SAGE Publications

The challenges of sustainable development (and climate change and peak oil, in particular) demand system-wide transformations in sociotechnical systems of provision. An academic literature around coevolutionary innovation for sustainability has recently emerged as an attempt to understand the dynamics and directions of such sociotechnical transformations, which are termed ‘sustainability transitions’. This literature has previously focused on market-based technological innovations. Here we apply it to a new context of civil-society-based social innovation and examine the role of community-based initiatives in a transition to a low-carbon sustainable economy in the UK. We present new empirical research from a study of the UK's Transition Towns movement (a ‘grassroots innovation’) and assess its attempts to grow and influence wider societal sociotechnical systems. By applying strategic niche management theory to this civil society context, we deliver theoretically informed practical recommendations for this movement to diffuse beyond its niche: to foster deeper engagement with resourceful regime actors; to manage expectations more realistically by delivering tangible opportunities for action and participation; and to embrace a community-based, action-oriented model of social change (in preference to a cognitive theory of behaviour change). Furthermore, our study indicates areas where theory can be refined to better explain the growth and broader impacts of grassroots innovations—namely, through a fuller appreciation of the importance of internal niche processes, by understanding the important role of identity and group formation, and by resolving how social practices change in grassroots innovations.

The number of books and papers bearing the terms ‘sustainable development’ and ‘governance’ in their titles has grown exponentially in the last decade or so. The main purpose of this paper is to explore what meanings have been attached to these two essentially contested terms and to assess the extent to which the material on them constitutes an important, coherent, and cumulative body of scholarship. The first half explores the existing literatures on the two terms, and draws out some of the main similarities and differences. Drawing on papers that have been published in this journal over the last decade or so, the second half focuses on the attempts that have been made to build empirical and/or theoretical bridges between the two terms. The concluding section identifies a number of key themes and explores future research needs in what is evidently a vibrant and highly policy-relevant area of environmental social science research.

Multicriteria evaluation (MCE) is a well-tried and effective procedure for structuring and aiding complex decisionmaking processes, especially those involving environmental considerations. Formal deliberative processes have also been successful in aiding understanding and meeting consensus in complex and difficult decision problems which involve more than one decisionmaker. Here, both approaches are combined in a new technique called ‘deliberative multicriteria evaluation’ to assist a group of natural resource managers to decide on a suitable option for recreation and tourism activities in the upper Goulburn–Broken Catchment of Victoria, Australia. This approach is an attempt to combine the advantages of MCE, providing structure and integration in complex decision problems, with the advantages of deliberation and stakeholder interaction provided by a ‘citizens' jury’. An important outcome of the process was the discovery of some crucial aspects of the decision problem that required deeper understanding and assessment if that preferred strategy were to have the desired results. Some suggestions for improving the process are provided but, in general, the stakeholder jury was regarded as a helpful and useful procedure by the decisionmakers and one which aided them in their understanding of the issues of a complex decisionmaking problem.

Policy makers have had great difficulty in understanding and responding effectively to complex or ‘wicked’ problems. Contentious policy initiatives are hard to implement when knowledge bases are divergent and incomplete, when short-term interests conflict with long-term benefits, and when problems are construed or framed in very different ways. These features of wicked problems have been central in Australian debates about initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to address the likely impacts of climate change. Given the closely interconnected nature of social, technical, legal—political, economic, and natural-resource issues, the political challenges of managing adaptive change are numerous. A strategic adaptation framework is necessary to complement ongoing mitigation efforts directed at greenhouse gas reduction. Strategic innovation requires pluralistic and adaptive processes, such as multistakeholder forums, consideration of scenario analyses, and the use of boundary organizations. In light of the highly contested nature of the issues, the multiple bases of knowledge and interests, and the provisional nature of adaptation choices, there are major policy governance challenges facing the Australian government and stakeholders in grappling with climate adaptation.

