allow bringing agricultural practices inside urban built up spaces and making horticultural production an integrated part of the daily life of urban residents. However, the process and consequences of this technology-driven transition on urban planning and development are hardly understood. This paper uses the theory of multi-level perspective (MLP) on sustainability transitions and actor–network theory (ANT) to explore this technology-driven transition and its adoption in urban planning and...

Wind energy is currently one of the most mature technologies in the renewable energy sector and Europe is taking a leading role in its development. However, within Europe, there are significant differences in the advancement of wind energy: While it has come to play a significant, non-negligible role in the German energy system, the same technology could not yet establish itself in France. The niche has not succeeded in transforming the French energy system, although the surrounding conditions in France have changed significantly over the past years. To shed some light on the reasons for this particular development, this case study tracks back the development of the French wind energy sector from its beginnings up to the present. Special attention is given to the following three processes: technological change, changes in energy policy, and changes in actor constellations and the socio-economic context. Based on this extensive analysis, it is possible to work out enabling and constricting factors in this development, which have caused it to take its special “French” course. For the theoretical analysis of “the French development” the ‘Multi-Level-Perspective’ (Rip & Kemp 1998) was then applied to the empirically compiled data. This perspective gives a contextualized view of the role niches play in a technological transition process. It makes it possible to assign the enabling and constricting factors to different socio-technological constellations on three analytical levels: the wind energy niche, the established and dominant constellation in the French energy sector (the regime), and the overall macro level of society (the landscape). The perspective further helps to observe interactions between processes at all the analytical levels and to analyze the effects of the respective ‘change mechanisms’ on the socio-technical transition process. The study finally assesses whether a regime shift is actually possible in the French context.

The multi-level perspective (MLP) is a prominent transition framework. The MLP posits that transitions come about through interaction processes within and among three analytical levels: niches, socio-technical regimes and a socio-technical landscape. This systematic review provides an overview on the use of the MLP in research on agro-food sustainability transitions. In particular, it analyses the understanding, conceptualisation and operationalisation of niches, regimes and landscapes. Niches considered in the selected papers include agro-ecology, organic agriculture, permaculture, conservation agriculture, integrated farming, and alternative food networks. Regime refers to industrial, conventional agriculture. The researched regime is often not clearly described and its operationalisation is a matter of deliberation. Landscape level is generally overlooked; when it is considered it refers to international trends and developments. Many scholars highlight the inadequacy of transition pathways in the MLP for the agro-food sector. Moreover, transition impacts are rarely addressed and the research field generally overlooks the analysis of the sustainability of niches and, consequently, of transitions. Research on transitions in the agro-food sector borrows from the MLP its generalizability and poor empirical operationalisation of niche, regime and landscape concepts. Therefore, integrative conceptualisation and operationalisation of the MLP elements is required to accommodate the complexity of sustainability transition processes and the peculiarities of the agro-food system.

The academic discourse on sustainability transitions has gained momentum. This discourse, however, has been criticised for underplaying questions of power and politics. The critique seem particularly relevant when applied to agri-food systems. Our review explores how power and politics have been addressed in sustainability transitions research-with a particular focus on agri-food systems. The literature firmly establishes that comprehensive sustainability transitions imply a re-negotiation of the rules of the game and new governance settings. The objectives and direction of transitions towards sustainability are often contested, and the political processes around transitions are framed by historical and spatial realities. Power dynamics in transitions can take different forms (e.g. coercion, empowerment, resistance). In spite of these insights, power and politics remain marginal topics in the academic discourse on agri-food sustainability transitions. Yet, the reviewed literature provides three interesting cases (agroecology, biofuels, urban foodscapes) addressing transition politics in agri-food systems. Agroecology can be seen as a form of resistance to and a means of transforming dominant agri-food systems. Biofuels can be considered an instrument for a transition towards sustainable energy systems, but may create sustainability trade-offs in agri-food systems. Urban foodscapes are an arena where power and politics shape the relation between civil society, private actors, and local governments and, consequently, the pace of agri-food sustainability transition. It can be argued that in order to accelerate sustainability transitions in agri-food systems, a better understanding of transition power and politics-as well as their relation to agri-food system governance-will be needed.

