Integrating industrial transformation and sustainability transitions research through a multi-sectoral perspective

Abstract

Transition studies is a rapidly growing field within innovation studies. It aims to account for system transitions especially in relation to sustainability challenges. The field has however paid limited attention to the economic structural change associated with transitions. This suggests that despite common origins via the concept of technological regimes, evolutionary economics and transition studies have seen limited mutual engagement and cross-fertilization. Since the extension of technological regimes to sociotechnical regimes with the articulation of the multilevel perspective, the transitions field has focused more on institutional and end-user aspects of transitions (e.g. culture, practices, regulations) than the supply-side of regimes. In this paper we attempt to recalibrate the balance between supply- and demand-side analyses by articulating a novel multisectoral perspective on transitions which provides a systematic view on the interplay between industrial transformation and system transitions.