In a context of rapid urbanisation in the Global South the potential of ecocities to provide sustainable development is hotly debated within academic and policy circles. This paper will contribute to this debate by referring to Lavasa, India's largest planned ‘hill city’, a fifth of the size of Mumbai. Mentioned in the influential McKinsey report as an emerging global city, Lavasa, the first ‘sustainable’ city developed in the Mumbai—Pune region, attempts to deal with urbanisation, environment, and migration in very particular ways. Yet, it has been riddled with controversies since its inception, and construction has been interrupted by the courts a number of times for alleged environmental violations. Using Lavasa as an example, I will examine the rise and rise of ecocities in India through their legal and policy context. I will argue that future ecocities in India run the danger of prioritising economic development over environmental sustainability in the absence of strong legal enforcement and monitoring of environmental performance. I conclude that strong environmental policy framing and regulation are crucial in this context if new planned cities in India are to have any potential in addressing the challenges of rapid urbanisation and sustainable development.

The authors examine the implementation of environmental regulation and demonstrate that path dependency, created largely by resource constraints, narrows the range of options for implementing regulation. It also magnifies the impact of the institutional history of the regulatory body and the impact of the disciplinary commitments of those working within the regulatory body on the implementation process. It is shown that the result is that those involved in the implementation process are unable to consider all possible routes to implementation but, rather, only a relatively few ‘manageable’ options for the regulation of particular activities. The arguments are examined in the context of implementation of the Water Framework Directive 2000 (WFD) in Scotland. In particular the authors focus on the regulation of diffuse pollution under the WFD and on the role played by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency in that regulation.

An ongoing discussion concerns road-pricing schemes as measures to abate traffic congestion and air pollution in metropolitan areas. If such measures are to be effective, road-pricing fees must be set sufficiently high However, municipalities are likely to have other goals besides reducing car use, such as upholding fairness among citizens and financial goals such as creating revenues. If conflicts prove to exist between different goals, road-pricing schemes are not likely to achieve the environmental goal. To investigate the degree to which these goal conflicts exist, members of the local governments in the three major metropolitan areas of Sweden responded to a survey questionnaire. In the questionnaire they rated a number of principles guiding the setting of road-pricing fees hypothesized to correspond to the three goals. The results showed that, for the political majority, the hypothesized goal conflicts existed in that no single goal was optimized. It is concluded that in particular fairness may prevent road pricing achieving the environmental goal.

Following a wave of spatial planning reforms at the beginning of the 21st century, a second wave of reforms has recently swept through several European countries. In this study we investigate the significance of these latest developments by analysing the reforms in Denmark, England, and the Netherlands from the perspective of rescaling, the process of redividing tasks, and responsibilities between the various tiers of government. We show that the reasoning behind the new planning systems and the philosophy they were based on were remarkably similar. Typical catchphrases, such as ‘closer to the citizen’ and ‘development-oriented spatial planning’, were used in each of the countries under study. Although the second wave of changes is legitimised by much of the same wording, the changes are significantly different because comprehensive visions on the integrated spatial development at the national and regional level have been almost completely abandoned. The loss of this ‘something more’ seems to impact the core of spatial planning.

Increasing attention has begun to focus on the important role that organisations undertaking intermediary functions can play in supporting emerging clusters of small producers. In contrast to most studies of intermediaries that focus on governance and filling information gaps, in this paper we examine how the organisational skills of intermediaries evolve as firms in the cluster assume a broader range of practices. Through a purpose-built typology and a detailed case study, the argument is made not only that intermediaries act to facilitate the diffusion of knowledge but also that their scope of activities, extending into coordinating joint actions and new investment initiatives, places them at the centre of the network of organisations. This growing influence of intermediaries has implications for producer firms, especially in aspects such as inclusion of smaller producers and network formation.

Urban partnerships are an instrument of urban governance common in major urban development projects. However, the potential for these traditional urban policy instruments to promote climate-adapted greenfield development remains largely untested. This study examines this potential through an analysis of four urban development partnerships for master-planned estates in two rapidly urbanising regions of Australia. We interview private property developers, government land organisations and municipal level actors. The analysis focuses on the convergence, and tensions, between partners' goals of affordability, profitability and sustainability; benefits and risks of partnering; and, the management of assets over time, in light of environmental risks. The partnerships studied contributed to the state's capacity to implement policy efficiently, encourage innovation and de-risk projects for private partners. However, these initiatives also transferred longer term environmental risks to the broader planning system and to non-partners. The central role of the state in coordinating these arrangements presents opportunities to redress these limitations.