Pub Date : 2024-11-26DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2024.100931
Nur Gizem Yalçın , Erik Paredis , Melanie Jaeger-Erben
Transitions to a circular economy in Europe have not accelerated despite being a priority of the Green Deal. One reason behind the slow uptake is the active resistance by incumbent actors. This article explores the case of Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation to uncover resistance and capture strategies of incumbent single-use and takeaway industry actors that succeeded in reducing the ambition of the policy. Building on lobbying databases, and document and media analysis, the article uncovers strategies of using the legitimacy of science to exert influence. It shows how incumbents created doubts about the evidence base and produced their own scientific messaging; presents the ways they legitimised their role as scientific stakeholders in institutional settings; and examines the approach they took to align their interests with the policymakers’ expectations. It analyses these strategies from a power perspective to investigate the complexity of capture and to provide a discussion on the mechanisms that reinforce deep-rooted patterns of incumbency.
{"title":"Packaged science? Incumbent strategies of science capture from a power perspective","authors":"Nur Gizem Yalçın , Erik Paredis , Melanie Jaeger-Erben","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100931","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100931","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Transitions to a circular economy in Europe have not accelerated despite being a priority of the Green Deal. One reason behind the slow uptake is the active resistance by incumbent actors. This article explores the case of Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation to uncover resistance and capture strategies of incumbent single-use and takeaway industry actors that succeeded in reducing the ambition of the policy. Building on lobbying databases, and document and media analysis, the article uncovers strategies of using the legitimacy of science to exert influence. It shows how incumbents created doubts about the evidence base and produced their own scientific messaging; presents the ways they legitimised their role as scientific stakeholders in institutional settings; and examines the approach they took to align their interests with the policymakers’ expectations. It analyses these strategies from a power perspective to investigate the complexity of capture and to provide a discussion on the mechanisms that reinforce deep-rooted patterns of incumbency.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"54 ","pages":"Article 100931"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142723947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-24DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2024.100934
Josef Taalbi
The role of gender relations in shaping technological transitions is widely acknowledged but remains understudied. This study uses historical data to analyze the gendering of early 20th century American cars and its consequences. Previous research has argued that early electric vehicles were construed as a women’s car, contributing to its demise. Other work has questioned to what extent automotive preferences were gendered. The results of this study suggest a partially new interpretation. Early advertisements for electrics targeted business and family men, challenging the view of cars as “adventure machines”. However, as electrics declined, producers turned to feminization to survive competition from gasoline cars, a response to declining market shares, rather than the opposite. This made electric cars part of a conservative separate spheres gender ideology. The results stress the co-construction of gender and technology and how gendering processes can create powerful lock-in effects and barriers to (sustainability) transitions.
{"title":"On the gendering of the early American electric car","authors":"Josef Taalbi","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100934","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100934","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The role of gender relations in shaping technological transitions is widely acknowledged but remains understudied. This study uses historical data to analyze the gendering of early 20th century American cars and its consequences. Previous research has argued that early electric vehicles were construed as a women’s car, contributing to its demise. Other work has questioned to what extent automotive preferences were gendered. The results of this study suggest a partially new interpretation. Early advertisements for electrics targeted business and family men, challenging the view of cars as “adventure machines”. However, as electrics declined, producers turned to feminization to survive competition from gasoline cars, a response to declining market shares, rather than the opposite. This made electric cars part of a conservative separate spheres gender ideology. The results stress the co-construction of gender and technology and how gendering processes can create powerful lock-in effects and barriers to (sustainability) transitions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"54 ","pages":"Article 100934"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142696639","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-23DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2024.100932
Kate Burningham, Susan Venn
As primary sites of everyday consumption households play a key role in sustainability transitions. Yet neither everyday consumption nor what goes on within households have received much attention within the sustainability transitions literature. This paper contributes to this research gap by exploring how everyday practices of mothering intersect with aspects of the sustainability of everyday food provisioning. This is explored via longitudinal research with 10 women over a period of 10 years beginning when they were pregnant with their first child. Analysis considers engagement in both overtly ethical or environmental product choices and the adoption of online shopping- a mode of consumption which may be ‘inadvertently’ environmental. Analysis highlights that provisioning practices are profoundly relational and flexible, prioritising care, thrift and time management. Sustainability transitions need to adopt holistic discourses of sustainable living which embrace the relational character of everyday consumption and support affordable and feasible everyday practices of care.