The agro-food system needs a genuine sustainability transition to achieve sustainable food and nutrition security in the face of climate change, population growth, ecosystem degradation and increasing resource scarcity. Agro-food sustainability transitions refer to transformation processes needed to move towards sustainable agriculture and food systems. There is a broad range of theoretical and conceptual frameworks that have been used to understand and promote transition towards sustainability. These include the multi-level perspective (MLP) on socio-technical transitions, transition management (TM), strategic niche management (SNM), technological innovation system (TIS) and social practice approach (SPA). The paper analyses the use of these heuristic frameworks in research on agro-food sustainability transitions. A search carried out in March 2018 on Scopus yielded 791 documents , and 127 research articles underwent a systematic review. Results show that more than three-fifths of research papers dealing with sustainability transitions in agriculture, food processing, distribution and consumption use at least one of the five heuristic frameworks (MLP, TM, SNM, TIS and SPA). The MLP is the most prominent framework in research on agro-food sustainability transitions, followed by TM, SPA, SNM and then TIS. Nevertheless, MLP is increasingly complemented with frameworks that focus on human-related and social factors (SPA), management and governance (TM, SNM) or agency and interactions between actors (TIS) in sustainability transitions processes. Therefore, the paper makes the case for more integration of transition frameworks in order to better nurture and foster transitions towards sustainable agro-food systems.

Innovation is a complex phenomenon and process involving translation of knowledge into new techniques, products, services. It is considered crucial for sustainable agriculture development and achievement of long-term food security. The review describes the diversity of innovation and relates it to agro-food sector. It also sheds light on different innovation models and explores their contribution to framing agro-food sustainability transitions. There are many variations in the use of the term ‘innovation’. Typical distinctions encountered in the literature are incremental vs. radical innovation and product vs. process vs. organizational innovation. A significant feature of the development of modern innovation thinking has been a gradual broadening of innovation scope as well as more attention to sustainability. The scope of innovation was broadened to include soft (social/organisation) innovations besides hard/technical ones. In fact, the interest has shifted from technological innovation to disruptive niche innovations fundamental for socio-technical transitions. Moreover, as recognition of system complexity, frameworks such as the Innovation systems and the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) were developed and promoted. However, despite positive innovation benefits, relationship between innovation and sustainability in the agro-food arena is far from straightforward. Therefore, focus is gradually moving from innovation process to its impacts in terms of sustainability and its contribution to sustainability transitions in agriculture and food systems.

To break away from techno-institutional lock-in in climate change and in other sustainability problems, many have focused on innovation in technological 'niches'. The destabilisation of the incumbent 'regime' has been neglected and external 'landscape' pressures under-analysed. With this in mind, this article examines the factors of regime destabilisation and forms of regime resistance in past technological transitions in energy and transport. It analyses 23 energy (electricity, heat & chemicals) and 11 transport (drive chain, networks, fuels & land planning) transitions pre-1990. Furthermore, in order to properly frame these results and make any "lessons from the past" applicable to the present, this article includes an assessment of current sustainability trends.

The key lessons from past energy transitions are that regime outsiders with the right ideology and influence on the market can destabilise the energy sector, which has traditionally had strong incumbents. As incumbents are weakened, past transport transitions show that further change may come from emphasising the Health and Lifestyle benefits of sustainability transitions.

In response to calls to develop more politically-informed transition studies, a burgeoning literature on discourse-transition complementarities and niche-regime interactions has recently emerged. This paper draws these strands of literature together in order to develop a discursive approach that investigates the process by which actors use language to build or erode the legitimacy of socio-technical innovations and their niches within transition episodes. Conceptualizing this process in terms of multi-dimensional discursive interactions, we adopt a discursive approach to further scrutinize: (1) the way in which actor groups depicted within the multi-level perspective struggle to frame innovations using narrative work and (2) how these narratives are formed through the ideational capacity of actors to link the content and context of an innovation. We demonstrate this approach by applying it to the case of PV diffusion in Ontario, Canada. Our findings contribute to the development of a more politically-sensitive view of transitions as well as recent work on incumbent-challenger interactions and discourse-transition crossovers. Beyond this, we corroborate and extend several observations in the transition literature, including the semi-coherent nature of the regime, the social construction of the landscape, and the prevalence of fit-and-conform orientations within niche empowerment strategies. However, findings also indicate that strategic orientations can be subtle and intermeshed, perhaps explaining why fit-and-conform orienta-tions appear more prevalent.

