IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijsusd/v15y2012i1-2p90-106.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The discursive politics of governing transitions towards sustainability: the UK Carbon Trust

Author

Listed:
  • Florian Kern

Abstract

A growing literature on socio-technical transitions argues that structural change in societal subsystems is necessary to move towards more sustainable societies. Proponents of policy approaches such as 'transition management' have prescribed an important role to governments in such processes, but have so far paid too little attention to the politics of this endeavour. This paper scrutinises the politics of governing the transition to more sustainable energy systems by analysing a particular policy initiative in the UK. The paper finds that discursive struggles between coalitions of actors and the institutional contexts in which these struggles take place constrain as well as enable new policy initiatives. Policy prescriptions of 'transition management' thus need to take into account particular institutional contexts and need to be tied to dominant or emerging discourses to be successful.

Suggested Citation

  • Florian Kern, 2012. "The discursive politics of governing transitions towards sustainability: the UK Carbon Trust," International Journal of Sustainable Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 15(1/2), pages 90-106.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijsusd:v:15:y:2012:i:1/2:p:90-106
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=44036
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Smith, Adrian & Stirling, Andy & Berkhout, Frans, 2005. "The governance of sustainable socio-technical transitions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 1491-1510, December.
    2. Helm, Dieter, 2002. "Energy policy: security of supply, sustainability and competition," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 173-184, February.
    3. Jan-Peter Voß & Adrian Smith & John Grin, 2009. "Designing long-term policy: rethinking transition management," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 42(4), pages 275-302, November.
    4. Foxon, T.J. & Pearson, P.J.G., 2007. "Towards improved policy processes for promoting innovation in renewable electricity technologies in the UK," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 1539-1550, March.
    5. Charlie Jeffery, 2000. "Sub‐National Mobilization and European Integration: Does it Make any Difference?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1), pages 1-23, March.
    6. René Kemp & Jan Rotmans, 2005. "The Management of the Co-Evolution of Technical, Environmental and Social Systems," Springer Books, in: Matthias Weber & Jens Hemmelskamp (ed.), Towards Environmental Innovation Systems, pages 33-55, Springer.
    7. Kern, Florian & Smith, Adrian, 2008. "Restructuring energy systems for sustainability? Energy transition policy in the Netherlands," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 4093-4103, November.
    8. Hisschemoller, Matthijs & Bode, Ries & van de Kerkhof, Marleen, 2006. "What governs the transition to a sustainable hydrogen economy? Articulating the relationship between technologies and political institutions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 1227-1235, July.
    9. Florian Kern & Michael Howlett, 2009. "Implementing transition management as policy reforms: a case study of the Dutch energy sector," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 42(4), pages 391-408, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Novalia, Wikke & McGrail, Stephen & Rogers, Briony C. & Raven, Rob & Brown, Rebekah R. & Loorbach, Derk, 2022. "Exploring the interplay between technological decline and deinstitutionalisation in sustainability transitions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    2. Isoaho, Karoliina & Karhunmaa, Kamilla, 2019. "A critical review of discursive approaches in energy transitions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 930-942.
    3. Kriechbaum, Michael & Posch, Alfred & Hauswiesner, Angelika, 2021. "Hype cycles during socio-technical transitions: The dynamics of collective expectations about renewable energy in Germany," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    4. Sofiane Laribi & Emmanuel Guy, 2020. "Promoting LNG as A Marine Fuel in Norway: Reflections on the Role of Global Regulations on Local Transition Niches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-17, November.
    5. Florian Kern, 2011. "Ideas, Institutions, and Interests: Explaining Policy Divergence in Fostering ‘System Innovations’ towards Sustainability," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 29(6), pages 1116-1134, December.
    6. Karoliina Isoaho & Jochen Markard, 2020. "The Politics of Technology Decline: Discursive Struggles over Coal Phase‐Out in the UK," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 37(3), pages 342-368, May.
    7. Zolfagharian, Mohammadreza & Walrave, Bob & Raven, Rob & Romme, A. Georges L., 2019. "Studying transitions: Past, present, and future," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    8. Laura Pereira & Timothy Karpouzoglou & Samir Doshi & Niki Frantzeskaki, 2015. "Organising a Safe Space for Navigating Social-Ecological Transformations to Sustainability," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-18, May.