{"title":"Caring consumption and sustainability: Insights from household provisioning in the first ten years of motherhood","authors":"Kate Burningham, Susan Venn","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100932","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100932","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As primary sites of everyday consumption households play a key role in sustainability transitions. Yet neither everyday consumption nor what goes on within households have received much attention within the sustainability transitions literature. This paper contributes to this research gap by exploring how everyday practices of mothering intersect with aspects of the sustainability of everyday food provisioning. This is explored via longitudinal research with 10 women over a period of 10 years beginning when they were pregnant with their first child. Analysis considers engagement in both overtly ethical or environmental product choices and the adoption of online shopping- a mode of consumption which may be ‘inadvertently’ environmental. Analysis highlights that provisioning practices are profoundly relational and flexible, prioritising care, thrift and time management. Sustainability transitions need to adopt holistic discourses of sustainable living which embrace the relational character of everyday consumption and support affordable and feasible everyday practices of care.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"54 ","pages":"Article 100932"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142696641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper reviews the literature on technological innovation systems (TIS) to explore how TIS studies have contributed to building the understanding of innovation processes driving sustainability transitions. We summarise the conceptual and methodological advancements in the TIS studies at three levels: (1) meso-level focused on TIS functions and structures; (2) macro-level explaining the TIS-context interactions; (3) micro-level elucidating the role of actors, agency and social interactions in a TIS. We argue that to improve the understanding of how innovation processes contribute to sustainability transitions, future TIS studies, at various levels, should further elaborate (1) the dynamics in mature and declining TISs, (2) the relation between TIS processes and structural change and (3) the directionality of socio-technical change. Such advancements in the field would enable more transformation-oriented policy recommendations from TIS studies.
{"title":"Technological innovation system analyses and sustainability Transitions: A literature review","authors":"Dagmara Weckowska , Daniel Weiss , Carsten Schwäbe , Carsten Dreher","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100935","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100935","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper reviews the literature on technological innovation systems (TIS) to explore how TIS studies have contributed to building the understanding of innovation processes driving sustainability transitions. We summarise the conceptual and methodological advancements in the TIS studies at three levels: (1) meso-level focused on TIS functions and structures; (2) macro-level explaining the TIS-context interactions; (3) micro-level elucidating the role of actors, agency and social interactions in a TIS. We argue that to improve the understanding of how innovation processes contribute to sustainability transitions, future TIS studies, at various levels, should further elaborate (1) the dynamics in mature and declining TISs, (2) the relation between TIS processes and structural change and (3) the directionality of socio-technical change. Such advancements in the field would enable more transformation-oriented policy recommendations from TIS studies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"54 ","pages":"Article 100935"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142705916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-15DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2024.100933
Yuhao Ba, Sreeja Nair, Mohnish Kedia
Cross-sector collaborations—partnerships between organizations from multiple sectors (e.g., the public and nonprofit and voluntary sectors)—are key to sustainability transitions yet remain understudied. In this study, we assess the readiness of nonprofit organizations for engaging in collaborative sustainability efforts. We develop and empirically validate a theoretical framework focusing on three key dimensions of readiness: awareness, capacity, and actions. Using an important yet less-studied empirical context of Singapore, and informed by evidence from thirty-nine in-depth interviews, our findings reveal that nonprofits in Singapore are generally aware of sustainability transition challenges and opportunities and possess important capacities such as organizational agility and digital adaptability. However, proactive actions remain limited, partially due to the predominant role of the state in sustainability action. Our research contributes to understanding the role of nonprofit and voluntary actors in collaborative efforts for sustainability transitions, offering valuable insights for strengthening a collaborative approach to sustainability transitions.