China accounts for half of the world’s annual coal consumption. Coal is the primary energy source for heating in urban areas, particularly in northern China. This causes significant challenges for urban air quality problems in China and greenhouse gases emissions. Urban district heating (DH) systems penetration is very high in northern China. It supplies space heating to more than 80% of urban buildings in the area. Unlike the electricity and transportation sectors, the heating sector has received little attention from policy makers and researchers in China, DH systems are an enabling infrastructure which facilitates energy efficiency improvements and the use of renewable energy sources. This study explores the dynamics and possibility to expand alternative energy sources (natural gas, biomass, direct geothermal heat, ground-source heat pump, municipal waste heat, industrial waste heat) for DH in China. We apply an analytical framework largely based on the multi-level perspective in socio-technical transitions theory, in which transitions are interpreted as the result of the functioning of niche, regime and landscape elements, and interactions between them. The study provides an integrated picture of the socio-technical structure and functioning of DH in China. The results show that an energy transition in Chinese DH systems has barely started. The system is characterized by stability of the coal-based DH regime, while a number of alternative niches are struggling to emerge. Among these, natural gas is the most successful example. However, at local level different niches present opportunities in terms of physical availability, economic viability and technical capacity to address changes in landscape pressures. A sustainable heat roadmap based on integrated energy planning and policy attention at the national level could be developed as one mechanism for instigating a much needed energy transition in DH in China.

Infrastructure threatens to lock-in societies to fossil fuels, unless something is done about it now. This is because infrastructure lasts for such a long-time, meaning that any infrastructure built or rebuilt now will last well into the 21st century – even until the end of the century in some cases. Consequently, there is a need to integrate climate change, especially adaptation, into infrastructure now or societies will be left with infrastructure designed around an unsustainable socio-technical system (e.g. combustion engines, roads, suburbanization, etc.). Such change is conceptualized in the literature as a sustainability transition. However, any attempts at such transitions have to address the materialities of infrastructure systems (e.g. physical form, environmental context, etc.). In this paper I develop the concept of socio-material systems and apply it to transport infrastructure in Ontario, Canada.

Among the most pressing energy and environmental strategic challenges today is to identify and deploy viable alternatives to fossil-fuel-based energy systems  The barriers to deployment are systematic, leading to a state of affairs described as ‘carbon lock-in’ (Unruh
2000; Neuhoff 2007). Simply stated, even if alternative energy systems are cost-competitive in theory, the prime movers that control their diffusion throughout society –
for example, conversion and distribution infrastructure; financing mechanisms; skilled labour force; attitudes toward particular kinds of energy production activities and energy services – exhibit a preference for incumbent carbon-intensive fossil energy resources. Carbon lock-in represents path dependencies within energy systems including sunk-cost in prevailing infrastructure and entrenched political interests along with positively reinforcing relationships with broader system dynamics, from global financial logics that continue to monetise unburned carbon through energy
futures contracts to our everyday practices and expectations about mobility, comfort, and overall
well-being that underpin regular visits to the gasoline station. All of this is to say that energy systems are sociotechnical in nature, characterised by deep and often subtle interdependencies between technological, social, political-economic, and cultural processes which operate across the energy supply chain and at all scales of energy system operation (Miller, Richter, and O’Leary 2015).

The city of I ̇zmir-Turkey has recently attracted interest for a range of actions regarding agro-food and been perceived as a pioneer in providing alternatives to the practices of the incumbent agro- food regime. This paper builds on the multi-level perspective as a heuristic device to place these actions within discussions of sustainable agro-food transitions. Findings suggest that what could be considered as individual and isolated practices that diverge from agro-food regime may be viewed as sustainable niche alternatives from a transition perspective and hailed for sowing the seeds of an urban sustainability transition in the making. It is also demonstrated that making urban sustainability transitions in stabilized regimes such as agro-food, is as predicated on contestation and struggle as it is on policy devolution to localities, suggesting that sustainable agro-food transitions cannot be studied in isolation from the domain of urban policy and without incorporating adversarial struggle into the analysis.
This paper comprises five sections. The introduction is followed by a conceptual section, outlining some of the key insights provided by the MLP and its application in an analysis of sustainability transitions. Following a description of the methodology employed, the focus turns to I ̇zmir in the fourth section, offering empirical evidence that sustainable agro-food transitions are in the making in the city, which it does by addressing the generic pressures surrounding the agro-food regime and outlining the emerging local government-driven and bottom-up responses to these pressures that diverge from and run parallel to the prevailing agro-food regime. Finally, the paper reflects on the implications of the findings for the role of cities in terms of their contribution to the struggle for a sustainable future for agro-food.

