News

Annual conference

In June the 4th annual KSI conference was held. This year the 3 main discussion points where the book series, internationalisation of KSI, and the triggering of a transition movement in the society. Nearly 100 people, many of whom young researchers created a very positive atmosphere. KSI is becoming a community of people, which will be actually one of the major outputs. Another one will be the publication of a series of books on transitions. The first book, written by the KSI directors on the theoretical framework, is practically ready. The next 4 books will cover the transition in a specific field: agriculture, mobility, health care and energy.

Prof. Van der Laan, member of the KSI council, contributed to the discussions. Concerning health care, he insisted that it should evolve from an 'illness-destruction' (dutch: ziektebestrijdingsdienst) towards a 'health-promotion' system. Although the awareness of this need is rising, the actors in place continue to do what they learnt: curing.
About the Dutch energy transition he warned that it may be going in an unsustainable direction, e.g. by promoting solar energy, if the decisions are based on emotion. He feels it is the responsibility of us scientists to back up any solution with quantitative arguments.

First KSI Masterclass

On 8-9 May the first Masterclass for PhD students organised by KSI was held in Eindhoven. It was entitled: Transitions in Practice. The masterclass was given by Professor Elizabeth Shove (Lancaster University, UK). It was well balanced combination of discussions of Shove's work with lectures and PhD presentations.

Shove first raised the discussion about the definition of 'Transition Management', either reduced or broad as a set of approaches dealing with governance of transitions. The debate between Shove & Walker and Rotmans & Kemp in Environment and Planning reminded the transition researchers of the theoretical and practical tensions within transition management as we know it. It is compulsory reading for anyone involved in transition research.

Then ordinary routines of daily life such as showering were studied from a TM perspective. After thorough sociological analysis they turn out to be highly complex phenomena, resulting from a web of actors, institutions and ideologies. So the way towards 'sustainable cleanliness' is not so easy to manage.

The next Masterclass, with James Meadowcraft will be held on September 22-24.

Urgenda

KSI is one of the founding fathers of the new foundation Urgenda, a movement for transition towards a sustainable society. After one year of existence Urgenda has met all its goals as set in the Action Plan for year 1;

• a sustainability platform of visionary people in their own domain (business, government, science, NGOs and intermediairies) has started to prepare a vision for 2050
• two so-called Icon projects have started, as well as two regional Urgenda projects.
• the Urgenda has formed different coalitions, like projects in sustainable mobility, a floating city, sustainable catering, etc.

IHDP: Sustainability transitions in developing Asia
Are alternative development pathways likely?

There are several reasons why it is timely to consider sustainability transitions in Asian context. First, transitions have become a major theme in scientific and policy debates about sustainable development in Europe, emphasising the role of socio-technical innovation across production and consumption systems. This debate has focused on long-term changes across different scales from local to global, including alterations in technology, institutions and behaviour. Second, there is a need to connect these 'western' debates about transitions and sustainability with current understandings of processes of social, political and economic development in other parts of the world. Given the transformative changes occurring in developing Asia, this part of the world is particularly challenging for Industrial Transformation research. Much current policy and research linked to technology, industry and sustainability in Asia relates to product-process innovation - how to achieve near-term improvements in energy-, resource- and pollution-intensities through the adoption of best available technologies. The achievement of higher-level environmental and sustainability targets - including low-carbon or less resource-intensive development pathways - has attracted less attention, partly because these economies are still relatively less resource-intensive per capita than most industrialised economies. Nevertheless, policymakers and a community of scholars have become increasingly interested in alternative development pathways that integrate sustainability objectives.

Current research carried out by the Industrial Transformation project of IHDP in cooperation with the KSI has focused on applying insights from the emerging stream of systems innovation research in the context of an analysis of economic and environmental transitions occurring in developing Asia. The aim is to illuminate the potential for alternative development pathways in the region, based on indigenous resources and capabilities operating in the context of globalisation, and to make theoretical contributions to the literature on technology, development and the environment. The conceptual starting point for this work has been research that examines sustainability transitions within the framework of a multi-level perspective on system innovation.

Science

A new KSI book series

The KSI network produces many articles and books. To bring together some of the best transition work supported by KSI, and complement this with outstanding contribution from foreign scholars, KSI is developing a new book series. It will not only contribute to the integration of KSI work but also to its internationalisation.
Editors of the book series are John Grin, Jan Rotmans and Johan Geels. With contribution of among others Frank Geels and Derk Loorbach, they have been working on the first volume in the series which will introduce and compare three main perspectives on transition research: complexity theory, technology studies and governance studies. This manuscript for this volume is expected to be ready this fall.

Four other volumes will specify transition research perspectives for agriculture and food (edited by Ann Loeber, Geert Spaargaren and Peter Oosterveer), mobility (edited by René Kemp and Frank Geels), health (edited by Jacqueline Broerse and John Grin) and energy (edited by Derk Loorbach and Geert Verbong). A sixth and final volume is still on the drawing board, but will aim to synthesize results of the four domain focused volumes.
For more than a year, the editors have been developing and discussing their designs for their volumes. Results have been discussed with the network at the KSI conference in Eindhoven (June 13). The overall response was highly positive. Using the many constructive comments provided by the conference participants, the editors are in the process of finalising their plans and inviting prospective authors. Coming year each volume will organise workshops to discuss chapters and build coherency. Manuscripts are due by Spring 2010. For more information contact Johan Schot.

