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Caterina Pacini is going to partecipate as presenter at the IST 24 Conference “Sustainability Transitions and Nature" taking place from the 17th to the 19th of June in Oslo.

Find further details of her contribution here.

The theme of the 15th IST conference is ‘Sustainability transitions and nature’. Sustainability transition research investigates social and technical change processes in solving environmental problems including possible social injustices, tensions, and dilemmas associated with these. The focus on the ‘social’ and the ‘technical’ often externalize the natural world treating it instead as part of the ‘landscape’ of transitions. Nature—broadly understood as the biophysical environment—thus remains an often overlooked but important dimension in the STRN research agenda.

The point of departure for sustainability transitions research is that existing production-consumption systems are environmentally unsustainable and need to transform. As such sustainability transitions therefore aim to preserve the natural environment in its current Holocene state. This simplistic understanding of the relationships between sustainability transitions and nature is increasingly becoming inadequate for understanding transition dynamics.

Professor Bauknecht will hold a prensentation at the Conference JP ESI 2nd "Research meets Policy", taking place on the 9th of April in Brussels and hosted by the European Energy Research Alliance.

 Dierk Baukenct contributed to the journal GAIA in special issues 'Impacts of real-world labs in sustainability transformation'. Find the article here: "Regulatory experiments and real-world labs: A fruitful combination for sustainability" (Issues -> Volume 33 -> Supplement, 2024).

Abstract:

What are regulatory experiments and how can they contribute to sustainability transformations? We seek to answer these questions by considering regulatory experiments in the energy sector and exploring their potential impact pathways. Different kinds of regulatory experiments can be combined with real-world labs to expand their scope and their impacts to the regulatory realm.

Regulatory experiments (RegExs) can be considered an element of mission-oriented innovation policies. As such, we discuss how they relate to real-world labs (RwLs) and how they can contribute to sustainability transformations. We distinguish between two types of experiments: 1. regulatory sandboxes that help innovators to bring new products, services, and other innovations to market, and 2. regulatory-innovation experiments that are specifically designed to explore new solutions for evolving regulatory frameworks. The two types can be linked to RwLs such that an RwL can be embedded in a regulatory sandbox, enabling the RwL to try out solutions that would not be feasible without the sandbox, given the regulatory framework in place. Alternatively, the various experiments in the RwL are complemented by one or several regulatory-innovation experiments. RegExs, as a form of experimental policy engagement, are an important addition to RwL concepts in a sustainability transformation context. They contribute to both innovative sustainability solutions as well as regulatory learning and testing of regulatory innovations. By applying the programme theory approach and developing a Theory of Change for RegEx, we discuss their potential impact on sustainability transformations in terms of the directionality and the acceleration of change, based on examples from the energy sector.

Check out the latest two publications by Dierk Bauknecht in collaboration with the Öko-Institut here:

• "Institutional rules for the up-take of regulatory experiments: A comparative case study", published in February.

Abstract:

Experiments are an important governance instrument for fostering learning between actors, improving governance, and managing transition pathways for sustainable development. However, determinants of the up-take of the result of experiments are underexplored in the transition experimentation literature. Consequently, we explore the role of experimental design and institutions in this up-take. This paper examines the following research question: How is the up-take of regulatory experiments for sustainability transitions influenced by their design elements and what role do institutions play? The paper uses comparative qualitative content analysis to examine 27 international regulatory experiments. In analyzing the up-take of experiments, we focus on three dimensions: transferability, scalability, and unintended consequences. The analysis demonstrates that the transferability of regulatory experiments depends on its regulatory and geographical context as well as its timeframe and the selection of participants. The scalability appears to be mainly influenced by the timeframe and timing of the regulatory experiment as well as the communication of the experimenters with stakeholders and the support of political actors. Furthermore, the influence of unintended consequences from regulatory experiments depend on the diversity of the participants, the communication of the involved actors, and the use of several design options. Our results can inform policymakers and stakeholders about the design and role of institutions in regulatory experiments.

• "The role of decentralised flexibility options for managing transmission grid congestions in Germany" published in February.

Abstract: 

The workshop offered the great opportunity to discuss the different elements, the advantages and disadvantages, definitionsand modes of the complex field of transformation-oriented research.

Transformative research (TS) focuses on understanding real-world problems of unsustainability and on developing knowledge to solve these problems by engaging with different societal actors in a co-creative research setting. It builds on the acknowledgement that real-world problems are persistent, complex, ambiguous and require fundamental societal change processes (so called “transformations”) to be overcome.

During the workshop, participants gained a better understanding of what we collectively mean by transformative research and advanced critical questioning and reflections regarding experiences from the field. Instead of developing clear and foreclosing answers, participants explored the multiple perspectives and understandings of transformative research.

Three key lessons have been drawned for the community, that led to follow-up questions and elaborations:

• Transformative research critically advances from collaborative questioning: Is it really a matter of combining efforts to formulate the right questions instead of generating fast knowledge and solutions?
• Transformative research benefits from a shared identity: Who are we and what does transformative research change for us in our role and every-day scientific practice?
• Embodying participatory practices is key for transformative research: What kind of attitudes and formats do we use to come together in meaningful ways?

Valerie Voggenreiter and Felix Beyers from the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) in Potsdam published a paper on the workshop "A Journey of Collective Scientific Learning: A Networking Event on Transformative Research Hosted by the Austrian Institute of Technology" (August 2023).