The Canadian Oil Sands are analyzed under the multi-level perspective, for the purpose of building towards a sustainability transition. Despite demonstrating that the oil sands are experiencing initial transitional phases brought about by landscape level political and climate change pressures, evidence suggests that the oil sands regime is comparable to that of the American Military Industrial Complex and the South African Minerals Energy Complex. Thus, we re-term the oil sands as the Canadian Oil Sands Industrial Complex. Particular focus is given to the landscape and landscape shocks as they have been understudied in previous work. It is suggested that landscape shocks may be useful tools in initiating and accelerating sustainability transitions, and suggestions are provided for both policy makers and future researchers in the implementation of these concepts.

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank all the interviewees that acquiesced to be part of this research as well as all those who contributed with their insights and experience. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The multi-level perspective (MLP) is a prominent transition framework. The MLP posits that transitions come about through interaction processes within and among three analytical levels: niches, socio-technical regimes and a socio-technical landscape. This systematic review provides an overview on the use of the MLP in research on agro-food sustainability transitions. In particular, it analyses the understanding, conceptualisation and operationalisation of niches, regimes and landscapes. Niches considered in the selected papers include agro-ecology, organic agriculture, permaculture, conservation agriculture, integrated farming, and alternative food networks. Regime refers to industrial, conventional agriculture. The researched regime is often not clearly described and its operationalisation is a matter of deliberation. Landscape level is generally overlooked; when it is considered it refers to international trends and developments. Many scholars highlight the inadequacy of transitio...

A B S T R A C T Changes to the energy supply infrastructure are a vital component of climate change mitigation strategies. But what exactly underlies changes to energy supply infrastructure? This paper, through exploration and critical analysis of relevant literature, explores the various underpinning influences on energy infrastructure supply using a comparison of different theoretical perspectives. These influences were explored with specific emphasis on techno-economics, social psychology, socio-technical transitions, social practices and institutional dimensions to energy supply. The aim was to have a better understanding of the (direct and indirect) role of politics and the political system in influencing energy supply infrastructure decisions through the various theoretical lenses. The study revealed that techno-economics uses financial instruments and market information as intervention tools. Its effectiveness is measured by social welfare and cost effectiveness. Social psychology uses a combination of information, incentives and innovative informative instruments as its intervention tools. Its effectiveness is measured by behavioural change. Institutions use regulatory instruments as its intervention tool. Its effectiveness is measured by regulatory compliance. Social practices look at change in broader social systems. Its effectiveness is measured by social change. Socio-technical transitions focus on determining social movements and social innovations. Its effectiveness is measured by legitimacy and social learning.

The study adopts a multi-level perspective in technology transition to analyse how the transition process in the development of geothermal energy in Indonesia is able to compete against the incumbent fossil-fuelled energy sources. Three levels of multi-level perspective are socio-technical landscape (ST-landscape), socio-technical regime (ST-regime) and niche innovations in Indonesia geothermal development. The identification, mapping and analysis of the dynamic relationship between each level are the important pillars of the multi-level perspective framework. The analysis considers the set of rules, actors and controversies that may arise in the technological transition process. The identified geothermal resource risks are the basis of the emerging geothermal technological innovations in Indonesian geothermal. The analysis of this study reveals the transition pathway, which yields a forecast for the Indonesian geothermal technology transition in the form of scenarios and probable impacts.

This article discusses the transformation of landfills from dumps toan alchemist’s dream – gold mines – by highlighting five Swedishcase studies where the landfill has been extracted. It is shown thatlandfills are embedded in broader socio-technical systems, includingtechnology, policies, culture, norms, markets, and networks.These artifacts have aligned into mutual dependencies under thenotion that landfills are garbage dumps, which has entrapped thelandfill in the prevailing “dump regime”. At the present time there isa window of opportunity to escape the “dump regime.” Dumps arebeing challenged by the circular economy, which has establishedinstability in the regime. However, for landfills to transform into“gold mines” creative entrepreneurs with the capacity to understandthe emergent properties of deposition – i.e. giving rise to aresource base – will be key. For further transformation, specializedmining actors, collaboration and further exogenous changes suchas higher metal prices are necessary.

