Ram Kamath
Hargreaves 2013
1.Grassroot innovation
Grassroot innovations are, as opposed to market-based innovations, innovations that arise from ground-up social movements that aim to effectuate a transition to more socially acceptable methods of fulfilling societal functions rather than for profit. Grassroot innovation activity may be driven by informal community groups or volunteers. Grassroot innovations are often niche-level radical innovations with potential of disrupting incumbent socio-technical systems.Grassroot initiatives face considerable difficulty surviving, let alone scaling up. Grassroot initiatives are internally constrained by funding, attrition, poor management and externally constrained by high context specificity and pressure from the mainstream.
2.Strategic niche management
Strategic niche management (SNM) theory posits that for grassroot initiatives to scale up, contextual learning, network formation and institutions to exchange knowledge have to exist. But these projects can also benefit from knowledge from other niches.
3.Intermediaries
Intermediaries can help grassroot initiatives survive and scale up. Intermediaries build bridges between various secular niches to form one ‘global niche’ that has a common vision, rules and institutions. Intermediaries immerse themselves in several niches and convert the context specific knowledge to generic lessons that are applicable at the global level. They then facilitate conferences,seminars, workshops etc for interaction and knowledge exchange. Eventually collective, co-created knowledge guides further activities in all the niches.
Walker 2011
1.Public engagement
The implementation of new technology and thereby, new technology systems will face resistance and suspicion. Social acceptance and countenance is not a foregone conclusion. Interaction between the technology producers/managers and individual/communal public actors will determine the successful diffusion of the new technology. This process of communication and collaboration is dynamic and reflexive: It shapes, continually, the public expectations ( regarding impact, behavior of technology advocates, the decision making process and the distribution of benefits), strategies, visions etc. Engagement with the public actors occurs in a particular regulatory, geographical and historical context.
Mark Ernst
1.Grassroot innovation
2.Strategic niche management
3.Intermediaries
Janne de Hoop
In this chapter, we will explore niche grassroot initiatives that the tesselaars (who are maybe, frustrated with the existing practices of managing waste) have launched themselves. We attempt strive to understand the motivation behind these ventures and the difficulties that they face.We examine if if the community group initiatives are in the right direction and if they could be expanded to island-wide level.The grassroot initiatives in texel will benefit from contextual learning, local network formation and community based initiatives to diffuse learning. These projects can also derive lessons and encouragement from similar endeavours elsewhere, which is where “intermediaries” come in. So we look at relevant initiatives and trends from elsewhere that can influence transition in Texel. For our case,we should strive to find intermediaries at the national or international level immersed in grassroot initiatives in inorganic waste management. The aggregated, generic knowledge that they possess can be used to guide scaling up of similar projects in texel. Moreover, these intermediaries can be a source of confidence and encouragement for local projects.They could also act as a liaison to actors such as the dutch government and the private waste management companies that are interested in the grassroot project. This is a crucial activity to obtain funding and knowledge that will help the project move out from the niche.Intermediaries could be regional or national NGOs, governmental departments or even private sector actors.
In the inorganic waste management system, to drive a transition to a more sustainable system, the technology advocate ( the municipality or private firms or the Dutch government etc.) must engage with public actors (individual Texelaars or local community groups such as the beach-combers and restaurants). This activity will co-create expectations,visions and importantly, trust and acceptance for the new waste management system. It is vital that the attachment of the Texelaars to the island,its landscape and natural beauty and Texel’s socio-demographics (place and community context); Texel’s tourism driven economy (economic context); and the municipal, Dutch and European regulations that govern Texel are considered in these interactions.