    9. Phil Johnstone & Andy Stirling, 2015. "Comparing Nuclear Power Trajectories inGermany And the UK: From ‘Regimes’ to ‘Democracies’ in Sociotechnical Transitions and Discontinuities," SPRU Working Paper Series 2015-18, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    10. Rosenbloom, Daniel & Berton, Harris & Meadowcroft, James, 2016. "Framing the sun: A discursive approach to understanding multi-dimensional interactions within socio-technical transitions through the case of solar electricity in Ontario, Canada," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(6), pages 1275-1290.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sanya Carley & Richard Andrews, 2012. "Creating a sustainable U.S. electricity sector: the question of scale," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 45(2), pages 97-121, June.
    2. Markard, Jochen & Raven, Rob & Truffer, Bernhard, 2012. "Sustainability transitions: An emerging field of research and its prospects," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 955-967.
    3. Hurlbert, Margot & McNutt, Kathleen & Rayner, Jeremy, 2011. "Pathways to power: Policy transitions and the reappearance of the nuclear power option in Saskatchewan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3182-3190, June.
    4. Ashford, Nicholas A. & Hall, Ralph P., 2018. "Achieving Global Climate and Environmental Goals by Governmental Regulatory Targeting," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 246-259.
    5. Jan-Peter Voß & Adrian Smith & John Grin, 2009. "Designing long-term policy: rethinking transition management," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 42(4), pages 275-302, November.
    6. James Meadowcroft, 2009. "What about the politics? Sustainable development, transition management, and long term energy transitions," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 42(4), pages 323-340, November.
    7. de Gooyert, Vincent & Rouwette, Etiënne & van Kranenburg, Hans & Freeman, Edward & van Breen, Harry, 2016. "Sustainability transition dynamics: Towards overcoming policy resistance," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 135-145.
    8. Rogge, Karoline S. & Reichardt, Kristin, 2016. "Policy mixes for sustainability transitions: An extended concept and framework for analysis," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(8), pages 1620-1635.
    9. Patrick Huntjens & René Kemp, 2022. "The Importance of a Natural Social Contract and Co-Evolutionary Governance for Sustainability Transitions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-26, March.
    10. Florian Kern & Michael Howlett, 2009. "Implementing transition management as policy reforms: a case study of the Dutch energy sector," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 42(4), pages 391-408, November.
    11. Sergent, Arnaud, 2014. "Sector-based political analysis of energy transition: Green shift in the forest policy regime in France," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 491-500.
    12. Goddard, George & Farrelly, Megan A., 2018. "Just transition management: Balancing just outcomes with just processes in Australian renewable energy transitions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 110-123.
    13. Rogge, Karoline S. & Reichardt, Kristin, 2013. "Towards a more comprehensive policy mix conceptualization for environmental technological change: A literature synthesis," Working Papers "Sustainability and Innovation" S3/2013, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI).
    14. Sampsa Hyysalo & Jani Lukkarinen & Paula Kivimaa & Raimo Lovio & Armi Temmes & Mikael Hildén & Tatu Marttila & Karoliina Auvinen & Sofi Perikangas & Allu Pyhälammi & Janne Peljo & Kaisa Savolainen & L, 2019. "Developing Policy Pathways: Redesigning Transition Arenas for Mid-range Planning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-22, January.
    15. Mock, Mirijam & Omann, Ines & Polzin, Christine & Spekkink, Wouter & Schuler, Julia & Pandur, Vlad & Brizi, Ambra & Panno, Angelo, 2019. "“Something inside me has been set in motion”: Exploring the psychological wellbeing of people engaged in sustainability initiatives," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 1-11.
    16. Markard, Jochen & Truffer, Bernhard, 2008. "Technological innovation systems and the multi-level perspective: Towards an integrated framework," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 596-615, May.
    17. Truffer, Bernhard & Schippl, Jens & Fleischer, Torsten, 2017. "Decentering technology in technology assessment: prospects for socio-technical transitions in electric mobility in Germany," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 34-48.
    18. Jos Timmermans, 2008. "Punctuated equilibrium in a non-linear system of action," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 350-375, December.
    19. John Grin, 2012. "The politics of transition governance in Dutch agriculture. Conceptual understanding and implications for transition management," International Journal of Sustainable Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 15(1/2), pages 72-89.
    20. Fuchs, Gerhard & Hinderer, Nele & Kungl, Gregor & Neukirch, Mario, 2012. "Adaptive capacities, path creation and variants of sectoral change: The case of the transformation of the German energy supply system," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2012-02, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijsusd:v:15:y:2012:i:1/2:p:90-106. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=25 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.