Practice

Competence kits

Lydia Sterrenberg (UvA) is going to join (part-time) the Competence Centre for Transitions (CCT), the strategic co-operation between KSI, SenterNovem, TNO and the Ministry of VROM, to work - with KSI researchers - on the production of competence kits. Essentially, the kits will support practitioners with insights and tools for system innovation. The notion of 'competence' is defined broadly as the combination of formal expertise, 'tacit' experience, tools, skills and attitude. It is important to describe these in detail to enable dialogue and knowledge transfer between transition professionals.
The competence kits will be made in the form of simple booklets and a website. A booklet with competences regarding Transition-experiments has already been made by Rob Raven, Suzanne van de Bosch, Gertjan Fonk, José Andringa and Rob Weterings (read more below). Other competence kits will encompass the issues of Identifying pattern and visioning, Upscaling of experiments and Evaluating and monitoring transitions.

The production of the Competence kits will be combined with activities to transfer these competences to key practitioners through coaching/intervision and masterclasses/courses, to be coordinated by José Andringa of CCT. The programme for the production of the competence kits and transfer activities will run until September 2010.

Competence kit 'Transition-Experiments'

• notions from relevant research are described
• practical know-how is communicated
• an illustrative example (i.e. learning history) is presented.

The kit has been successfully used in various competence workshops on experimentation. It also functions as literature in the bachelor course 'Learning to Innovate' - part of the 'Technical Innovation Sciences' curriculum at the Eindhoven University of Technology. To receive a copy just send an e-mail to José Andringa, with your function, postal address and phone number.

Case of transition scenarios

Saartje Sondeijker and Jac Geurts conducted project called 'Transitiescenario's op maat'. Governments are stimulating the separation of financial flows concerning health-care and housing. Meaning that people in need of care become financially responsible for their stay in care centres. This stimulates that those people want to extend their period living at home. However, societal developments like i.e. decreasing social cohesion, individualization, make it more difficult for those people to stay at home while preserving control and being independent. Therefore, a structural change in the care - and housing sector seems necessary in providing an environment in districts on which people can rely. This presupposed transition is visualized in future images and guiding pathways.

Course in Flanders

On June 6, John Grin gave a one-day masterclass to some 35 practitioners working on system innovations in Flanders. The class was organised by Erik Paredis of Antwerp university, who contributed an interesting paper to the Berlin workshop in governance co-organised by KSI September last year, and attended the KSI Annual Conference on June 13.

Most participants were somehow involved in transition projects in Belgium, inspired by DRIFT's research on, as well as practical examples of transition management. Being engaged in these projects for a while, they had come to know the politics involved through the operation of the incumbent regime. Also, they were interested in deepening their understanding of processes of learning and upscaling.

Based on his recent book with Arienne van Staveren (Werken aan systeeminnovaties), Grin reflected on their experiences. Together, they tried to identify practical solutions for far from trivial problems. It was particularly instructive to explore in some depth experiences in a society which is close to ours in many respects, but differs in others, for instance in having less a tradition in novel forms of cooperation between government and society through various kinds of intermediary organisations.

Networking day

The topic of the 5th discussion forum of the Competence Centre for Transitions will be how to overcome obstacles in the innovations process. All transition professionals are cordially invited to participate on November 18 (Tuesday). The networking day 'Grensverleggend Vernieuwen' will be held in Utrecht, at the Future Center of Rijkswaterstaat. The objective is to discuss, learn and share experience about transitions in agriculture, mobility, water and building industry. Entrance is free. In the light of the subject a book will be published with recent success stories, and descriptions of how encountered obstacles have been overwon. All participants will receive a copy of this book before the networking day. If you wish to participate, please register here or read more.

Column

Bottom up

Dr. Ineke Meijer

Ineke Meijer (29) just obtained her PhD last June. Initially she studied natural sciences and innovation management at Utrecht University. In 2003 she started her PhD in the same field at both Utrecht and Delft University through Marko Hekkert, one of her promotors. She became involved in KSI as a matching project of I.2, Transition Trajectories and enjoyed the exchange with colleagues there, especially during the winter schools.

The topic of her research is the energy transition. Through the interviews she held during two years with all actors involved, she discovered what is slowing this transition down: The accumulation of sources of uncertainty, be it technological, financial or political, has been frightening investors over the last couple of years. An example is the popular MEP subsidy for producers of 'green' energy, which was suddenly abolished by the government.

Five years of research all resulted in one book, 'Uncertainty and entrepreneurial action. The role of uncertainty in the development of emerging energy technologies', which Ineke sees as the main challenge of her work. The courage, perseverance and communication skills she has demonstrated to reach this will be very useful in her future job as a consultant. In October she will start at AT Osborne in Utrecht, to advice on Infrastructure, Regional planning and Environment.

Publications

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