Article

26 November 2015 - By:

Anne van loenen,

Noor Debets, Ivo Hummelink

Appendix III

The literature study in paragraph one is based on both literature and on our own intrepatations as given below.

Concept - Grassroot innovations	Interpretation	Relevance
Ivo	I find this paper very interesting. It argues that intermediaries can be used to let sustainable innovations survive when they are in the phase between niche and socio-technical regime. Intermediaries have 3 roles: knowledge sharing, building infrastructure and coordinating projects.	In our case we could make use of such intermediary (ie. a state-sponsored foundation) to manage the transition from now to 2065.
Tessa	Grassroots innovation is initiated by “committed activists within civil society arenas. Grassroot innovation is opposite to market-based innovation and differs on organizational forms, resource bases, contextual situations, driving motivations and the kind of pursuited sustainable developments. On top of that, grassroot innovations often have difficulties in simply surviving. Here the principles of intermediary actors and strategic niche management could play a role.	I think in Texel there is currently a lot of grassroots innovations, initiated by the Planet-Local which I regard as the commited activist. The market-based innovation also takes place in Texel, mainly by the Profit-Local but also by the Planet-Local who generates profit with the sustainable development on a somewhat bigger scale.
Noor	Grass roots are movements of commited activists who work on voluntary basis, in a social society with ideological commitments. All other then mainstream.	In my opinion the planet locals do have similarities with these grass roots movements and it is interesting to what extend grass roots can survive and therefore, how the planet local can survive and implement their knowledge into the mainstream society (profit locals) and diffuse widly.
Anne	Grassroot innovations are a type of bottom-up intervation, which can make them vulnerable, especially in a society which is more and more looking towards a ‘profit-guaranteed’ type of project. They are manned by committed, voluntary workers who have come together to work on a sustainable improvement project. This project is often on a local scale, and very specific to the particular location. These projects often involve niche-type interventions.	While like all niches they can be very vulnerable, and have to overcome a lot of barriers, they are a very interesting way of looking at it. Since Texel is such an isolated and unique locations, a more general location from ‘outside’ might not be accepted. However small scale interventions, integrated in the socio-technical system, promoted by fellow islanders might be more welcome.

Concept - Intermediary actors and niche management	Interpretation	Relevance
Ivo	Intermediaries connect specific and often isolated local innovations projects with one another and with the wider world. They can especifically function to support the niches in the medium and the longer term survival.	Many initiatives fail to survive on the long term. I forsee for our project a (governmental funded) platform could function as a intermediary and help in knowledge sharing, organisational aspects and advise in order to let local initiiatives (niches) survive on the long run.
Tessa	The intermediary actor could play a role in sustainable niches in order to help develop and grow grassroots innovations. Within the theory of strategic niche management, there are three key roles for the intermediary actors: 1) aggregation of knowledge, 2) creation of institutional infrastructure and 3) framing and coordinating local-level activities. The authors identify a fourth important role based on the interviews, namely 4) brokering and managing partnerships.	In the case of Texel an intermediary actor could play an important role in order to help develop and grow the sustainable initiatives of the Planet-Local, and to increase the cooperation between these initiatives. The intermediary actor in Texel could be steered by municipality.
Noor	It seems that, based on the article, intermediary actors are mostly forgotten in reports about niche management while these actors are highly important.since they, like Moss says ‘Whether facilitating dialogue, providing guidance, bridging gaps, advocating reform, or pioneering novel forms of interaction, their arenas of action are defined by their ‘in-betweenness’ (2009, p1481)’	I see the planet local as grass root movements that need help in order to bring them closer to the profit people and the other way around. Therefore they need intermediary actors, that bridge their gap and to bind all the small local initiatives to one, prevent them for failing and help them grow. So how can the intermediary actors help in order to create one sustainable, self sufficient Texel in 2065. as one of the interviewees appoints it is easy to implement a technical system, the hardest part is about the way the community builts it confident and capabilities → this hardest part is our main question, how can we seek for a solution
Anne	There are several roles these intermediaries can focus on, but their general goal is to connect different local projects together. Since these local projects are often so context-specific, it is the role of the intermediary to analyze this knowledge and make it context-free. As they keep a distance between them and the project, they have the clear view which they can use to see similarities in projects. This way they can connect these projects together and this way make infrastructure. They can also warn other grassroots about similar failurers or successes elsewhere, thus making sure the global niche survives, even if a project fails.	They are vital in sharing knowledge from other sustainable grassroots initiatives and their success/failure. By looking at other similar projects we could generate an idea of the possible barriers and problems that will show up in the strategy.