Transitions to sustainable food systems are considered necessary to address sustainability challenges in industrial food systems-but also to achieve food and nutrition security especially in countries of the South. To facilitate such transitions, we need a thorough analytical understanding of change processes in food systems. Different transition frameworks have been suggested in the literature, with the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) on socio-technical transitions being the most prominent. While MLP has proven to be a useful heuristic, earlier studies have identified weak points (e.g. regarding agency, power, landscape factors and institutional innovations) calling for the integration of complementary concepts. This paper proposes a framework for the analysis of sustainability transitions in food systems that integrates elements of the Social Practices Approach, Transition Management, Strategic Niche Management and Innovation Systems. The starting point of the suggested analytical process is to map emerging sustainable food systems along the MLP levels of niche, regime and landscape. To better understand processes of creating and developing initiatives in food systems, our mapping relies on Innovation System approaches (e.g. identifying actors and their networks), Transition Management (e.g. niche stabilization and expansion processes) and Strategic Niche Management (e.g. breakthroughs). As wider transitions require a reconfiguration of relevant regimes, interactions across levels are of particular interest. The Social Practices Approach helps to make niche-regime interactions explicit. Finally, by looking at the impacts and outcomes of change initiatives, we can make statements about the type of transition pathway taken-and whether an initiative has transformative potential or is an incremental adaptation. Further work is needed to refine and test the framework in different contexts.

Despite increasing scepticism about the conventional growth model, the topic of destabilisation of socioeconomic regimes has not yet captured scholarly interest. This paper addresses this gap and serves a twofold purpose. First, it develops an analytical framework for studying discursive regime destabilisation based on previous research by Turnheim and colleagues. The framework is novel as it allows for: (1) structured analysis of framing interactions between niche and regime actors; (2) visualised mapping of discursive actors; and (3) identification of phases of discursive destabilisation. Second, the paper contributes to the literature on an ongoing practice of socioeconomic transformations by applying the framework to a case study of a social movement organisation, "Economy for the Common Good" (ECG), that seeks to advance socioeconomic transition. The suggested framework was useful for analysing the ECG. First, it demonstrated that niche actors employed mostly motivational and prognostic frames supporting the alternative economic approach, while the regime diffused mostly diagnostic frames focusing on the perceived negative aspects of the niche. Second, by applying the framework, we identified three relevant destabilisation phases in this socioeconomic transformation process: Blindness and Denial, Incremental Responses to Problems and Increasing Doubts and Diversification. We argue that the framing of the niche affects different actor groups differently: while representatives of high authorities remained in the first phase of destabilisation, regional authorities and private companies already appeared at the second and third phases.

Iran, located in an arid region, is losing its freshwater resources at an incredible rate and has reached critical per capita freshwater available. Urmia lake is a tragic example of this crisis that requires immediate attention to prevent catastrophes in the region and even in neighboring countries. In this study, utilizing DPSIR model and MLP regime transition framework, I argued that governance is central to the water crisis in Iran. By analyzing ULRP as the responsible committee for restoration of the lake in terms of its visions, projects, structure, and outcomes, the huge mismatch between visions and outcomes seems a failure to the whole program. I also discussed that the current technocratic hydraulic empire does not let for integrative participatory approaches that can bring about fundamental reforms to water management. Finally, I propose three major reforms in governance model: change in political power structure, democratic integrative transboundary water governance, and using the potential of ambitious leaders. In order to validate the proposed model, I suggested qualitative comparisons between similar cases and discourse analysis.

In this paper, we argue that current research on carbon regulation neglects the complex interactions of institutional norms and market behaviour that characterise responses to regulatory change. We draw on empirical research undertaken with English housebuilders and housing market stakeholders to examine how transitional pathways toward a low carbon housing future might be advanced and consider the implications of such for carbon regulation and low carbon economies. Our core proposition is that carbon regulation research can no longer ignore the impact of institutionally-constituted market behaviour in shaping pathways and transitions towards low carbon futures.

