1.2 Structure of the Book
To support and explore the claims made in this introduction the book goes back and
forth between transformation research and the discussion of changing economic
paradigms in theory and practice. It introduces four analytical concepts and two
heuristics in order to provide some answers to the following overarching questions:
1. If the changes envisioned by the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda are
supposed to be transformational in quality, how do we work toward this quality?
2. If the transformations envisioned are supposed to support sustainable development, what are the key leverage points to unlock unsustainable path
dependencies?
The second chapter, on transformation research in the context of sustainable
development, provides the conceptual background to my call for radical incremental transformation strategies. Based on an overview of major strands of system
transformation research, I develop three analytical concepts to make the case:
Materialization of ideas: Transformation research literature describes the
transformational quality as manifesting itself in “co-evolutionary changes in technologies, markets, institutional frameworks, cultural meanings and everyday life
practices” (Geels et al. 2015: 2) and often uses the concept ‘system innovation’ to
capture it. The 2015 OECD System Innovation report defines these as “radical—
insofar as they alter existing system dynamics—innovations in socio-technical
systems that fulfill societal functions, entailing changes in both the components and
the architecture of the systems” (OECD 2015: 6).
While these definitions provide a helpful description by which to distinguish
transformational change from normal, adaptive change, they do not say much about
how the reconfiguration of these system elements is taking place. In the literature
one finds catchy terms like “innovation cascades,” “knock-on effects,” “diffusion of
new technologies” or “(re)alignments between multiple elements and interactions
between multiple actors,” all of which “changes cultural discourse and behaviour”
(Geels et al. 2015: 6). But who are the agents behind all these descriptive nouns? In
this book system innovations are understood to be driven by humans: purposefully
acting individuals who see what could be possible beyond the status quo and make
it happen.
Bringing individuals and their mind-sets into systems is an important step
toward understanding where change originates and who promotes it with what
effects. I introduce the concept ‘materialization of ideas’ to discuss this structurational interplay between ideas, human behavior, collective action and institutional
design. It highlights both how the resulting systems shape reality and freedom of
agents in the future and also how the agents’ freedom to think, feel, reason and act
differently fuels the transformational phenomena that characterize system
innovations.
Repurposing systems: Most of the literature (Geels et al. 2015; Messner 2015;
WBGU 2011a: 342) states that transformation cannot be planned nor will it unfold
6
1 Introduction
To support and explore the claims made in this introduction the book goes back and
forth between transformation research and the discussion of changing economic
paradigms in theory and practice. It introduces four analytical concepts and two
heuristics in order to provide some answers to the following overarching questions:
1. If the changes envisioned by the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda are
supposed to be transformational in quality, how do we work toward this quality?
2. If the transformations envisioned are supposed to support sustainable development, what are the key leverage points to unlock unsustainable path
dependencies?
The second chapter, on transformation research in the context of sustainable
development, provides the conceptual background to my call for radical incremental transformation strategies. Based on an overview of major strands of system
transformation research, I develop three analytical concepts to make the case:
Materialization of ideas: Transformation research literature describes the
transformational quality as manifesting itself in “co-evolutionary changes in technologies, markets, institutional frameworks, cultural meanings and everyday life
practices” (Geels et al. 2015: 2) and often uses the concept ‘system innovation’ to
capture it. The 2015 OECD System Innovation report defines these as “radical—
insofar as they alter existing system dynamics—innovations in socio-technical
systems that fulfill societal functions, entailing changes in both the components and
the architecture of the systems” (OECD 2015: 6).
While these definitions provide a helpful description by which to distinguish
transformational change from normal, adaptive change, they do not say much about
how the reconfiguration of these system elements is taking place. In the literature
one finds catchy terms like “innovation cascades,” “knock-on effects,” “diffusion of
new technologies” or “(re)alignments between multiple elements and interactions
between multiple actors,” all of which “changes cultural discourse and behaviour”
(Geels et al. 2015: 6). But who are the agents behind all these descriptive nouns? In
this book system innovations are understood to be driven by humans: purposefully
acting individuals who see what could be possible beyond the status quo and make
it happen.
Bringing individuals and their mind-sets into systems is an important step
toward understanding where change originates and who promotes it with what
effects. I introduce the concept ‘materialization of ideas’ to discuss this structurational interplay between ideas, human behavior, collective action and institutional
design. It highlights both how the resulting systems shape reality and freedom of
agents in the future and also how the agents’ freedom to think, feel, reason and act
differently fuels the transformational phenomena that characterize system
innovations.
Repurposing systems: Most of the literature (Geels et al. 2015; Messner 2015;
WBGU 2011a: 342) states that transformation cannot be planned nor will it unfold
6
1 Introduction