Frank W. Geels

• Prof. dr. ir.
• Professor at The University of Manchester

This chapter describes the conceptual backgrounds, current debates, and future research topics with regard to the Multi-Level Perspective, which is one of the central frameworks in sustainability transitions research. It shows how the MLP spans multiple social science dichotomies (e.g., stability-change, agency-structure, behaviour-technology) by c...

Industrial decarbonization and the net-zero climate strategy has arisen as one of the most important policy challenges of the modern era. But how do industrial decarbonization policy efforts link with other issues? The UK claims to be the first major economy in the world to posit a net-zero target. In this paper, drawn from an original qualitative...

While nexus research in sustainability science has investigated the consequences of connected systems, it has paid less attention to the processes of building nexuses which is becoming increasingly important in low-carbon transitions because these often require the creation of new connections between multiple consumption–production systems. Buildin...

The need for faster and deeper transitions toward more sustainable development pathways is now widely recognized. How to meet that need has been at the center of a growing body of academic research and real-world policy implementation. This paper presents our perspective on some of the most powerful insights that have emerged from this ongoing work...

Electrification of end-use sectors is widely seen as a central decarbonization strategy; however, the process of electrification is rarely discussed beyond electric end-use technologies, such as electric vehicles or heat pumps. While electrification of end-use sectors is about new types of consumption, it also requires new technological interfaces...

Reaching net-zero GHG emission targets will require transitions in all socio-technical systems, including electricity , mobility, heating, and agri-food. While most research focuses on transitions in single systems, it is essential to also investigate multi-system interactions since innovations like electric vehicles, heat pumps, or circular econom...

The growing attention to the political goal of achieving net-zero emissions by mid-century reflects past failures to alter the trajectory of GHG emissions. As a consequence the world now needs to decarbonize all economic sectors at unprecedented pace. This commentary discusses how the net-zero challenge presents transition scholarship with four enh...

Industry is frequently framed as hard-to-decarbonize given its diversity of requirements, technologies, and supply chains, many of which are unique to particular sectors. Net zero commitments since 2019 have begun to challenge the carbon intensity of these various industries, but progress has been slow globally. Against this backdrop, the United Ki...

Climate change mitigation will require net-zero sustainability transitions across all socio-technical systems including mobility, heating, buildings, electricity, agri-food, and the production and use of basic materials such as steel, chemicals, and cement [1]. Most research has understandably focused on drivers, barriers, policies, and pathways in...

Chapter 5 (Demand, services and social aspects of mitigation), explores how mitigation interacts with meeting human needs and access to services. It explores, inter alia: sustainable production and consumption; patterns of development and indicators of wellbeing; the role of culture, social norms, practices and behaviour changes; the sharing econom...

Net-zero megaprojects in the UK offer promise and lessons

To situate its low-carbon transition process in longer-term real-world business contexts, this article makes a longitudinal analysis of the UK petrochemical industry, focusing on changing economic and socio-political environments and company strategies in the last 50 years. Using the Triple Embeddedness Framework, the paper identifies two parallel...

While innovation is expected to play a major role in decarbonization, the development and diffusion of low-carbon technologies are too slow in most sectors and countries to stabilize the climate. In this introductory paper to a Special Issue on “Innovation and climate change”, we review selected innovation studies literature, reflect on historical...

In response to criticisms about the status of causal explanation in socio-technical transitions research, this article elaborates the epistemological underpinnings of this emerging research field, mobilising insights from the wider social sciences where foundational debates have started to transform the understanding of causality and explanation. T...

This book is intended for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners interested in the dynamics and governance of low-carbon transitions. Drawing on the Multi-Level Perspective, it develops a whole system reconfiguration approach that explains how the incorporation of multiple innovations can cumulatively reconfigure existing systems. The book fo...

In this Perspective, we suggest that research on just transitions and energy justice needs to better attend to the increasingly important trade-offs arising from issues related to speed and acceleration of low-carbon transitions. We identify and elaborate two important tensions that policymakers face when they want to simultaneously achieve both ju...