Sustainability transitions are generating comprehensive learning spaces, which yield substantial reconfigurations not only in our practices and actions, sociotechnical systems, but also in our cognitive constructs. This article tackles the agency of design in transitions, by particularly focusing on bottom-up and emergent learning processes at niches. An overview on common lines of inquiry from (1) design theory, (2) multi-level perspective (MLP) of system innovations and (3) practice theory (PT), which commonly address the agencies of design and learning in transitions, is presented. Consequently, we propose an integrative analytic-theoretical framework, and describe it with an exemplary analysis of a community-led transition project.

"Technology – The Other of Society? Looking Back on 20 Years of Social Studies on Urban and Other Artefacts - Abstract
This essay examines marked, if entirely inconclusive, changes in the landscape of social studies of technology over the past two decades. Admittedly colored autobiographically, it points to various attempts to overcome the "otherness" imposed on technical artefacts and networks by sociologists and to bring them back into the social realm. Three factors are made responsible for the fact that students of technology had to open their discourse for this problematic: the advent of computers, the competition from popular media, and the claims to high social theory advanced by unorthodox science and technology studies. The future development of the field, thus the closing argument, will hinge on the outcome of a fundamental controversy between approaches inspired by evolutionary biology - "naturalizing history" - and culturalist approaches - "historializing nature". What kind of theory effects of social studies of science and technology will find their way into social practice will depend on the course this controversy will take. And so will the politics of expertise practitioners of science and technology studies will see themselves confronted with.

Zusammenfassung
Der Aufsatz setzt sich mit dem tiefgreifenden, aber gänzlich unabgeschlossenen, Wandel der sozialwissenschaftlichen Technikforschung in den vergangenen zwei Jahrzehnten auseinander. In durchaus autobiographisch gefärbter Form wird auf unterschiedliche Versuche verwiesen, technische Artefakte und Netze aus ihrer "Veranderung" als nicht-soziale Gegebenheiten herauszuholen und soziologisch einzugemeinden. Drei Faktoren werden dafür verantwortlich gemacht, dass sich Soziologen gezwungen sahen, ihre Diskurse für diese Problematik zu öffnen: die Ankunft der Computer, die Konkurrenz durch populäre Medien und die  gesellschaftstheoretischen Ansprüche, die von einer unorthodoxen Wissenschafts und Technikforschung vorgetragen worden sind. Die zukünftige Entwicklung dieses Forschungsfelds, so die abschließende These, wird sich entlang der grundlegenden Kontroverse zwischen evolutionsbiologisch inspirierten Auffassungen - "Naturalisierung der Geschichte" - und kulturwissenschaftlich inspirierten Auffassungen - "Historialisierung der Natur" - abspielen. Vom Verlauf dieser Kontroverse wird auch abhängen, welche Theorieeffekte die sozialwissenschaftliche Technikforschung in der gesellschaftlichen Praxis haben wird und mit welcher Politik der Expertise sich Technikforscher konfrontiert sehen.
"

ABSTRACT This paper explores the political economy of energy transition in South Africa. An economic model based around a powerful ‘minerals-energy complex’ that has previously been able to provide domestic and foreign capital with cheap and plentiful coal-generated electricity is no longer economically or environmentally sustainable. The paper analyses the struggle over competing energy visions, infrastructures and political agendas in order to generate insights into the governance and financing of clean energy transitions in South Africa. It provides both a rich empirical account of key policy developments aimed at enabling such a transition and provides reflections on how best to theorise the contested politics of energy transitions.

The study adopts a multi-level perspective in technology transition to analyse how the transition process in the development of geothermal energy in Indonesia is able to compete against the incumbent fossil-fuelled energy sources. Three levels of multi-level perspective are socio-technical landscape (ST-landscape), socio-technical regime (ST-regime) and niche innovations in Indonesia geothermal development. The identification, mapping and analysis of the dynamic relationship between each level are the important pillars of the multi-level perspective framework. The analysis considers the set of rules, actors and controversies that may arise in the technological transition process. The identified geothermal resource risks are the basis of the emerging geothermal technological innovations in Indonesian geothermal. The analysis of this study reveals the transition pathway, which yields a forecast for the Indonesian geothermal technology transition in the form of scenarios and probable impacts.

