Chapters of Report on Permanently Innovate

Rafael Silveira, Marlien Sneller, Katja Rossen,

Graciela Nava Guerrero

Chapter 0: Introduction

Graciela Nava Guerrero, Rafael Silveira, Katja Rossen, Marlien Sneller

The present report is part of a Master level course taught at the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management in Delft University of Technology. The course, Engineering for Sustainable Development, has the objective of improving the students’ capabilities to contribute to sustainability. We learn about sustainable development by conducting research about Texel as a sustainable island and preparing a report for our “clients”; the municipality of Texel and the local entrepreneurs supporting the project.

In addition to the learning process and products, our goal is to design Sustainable Texel as a socio-technical system and to investigate what would be required for the island to transition. From the nine sub-systems in which the challenge was divided, our group deals with Permanently Innovate. Based on our initial literature review, we defined the notion of Permanently Innovate in the following way:

First, a Permanently innovate subsystem would be a network of actors, including organizations and institutions that initiate, develop, import, modify, disseminate and implement innovations.

Second, a Permanently innovate subsystem would differ from a regular system of innovation because it would not only strive for the transition of one or two technologies only in a certain moment in time. On the contrary, it would aim for a change in the institutions, particularly informal ones, that would modify tacit patterns of behavior, social routine, visions and cognitive notions through which individuals and collectivities make meaning or sense out of the world. The new (in)formal institutions would enable the continuous emergence of successful systems of innovation. This means that the networks of agents would have to be dynamic: new agents and roles would come in and out of those networks and new roles will be created as required.

Third, successful systems of innovations would be defined as those that perform all seven functions described by Hekkert and Negro (2009). Thus, the sub-system would have entrepreneurial activities, knowledge development, knowledge diffusion through networks, guidance of the search, market formation, resource mobilization and creation of legitimacy.

Finally, a Permanently innovate subsystem would have deep implications for socio-technical systems. It would change the system in such a way that new, relevant and proper technologies would be either accepted or would change the systems regime. This new attitude towards change would require new rules and regulations to negotiate those changes between the actors. Thus, Permanently innovate would demand deep and structural changes in the entire socio-technical system.
Chapter 1: Exploring the sub-system

Katja Rossen, Marlien Sneller, Rafael Silveira, Graciela Nava Guerrero

In this chapter you can find the beginning of our journey to imagine Permanently Innovate in Texel and to design a pathway to achieve it. In our research, we will identify the current innovations, we will imagine how a Permanently Innovate system would look like and how we could get there.

In the first section we discuss the most important concepts that we will be using in this chapter. Afterwards, the second section will tell you about how innovation currently happens in the islands. Section 3 will then talk about how we imagine a Texel that is permanently innovating. Finally, the fourth section will specify the problem statement, sustainability criteria that we will use to measure progress, the research questions and the research objectives.
Chapter 2: Daily life needs change

Katja Rossen, Marlien Sneller, Rafael Silveira, Graciela Nava Guerrero

This chapter investigates daily life in the current system and selected a focus which aspects to improve in the transition towards the future system, resulting in a design challenge.

It starts by our literature review, where the concepts of presence, pro-environmental behaviour and well-being are interpreted by each of the group members. Then we analyze the current system in Texel, as presented in section 1.2, under the YUTPA framework; this is followed by the analysis of our proposed system, presented in section 1.3, under the same framework. Finally, we refine our understanding of our system and the necessary actions needed to steer it toward our vision.
Chapter 3: Transitions are made by people

Graciela Nava Guerrero, Rafael Silveira, Marlien Sneller, Katja Rossen

This Chapter analyses the socio-technical landscape and investigates how the developments support or work against our future vision.

It starts by analyzing the concepts of Grassroot Innovations and Intermediaries, based on our week’s proposed literature. At first we identify the initiatives and trends that are already present in Texel. Then we analyze their future probable directions and how this would affect our future vision. This chapter is concluded by looking outside of Texel, to sustainable trends and initiatives around the world in search for inspiration of how can we steer Texel toward our vision.
Chapter 4. Design Pathways

Graciela Nava Guerrero, Katja Rossen, Marlien Sneller, Rafael Silveira

In this Chapter you can find our initial proposals for technologies and pathways to reach our Permanently Innovate Vision in Texel.

First, in our literature review, we analyze the concepts of green industrialization, hybrid innovations and transition pathways. Then we introduce our two different strategies, by presenting each or our technological solutions. Them we approach the presence in our future subsystem, when our vision is achieved, by either of our strategies. Finally, we present our different pathways, and the necessary actions and milestones for our vision to be achieved through them.
Chapter 5: Conclusions

Graciela Nava Guerrero, Marlien Sneller, Rafael Silveira, Katja Rossen

In this chapter you can find our conclusions regarding two subjects. First, conclusions of our sub-system analysis and design. In this chapter, we present the main findings of our sub-system analysis Additionally, we keep a list of information that we have and information that is still missing in our research. The last list serves as input for the field research which we will perform on Texel. Second, we discuss expectations and potential tensions with other subsystems. Together, these two sections are the last product before our Bubble Week in Texel.
Appendices

Marlien Sneller, Graciela Nava Guerrero, Rafael Silveira, Katja Rossen