This book is intended for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners interested in the dynamics and governance of low-carbon transitions. Drawing on the Multi-Level Perspective, it develops a whole system reconfiguration approach that explains how the incorporation of multiple innovations can cumulatively reconfigure existing systems. The book fo...

This book is intended for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners interested in the dynamics and governance of low-carbon transitions. Drawing on the Multi-Level Perspective, it develops a whole system reconfiguration approach that explains how the incorporation of multiple innovations can cumulatively reconfigure existing systems. The book fo...

Chapter 2 makes conceptual adjustments in the MLP to enhance its analytical traction for investigating whole system reconfiguration. On the one hand, it elaborates the techno-economic, actor and institutional dimensions in the innovation journey of niche-innovations through the four phases. On the other hand, it elaborates how existing systems can...

The concluding Chapter 7 answers the research questions and provides a comparative analysis of unfolding low-carbon transitions in the three focal systems. It also inductively draws conclusions about cross-cutting topics with salient differences and similarities between the three systems, including: the roles of incumbent firms, governance style an...

Chapters 4, 5, and 6 use the conceptual framework and analytical template to make socio-technical analyses of the unfolding low-carbon transitions in UK electricity, heat, and mobility systems. These empirical chapters, which form the bulk of the book, investigate longitudinal multi-decadal developments in existing systems and multiple niche-innova...

This book is intended for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners interested in the dynamics and governance of low-carbon transitions. Drawing on the Multi-Level Perspective, it develops a whole system reconfiguration approach that explains how the incorporation of multiple innovations can cumulatively reconfigure existing systems. The book fo...

Chapter 1 introduces the importance of low-carbon system transitions and associated challenges. It describes the dominant reformist approach (represented by neo-classical economics and mainstream policy organisations) and a revolutionary approach (represented by critical political economy and deep ecology), which emerged in opposition to the reform...

This book is intended for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners interested in the dynamics and governance of low-carbon transitions. Drawing on the Multi-Level Perspective, it develops a whole system reconfiguration approach that explains how the incorporation of multiple innovations can cumulatively reconfigure existing systems. The book fo...

This article makes two contributions to the COVID-related green recovery literature, which is dominated by optimistic and speculative opportunity narratives. Mobilising insights from political science theories, our conceptual contribution is to suggest that green recovery analyses should focus not only on the opportunities (‘permissive conditions’)...

This viewpoint identifies three interrelated transition imperatives to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 – increasing the speed, scope and level of decarbonization. First, the urgency of climate action places temporality and radically accelerated sociotechnical change at the heart of the net-zero 2050 challenge. Second, the net-zero challenge impl...

This viewpoint article draws attention to the importance of mainstream actor reorientation in the diffusion phase of sustainability transitions. It proposes an integrative typology of seminal social science theories, which distinguishes different depths of reorientation and associated processes.

This paper addresses the implementation of technology-forcing policies in open-ended diffusion processes that involve companies and regulators as well as consumers and civil society actors. Mobilising insights from the societal embedding of technology framework and policy steering theories, we investigate two implementation dilemmas that relate to...

This session will discuss risks and opportunities for firms, organisations, communities and other actors in the transition to net-zero.

Smart electricity meters are a central feature of any future smart grid, and therefore represent a rapid and significant household energy transition, growing by our calculations from less than 23.5 million smart meters in 2010 to an estimated 729.1 million in 2019, a decadal growth rate of 3013%. What are the varying economic, governance, and energ...

This is a reply to van den Bergh and Botzen who argue that a low-carbon transition is improbable without carbon pricing. https://www.pnas.org/content/117/38/23219 as a response to https://www.pnas.org/content/117/16/8664

The field of science and technology studies (STS) has introduced and developed a “sociotechnical” perspective that has been taken up by many disciplines and areas of inquiry. The aims and objectives of this study are threefold: to interrogate which sociotechnical concepts or tools from STS are useful at better understanding energy-related social sc...