Sustainability transitions are generating comprehensive learning spaces, which yield substantial reconfigurations not only in our practices and actions, socio-technical systems, but also in our cognitive constructs. This article tackles the agency of design in transitions, by particularly focusing on bottom-up and emergent learning processes at niches. An overview on common lines of inquiry from (1) design theory, (2) multi-level perspective (MLP) of system innovations and (3) practice theory (PT), which commonly address the agencies of design and learning in transitions, is presented. Consequently, we propose an integrative analytic-theoretical framework, and describe it with an exemplary analysis of a community-led transition project.

Agriculture uses more than 80% of water resources in Morocco. The sector is inefficient in terms of water use due to the dominance of surface irrigation. To address this issue, there have been efforts in Moroccan strategies to convert surface irrigation to localized one. This paper analyses the dynamics of conversion from surface irrigation to drip irrigation in Fez-Meknes region (north-eastern Morocco) through the lens of the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) on socio-technical transitions. MLP framework suggests that transitions are the results of dialectic interactions among a niche (cf. novelty of drip irrigation), a regime (cf. traditional system of surface irrigation) and the socio-technical landscape (e.g. policies). MLP was complemented with a multi-capital approach to better assess transition impacts. Results show that the area equipped with drip irrigation in Fez-Meknes region increased from 2174 ha in 2008 to 39290 ha in 2016. Different programs have been implemented in the framework of the Green Morocco Plan to foster irrigation transition e.g. the National Irrigation Water Saving Program (PNEEI), launched in 2007, aims to convert 550,000 ha to localized irrigation (e.g. drip irrigation) in 15 years. Thanks to these programs, financial and technical support has been provided to farmers to promote the adoption of water-saving irrigation techniques and practices. Farm-level results show that transition to localized irrigation decreases irrigation water use, increases yields and profitability (cf. gross margin per ha), and improves water productivity. Despite an enabling policy landscape and positive transition impacts, surface irrigation is still maintained in the region and farmers are reluctant to change for many reasons (e.g. age and
education level, unclear land tenure, financial and administrative difficulties). Efforts are still needed to train farmers on irrigation scheduling and on the use of smart irrigation techniques to save water. Further research is required to better understand current bottlenecks in the irrigation transition process and design appropriate and context-specific transition governance strategies.

Addressing the apparent tensions between modernity and sustainability in Southeast Asia, this book offers novel insights into the global challenge of moving towards a low carbon energy system. With an original and accessible take on social theory related to energy transitions, modernity and sustainability, Mattijs Smits argues for a reinvigorated geography of energy. He also challenges universalistic and linear assumptions about energy transitions and makes the case for ‘energy trajectories’, stressing embeddedness, contingency and connections between scales.

Contemporary and historical empirical examples from Southeast Asia, primarily Thailand and Laos, are drawn upon to show the importance of scale at regional, national, local and household levels. The transitions in the national power sectors here have been intimately related to discourses of modernity and state formation since the colonial era. More recently, plans for international cooperation and discourses of regional power trade have taken centre stage. Local energy trajectories are understood to be part of these transitions, but also as embedded in local social, political and spatial relations. Examining how energy practices go hand-in-hand with the dissemination of different technologies, this work shows the complexities of achieving sustainability in the context of rapidly changing energy modernities in Southeast Asia.

This paper addresses the question of how financial technology transitions unfold. Innovations in financial business models driven by technology do not only involve changes in financial services delivering, but also changes in market, regulation, industrial networks, dominant players, and culture. The work adopts a multi-level perspective on financial technology transitions. Based on a literature review, the socio-technical landscape, regime, and niche levels are elaborated. The paper contributes with a new framework on financial technology transitions that may be used as an analytical tool to elaborate on future transformations in the sector and to customize for national-level studies.

In recent years there has been an increased emphasis on the use of technology to address developmental concerns throughout the world. The education sector has attracted a large part of this attention, which is centred on the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to address teaching, learning and administrative needs. Thailand generally has an inappropriately high class size in schools and gross teacher shortage and some parts of Thailand also have huge limitations in education resources. Island schools, especially are located very far away from the mainland. The Urak Lawai are an indigenous people on the Adang Archipelago in the Indian sea, off South West Thailand. They are grouped together with the Moken and Moklen, Sea Gypsies or Sea Nomads. These people have distinctively different origins, cultures and languages. This paper explores multi perspective integrations of Information Communication Technology in the island schools of developing countries. Data was co...

