Section 4.1 Transition pathways

North Inlet Trail, Colorado by Brian & Jaclyn Drum. On July 2010, this file was licensed with the Creative Commons License CC BY-SA 2.0.

This week, we have read the article Innovation politics post-Rio+20: hybrid pathways to sustainability? by Ely, Smith and Stirling (2013) and Exploring sustainability transitions in the electricity sector with socio-technical pathways by Verbong and Geels (2010).

After reading them we extracted the main the concepts they presented: green industrialization, hybrid innovations and transition pathways. In the Appendix 4.0 tables with the interpretation of the group members for each concept are presented.

Both articles discuss the different types of pathways that can be taken to realize a sustainability transition, even when the goals is set. Verbong and Geels introduce the concept of 'a transition pathway'. Next, Ely et al. distinguish between green industrialisation (as defined in the Appendix 4.0) and grassroot innovations (as defined in section 3.1). He identifies the trend of hybrid pathways coming into existence as a mix between green industrialisation and grassroot innovations.

For Texel, green industrialisation can further advance the transition, but financial interests should be taken into account. Although, we all believe that hybrid innovation is more suitable for Texel, because it reckons both the advantages of top-down and bottom-up initiatives, which are both present on Texel. Transition pathways are useful to design now, but we should realize they will be adjusted along the way, so flexibility would ideally be built into the pathway.

References:

Ely, A.; Smith, A.; Stirling, A. (2013). Innovation politics post-Rio+20: hybrid pathways to sustainability? Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 31, 1063-1081.

Verbong, G.P.J.; Geels, F.W. (2010). Exploring sustainability transitions in the electricity sector with socio-technical pathways. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 77, 1214-1221.