{"title":"Cross-sector collaboration, nonprofit readiness, and sustainability transitions","authors":"Yuhao Ba, Sreeja Nair, Mohnish Kedia","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100933","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100933","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cross-sector collaborations—partnerships between organizations from multiple sectors (e.g., the public and nonprofit and voluntary sectors)—are key to sustainability transitions yet remain understudied. In this study, we assess the readiness of nonprofit organizations for engaging in collaborative sustainability efforts. We develop and empirically validate a theoretical framework focusing on three key dimensions of readiness: awareness, capacity, and actions. Using an important yet less-studied empirical context of Singapore, and informed by evidence from thirty-nine in-depth interviews, our findings reveal that nonprofits in Singapore are generally aware of sustainability transition challenges and opportunities and possess important capacities such as organizational agility and digital adaptability. However, proactive actions remain limited, partially due to the predominant role of the state in sustainability action. Our research contributes to understanding the role of nonprofit and voluntary actors in collaborative efforts for sustainability transitions, offering valuable insights for strengthening a collaborative approach to sustainability transitions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"53 ","pages":"Article 100933"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142651330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-14DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2024.100930
Andreas Skriver Hansen, Jesper Manniche, Karin Topsø Larsen
The paper examines local sustainable transition processes related to the introduction of large-scale sustainable energy infrastructure projects in peripheralized areas, with a specific focus on understanding their role and complex development considerations, potentials, and dilemmas. Experiences are reported from the Danish `Energy Island Bornholm´, where a 3,8 GW offshore wind farm field is planned, potentially presenting new, local business and innovation opportunities, whilst raising concerns about local preparedness and capacity levels when undertaking a host role in such a massive project. The empirical base consists of qualitative data (observations and interviews) from a local development project running 2022–2023. Findings are analysed and discussed based on theoretical insights from literature on sustainable transition and peripheralization processes, resulting in four analytical dimensions: Local economic opportunities and green paths; Demography and work force dilemmas; Democracy and involvement; Governance and capacity building. The paper urges more comprehensive, comparative, and critical place-specific research on transition processes.
{"title":"Navigating sustainable transition processes at the local level: The case of Energy Island Bornholm","authors":"Andreas Skriver Hansen, Jesper Manniche, Karin Topsø Larsen","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100930","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100930","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The paper examines local sustainable transition processes related to the introduction of large-scale sustainable energy infrastructure projects in peripheralized areas, with a specific focus on understanding their role and complex development considerations, potentials, and dilemmas. Experiences are reported from the Danish `Energy Island Bornholm´, where a 3,8 GW offshore wind farm field is planned, potentially presenting new, local business and innovation opportunities, whilst raising concerns about local preparedness and capacity levels when undertaking a host role in such a massive project. The empirical base consists of qualitative data (observations and interviews) from a local development project running 2022–2023. Findings are analysed and discussed based on theoretical insights from literature on sustainable transition and peripheralization processes, resulting in four analytical dimensions: Local economic opportunities and green paths; Demography and work force dilemmas; Democracy and involvement; Governance and capacity building. The paper urges more comprehensive, comparative, and critical place-specific research on transition processes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"53 ","pages":"Article 100930"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142651375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-02DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2024.100928
Maria Tomai , George Papachristos , Shyama V. Ramani
This paper examines the role of transition factors in the emergence, upscaling, and diffusion of niche innovations in developing countries and juxtaposes them with the case study of a Waste-to-Energy socio-technical niche in the ongoing green transition of Ghana's waste management and energy systems. A systematic literature review of the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) and the Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) transition frameworks applications to developing countries identifies twenty-four categories of influential factors and produces four main inferences: (i) niche innovations and experiments that are often non-technological and are driven by urgent local needs, remain understudied; (ii) landscape factors strongly shape the selection, development, and spread of innovations; (iii) regimes are multimodal, with co-existing, interconnected technologies, rules, structures, and roles, causing tensions; and (iv) innovation systems rely heavily on external sources, and they lack cohesive selection, monitoring, and assessment mechanisms. This review is followed by the case study constructed using academic literature, government and programme documents as well as interviews with key stakeholders. The inferences of the literature review are validated and additionally the role of the twenty-four categories of transition factors is examined. Key landscape, regime and innovation system function factors are found to play both a positive and negative role in the green transition. Landscape factors are the strongest drivers, but the most challenging barriers can be from other levels too. A cooperative governance model at local and regional levels, with maximal access to knowledge for redesigning of technologies to local conditions and continuous communication with key stakeholders and communities is essential for successful transition.