This text investigates how sustainable practices interact and co-evolve with sustainable marketing initiatives. The research is based on an international survey of fifteen case studies of institutional innovations in linking sustainable agricultural practices with markets. We explore how farmers and organisations are moving toward more sustainable practices through the collective mobilisation of participants, technologies, resources, and capacity building. Each of the cases illustrates a unique approach to creating linkages to markets, such as the use of international standards, direct and institutional marketing techniques, and culinary education. We find trends in the linkages between the socio-technical controversies that spurred the innovation and the form of the institutional innovation. Initial results point to the importance of charismatic leadership, constructing a common vision for sustainable agriculture, and building collective commitments among actors, as is common in social movements. While the focus of many market arrangements is on building local networks, we find the influence of international value chains in each case. This suggests that both community and international dynamics influence the development of institutional innovations in developing countries.

This text investigates how sustainable practices interact and co-evolve with sustainable marketing initiatives. The research is based on an international survey of fifteen case studies of institutional innovations in linking sustainable agricultural practices with markets. We explore how farmers and organisations are moving toward more sustainable practices through the collective mobilisation of participants, technologies, resources, and capacity building. Each of the cases illustrates a unique approach to creating linkages to markets, such as the use of international standards, direct and institutional marketing techniques, and culinary education. We find trends in the linkages between the socio-technical controversies that spurred the innovation and the form of the institutional innovation. Initial results point to the importance of charismatic leadership, constructing a common vision for sustainable agriculture, and building collective commitments among actors, as is common in social movements. While the focus of many market arrangements is on building local networks, we find the influence of international value chains in each case. This suggests that both community and international dynamics influence the development of institutional innovations in developing countries.

Agriculture uses more than 80% of water resources in Morocco. The sector is inefficient in terms of water use due to the dominance of surface irrigation. To address this issue, there have been efforts in Moroccan strategies to convert surface irrigation to localized one. This paper analyses the dynamics of conversion from surface irrigation to drip irrigation in Fez-Meknes region (north-eastern Morocco) through the lens of the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) on socio-technical transitions. MLP framework suggests that transitions are the results of dialectic interactions among a niche (cf. novelty of drip irrigation), a regime (cf. traditional system of surface irrigation) and the socio-technical landscape (e.g. policies). MLP was complemented with a multi-capital approach to better assess transition impacts. Results show that the area equipped with drip irrigation in Fez-Meknes region increased from 2174 ha in 2008 to 39290 ha in 2016. Different programs have been implemented in the f...

The continuing decline of arable land per person and global human population growth are raising concerns about food security. Recent advances in horticultural technology (i.e., growing using light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, hydroponics, vertical farming, and controlled environments) have changed the ways in which vegetables can be produced and supplied. The emerging technology makes it possible to produce more food using fewer resources, independent of the weather and the need for land. They allow bringing agricultural practices inside urban built up spaces and making horticultural production an integrated part of the daily life of urban residents. However, the process and consequences of this technology-driven transition on urban planning and development are hardly understood. This paper uses the theory of multi-level perspective (MLP) on sustainability transitions and actor-network theory (ANT) to explore this technology-driven transition and its adoption in urban planning and development. The high-tech horticulture zone development in Shanghai was used as a case study. The results show the importance of both social (i.e., policymakers and planners) and material (i.e., technologies and policy documents) actants in the transition of the sociotechnical regime. Furthermore, the transition toward sustainable urban horticulture practices requires the simultaneous preparation of supportive and compatible spatial development, agricultural and sustainable development policies, and adequate policy implementation and evaluation tools to increase the competitive strength of innovative practices.

This book presents and discusses two approaches to studying technological change: the Social Construction of Technology and the Multi Level Perspective. While the account of the approaches is not intended to function as a comparison, an effort was made to structure in a similar manner the presentation layout for each approach in the book. Thus it is possible to look at corresponding sections on key questions, unit of analysis and fundamental concepts in each perspective as well as appreciate their strength in terms of the critique that they have been put to. The book is intended to function as a reference for the reader that is involved in technology studies.