Concept - The fourth role: Brokering and managing partnerships	Interpretation	Relevance
Ivo	This role is about initiating and managing partnerships between local community projects and other actors from outside the sector.	Intermediaries can be seen as gate connecting the funnels of local projects and the projects and initiatives in the ‘outside world’ As stated earlier I found that a (gov funded) platform could also function in this fourth role.
Tessa	This role of the intermediary actors is about community-corporate partnerships and lobbying with policy-makers, thus to connect with stakeholders outside the sector. I think this role is very relevant, since the grassroots innovation always takes place in a wider social world, so it is highly relevant to make this connection in order to ultimately achieve a successful innovation in practice.	I think this fourth role could be of great relevance in our sub-system of sustain lifestyles. Since we aim for a better interaction and a shift from the Profit-Local to the Planet-Local, broking and managing this partnership could make a significant change toward the goal in 2065.
Noor Anne	This role of partnership seems to be of great importance since it seeks for a partnerships with other community groups. About community energy projects and and outside this workfield. It seems to work that groups cooperate, that others have a part in the project too (for example in buying a part of a windmill) This role is not about connecting and interacting with other grassroot innovations, but specifically with those outside. They talk to political entities outside the sustainable community in order to raise more support. They also talk to the locals in which the grassroot intervention is taking place. While this is a great way of involving the locals, it can complicate the project by adding many stakeholders with many different opinions. The role of this actor is to manage all this.	This paragraph is about mulit-nationals, or other big companies, and their managing role compared to other communities. The multi-nationals aren’t specificly of interest, but their communicating role between two different parties are, in my opinion, of great importance in our sub-system. How do you involve the others in your pro-environmental behavior? So far these sustainable committed communities have been very insular with their sustainable techniques, not really interacting outside their community. Since a complete change to a sustainable lifestyle is such a radical change, the inhabitants of Texel are definitely important stakeholders who should be involved. This should definitely be communicated through the intermediary, so the whole strategy can stay organized.

Concept - Framework of processes dynamics and interactions (Walker)	Interpretation	Relevance
Ivo	I find this paper hard to read because of its high degree of conceptualisation. On the other hand it therefore gives a good example of how complex the socio-technical interaction with all stakeholders is in reality	I don’t think we will use this framework in our situation because it is too generic. However it could function as a guideline when we look at stakeholder participation
Tessa	Walker provides a framework for understanding public engagement with RE projects. This framework is descriptive and explanatory, so it tries to give an overview of how this process currently works. The framework takes into account the interactions between the puclic and RET actors, the anticipations and expectations, the dynamics over time and the context.	Within this framework the RET actors could be replaced by the Planet-Local with a sustainable initiatieve, the public are the other Texelaars that are not (yet) involved in this initiative. In that case we could use this framework and specifically look at the interactions that are relevant and which could be designed in order to steer towards a sustainable Texel.
Noor	It shows that is very complex to understand the public responses. Therefore, Walker created a framework to understand this public thoughts based on many interviews. Herein it is tried to create a broad an multidisciplinary view. It seems difficult to incorparate these different aspects in the framework though.	The interviewees were there to speak, which made it very useful to read. It made me think about the different aspects and the variaty of personal preferences and views. This is to be taken in account in the design for our own sub-system, too.
Anne	While this framework seems solid, the abstraction in it could cause difficulties in actually adapting it. It does however bring up some good points about the interrelations between different stakeholders, and preconceptions that can exist and colour these relations, possibly negatively.	Outside of the framework itself, there were some good points about the (sometimes seemingly random) diversity of public reactions to any change. It also pointed out that the root of any (negative) reaction is often based on how much the stakeholders believe this will damage their community (socio-technical space), and this can help explain this pattern of negative expectation from their side. From the side of the professionsals, they often come with the expectation of a negative public reaction, which is excarbated when this reaction naturally happens. This analysis could help us when we will start designing a more concrete strategy.