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Anne van loenen, foto Tessa IOB.jpg Tessa Vaendel, 2014-06-01 23.22.23.jpg Noor Debets, Ivo Hummelink

Chapter 3.1 Literature study

For the literature study on the topic of ‘made by people and action’ two papers have been read and discussed. The actual discussion of the team members separately, can been seen in the Appendix of this chapter. In this paragraph, a summary is given. Firstly, Hargreaves (2013) discusses grassroots innovation in community energy projects, the grassroots innovation is regarded as a niche. The role of the intermediary actor within this niche is key in this paper. Secondly, Walker (2011) proposes a descriptive and explanatory framework for understanding public engagement for renewable energy projects based on symmetries, expectations, dynamics and contexts.

Both papers are judged on their relevance for the sub-system “Sustain Lifestyles”. Within the paper of Hargreaves (2013) three concepts are used for the literature study. Firstly the grassroots innovation. Grassroots innovation is regarded as movements of committed activists, in general they struggle to survive. Within the framework of lifestyles in Texel, the activities and initiatives of the Planet-Local shows similarities with the grassroots innovation.  Additionally the activities of the Profit-Local shows similarities with the rather mainstream market-based innovation. Therefore the suggestions by Hargreaves (2013) for the grassroots innovation to survive within the mainstream society, could be relevant for the Planet-Local to be more influencing in Texel in order to ultimately achieve 100% self-sufficiency in 2065.

The second concept identified in the paper of Hargreaves (2013) is the intermediary actor and niche management. In the current proposed framework of the lifestyles within Texel, the gap between the Planet-Local and the Profit-Local should be smaller and should move towards the Planet-Local. In order to close this gap the intermediary actor could have a highly relevant role in Texel. On the one hand because the intermediary actor could connect the currently disconnected sustainable initiatives by means of niche management. On the other hand the intermediary actor could connect the Planet-Local (grassroots innovations) to the Profit-Local (market-based innovation). The municipality of Texel is proposed to take responsibility for this role of intermediary actor.

The third concept identified in the paper of Hargreaves (2013) is the fourth role of the intermediary actor as identified by the authors, namely the role of brokering and managing partnerships. This fourth role means the connection of the grassroots innovation with the outside world, in the case of Texel this is the connection of the sustainable initiatives of the Planet-Local to the rest of Texel. Looking at our proposed framework of the lifestyles in Texel, the intermediary actor (e.g. the municipality or a government platform) should broker and manage the interactions between these groups. 

The paper of Walker (2011) is regarded as one concept for the literature study. Although the framework is quite generic, based on many interviews, there are some aspects that could be used as inspiration for our sub-system. On the one hand the information provided to set up the framework was useful, for example the diversity of public reactions to change (big variety of personal preferences and views) and the nature of negative expectations. On the other hand the framework itself could be an inspiration, because of the central interaction ‘cloud’, this is the interaction between the RET actors (which could be replaced by the Planet-Local) and the public (which could be the other Texelaars).