{"title":"The dynamics of change towards sustainability in developing countries: Evidence from Ghana's Waste-to-Energy transition","authors":"Maria Tomai , George Papachristos , Shyama V. Ramani","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100928","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100928","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the role of transition factors in the emergence, upscaling, and diffusion of niche innovations in developing countries and juxtaposes them with the case study of a Waste-to-Energy socio-technical niche in the ongoing green transition of Ghana's waste management and energy systems. A systematic literature review of the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) and the Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) transition frameworks applications to developing countries identifies twenty-four categories of influential factors and produces four main inferences: (i) niche innovations and experiments that are often non-technological and are driven by urgent local needs, remain understudied; (ii) landscape factors strongly shape the selection, development, and spread of innovations; (iii) regimes are multimodal, with co-existing, interconnected technologies, rules, structures, and roles, causing tensions; and (iv) innovation systems rely heavily on external sources, and they lack cohesive selection, monitoring, and assessment mechanisms. This review is followed by the case study constructed using academic literature, government and programme documents as well as interviews with key stakeholders. The inferences of the literature review are validated and additionally the role of the twenty-four categories of transition factors is examined. Key landscape, regime and innovation system function factors are found to play both a positive and negative role in the green transition. Landscape factors are the strongest drivers, but the most challenging barriers can be from other levels too. A cooperative governance model at local and regional levels, with maximal access to knowledge for redesigning of technologies to local conditions and continuous communication with key stakeholders and communities is essential for successful transition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"53 ","pages":"Article 100928"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142573317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2024.100927
Jussi Ahokas , Paavo Järvensivu , Tero Toivanen
The ideas that experts share and draw on shape policies across various spatial and temporal contexts. In this study, we use document analysis and expert interviews to examine the views and beliefs of one important group of experts, economists, on mission-oriented innovation policy and sustainability transition in Finland. As a result, we outline the epistemic landscape that for its part conditions the progress of transformative innovation policy in Finland. While sustainability scholars have been intrigued by the promises of mission-oriented thinking, our findings suggest that they should acknowledge the epistemic limits of communities of economists regarding missions and transformative innovation policy as political vehicles to advance sustainability transition.
{"title":"Ideas behind transformative innovation policy: Economists confronting missions and sustainability transition in Finland","authors":"Jussi Ahokas , Paavo Järvensivu , Tero Toivanen","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100927","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100927","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The ideas that experts share and draw on shape policies across various spatial and temporal contexts. In this study, we use document analysis and expert interviews to examine the views and beliefs of one important group of experts, economists, on mission-oriented innovation policy and sustainability transition in Finland. As a result, we outline the epistemic landscape that for its part conditions the progress of transformative innovation policy in Finland. While sustainability scholars have been intrigued by the promises of mission-oriented thinking, our findings suggest that they should acknowledge the epistemic limits of communities of economists regarding missions and transformative innovation policy as political vehicles to advance sustainability transition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"53 ","pages":"Article 100927"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142573301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-10-31DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2024.100926
Godwin Opinde , Christine Majale , Ivan Nygaard
Off-grid solar devices enables a transition to green energy. With this transition however, there is generation of electronic waste and concerns about its management. Currently most solar e-waste ends up 'hibernating' or stored at home, while only a minor share is recycled. Through a mixed method approach, this paper addresses underlying causes of hibernation. It develops a new framework to shed light on elements at the interplay between economic, emotional and symbolic reasoning explaining off grid solar e-waste hibernation in rural homes in Kenya. It finds that 72 % of waste hibernates and that the hibernation potential increases with decreasing economic value and with increasing symbolic and emotional meanings. Hibernation period is anticipated to increase with an ageing stock of devices. Thus, while better products, repair and recycling are long-term solutions, hibernation offers an 'unintended' intermediate solution to the problem of broken devices, which might otherwise be disposed of.
{"title":"Hibernation of off-grid solar e-waste in Kenya: An unintended response to an emerging waste issue","authors":"Godwin Opinde , Christine Majale , Ivan Nygaard","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100926","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100926","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Off-grid solar devices enables a transition to green energy. With this transition however, there is generation of electronic waste and concerns about its management. Currently most solar e-waste ends up 'hibernating' or stored at home, while only a minor share is recycled. Through a mixed method approach, this paper addresses underlying causes of hibernation. It develops a new framework to shed light on elements at the interplay between economic, emotional and symbolic reasoning explaining off grid solar e-waste hibernation in rural homes in Kenya. It finds that 72 % of waste hibernates and that the hibernation potential increases with decreasing economic value and with increasing symbolic and emotional meanings. Hibernation period is anticipated to increase with an ageing stock of devices. Thus, while better products, repair and recycling are long-term solutions, hibernation offers an 'unintended' intermediate solution to the problem of broken devices, which might otherwise be disposed of.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"53 ","pages":"Article 100926"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142560663","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-10-30DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2024.100929
Madeline Taylor, Paige Street
The daunting task of swiftly transitioning to sustainable modes of living presents a formidable challenge, particularly at individual and household levels, where entrenched consumption and disposal systems exhibit strong path dependency. This research investigates how individuals and households can contribute to sustainability transitions through grassroots innovations. Specifically, we ask: How do digital gift economies facilitate changes in household consumption practices and contribute to broader sustainability transitions? To address this question, we present an instructional case study of the Buy Nothing Project (BNP), a globally scaled yet locally focused digital gift economy, as a grassroots innovation enabling citizen agency within domestic spaces. BNP is a socio-technical network of hyperlocal, digital gift-giving groups that advocate for community reliance and generosity to reduce household consumption and waste and build neighbourhood bonds. Our analysis reveals that BNP's most revolutionary aspect lies in the embedded everyday sustainability practices it facilitates, particularly the social learning to reduce consumption at individual, household, and community levels through group participation and ongoing membership. We argue that this grassroots innovation enables citizen agency within domestic spaces, contributing significantly to sustainability transitions. Paradoxically, the ordinariness of these practices, combined with the gendered composition of members and that acquiring and disposing of household goods is usually considered “women's work”, may hinder recognition of BNP's potential as a powerful catalyst for sustainable transitions. This study contributes to our understanding of how digital platforms can support household-level innovations in sustainability practices and highlights the importance of recognising and valuing diverse forms of contribution to sustainability transitions.
{"title":"Learning to (not quite) buy nothing: Digital gift economies and household innovations reducing consumption","authors":"Madeline Taylor, Paige Street","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100929","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2024.100929","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The daunting task of swiftly transitioning to sustainable modes of living presents a formidable challenge, particularly at individual and household levels, where entrenched consumption and disposal systems exhibit strong path dependency. This research investigates how individuals and households can contribute to sustainability transitions through grassroots innovations. Specifically, we ask: How do digital gift economies facilitate changes in household consumption practices and contribute to broader sustainability transitions? To address this question, we present an instructional case study of the Buy Nothing Project (BNP), a globally scaled yet locally focused digital gift economy, as a grassroots innovation enabling citizen agency within domestic spaces. BNP is a socio-technical network of hyperlocal, digital gift-giving groups that advocate for community reliance and generosity to reduce household consumption and waste and build neighbourhood bonds. Our analysis reveals that BNP's most revolutionary aspect lies in the embedded everyday sustainability practices it facilitates, particularly the social learning to reduce consumption at individual, household, and community levels through group participation and ongoing membership. We argue that this grassroots innovation enables citizen agency within domestic spaces, contributing significantly to sustainability transitions. Paradoxically, the ordinariness of these practices, combined with the gendered composition of members and that acquiring and disposing of household goods is usually considered “women's work”, may hinder recognition of BNP's potential as a powerful catalyst for sustainable transitions. This study contributes to our understanding of how digital platforms can support household-level innovations in sustainability practices and highlights the importance of recognising and valuing diverse forms of contribution to sustainability transitions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"53 ","pages":"Article 100929"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2024-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142553541","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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