Sustainability transitions in energy, transport or agro-food systems are needed to tackle grand sustainability challenges. Due to the urgency of these challenges, transitions need to accelerate and widen in scope, which, in some cases, is already happening. This shift in gear, however, comes with a series of 'acceleration challenges', including who...

Carbon pricing is often presented as the primary policy approach to address climate change. We challenge this position and offer “sustainability transition policy” (STP) as an alternative. Carbon pricing has weaknesses with regard to five central dimensions: 1) problem framing and solution orientation, 2) policy priorities, 3) innovation approach,...

In this Policy brief, we provide an overview of a recently published report by the European Environment Agency: 'Sustainability transitions: policy and practice', which we co-authored. We discuss the report's context and rationale, namely as part of a knowledge brokering process initiated at the EEA since 2015 and intended to explore the practical...

The Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) is a prominent framework to understand socio-technical transitions, but its micro-foundations have remained under-developed. The paper's first aim is therefore to develop the MLP's theoretical micro-foundations, which are rooted in Social Construction of Technology, evolutionary economics and neoinstitutional theor...

Despite rising greenhouse gas emissions, the rapid diffusion of solar-PV, wind turbines, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is beginning to change the climate change discourse from one that focuses on collective action problems, free-riding concerns, and zero-sum games to one that focuses on economic opportunities, innovation races, and win-win solut...

‘Sustainability transitions: policy and practice’ identifies policy options for responding to systemic environmental and climate problems in Europe and globally. Drawing on the the growing body of international research into sustainability transitions, as well as interactions with policymakers and EU institutions, the report sets out 10 sets of mes...

This article discusses the socio-technical transition literature, particularly the Multi-Level Perspective, which investigates the fundamental changes in (energy, transport, housing, agro-food) systems that are needed to address persistent sustainability problems. The article positions the MLP within the wider academic debate on sustainability tran...

A founding assumption and aim of the sociotechnical approach to sustainability transitions was the need to develop frameworks to understand major systemic changes that would be required across the entire chain of production, distribution and consumption. However, most studies have so far focused on partial aspects of the entire chain, often a singl...

Research on sustainability transitions has expanded rapidly in the last ten years, diversified in terms of topics and geographical applications, and deepened with respect to theories and methods. This article provides an extensive review and an updated research agenda for the field, classified into nine main themes: understanding transitions; power...

This paper presents an introduction to and overview of the papers in this Special Issue of Technological Forecasting & Social Change on ‘Transition Pathways’ is presented. Each of these papers are an output of the PATHWAYS project (EC FP7-funded, 2013–2017) which looked into ways to integrate alternative approaches for analysing sustainability tran...

Policy-oriented transition frameworks such as Strategic Niche Management, Transition Management, and Technological Innovation Systems offer limited analytical traction on deliberately accelerated socio-technical transitions. Using the Multi-Level Perspective as guiding framework, we therefore inductively explore the political acceleration of socio-...

This paper concerns the emergence and diffusion of radical innovations in the context of sustainability transitions. We confront the typical understanding in the Strategic Niche Management framework with an in-depth longitudinal case study of French modern tramways (1971–2016), which represents a particular technology class: local infrastructure sy...

Low-carbon transitions in whole systems (in energy, mobility, agro-food) are an important, yet understudied topic in socio-technical transition research. To address this topic, the paper builds on the Multi-Level Perspective, but stretches it to address developments in multiple regimes and multiple niche-innovations. This ‘zooming out’ strategy cha...

Technological diffusion can be understood as a broader process of co-construction of technology and its environment. This article conceptualizes this co-construction as a process of societal embedding, in which new technologies find their place in wider societal domains, which include immediate user contexts, cultural meanings, policies, and infras...

This article investigates the conditions under which policymakers are likely to decisively accelerate socio-technical transitions. We develop a conceptual framework that combines insights from historical institutionalism and the Multi-Level Perspective to better understand the political dimension in transitions, focusing particularly on the mechani...

An analysis of the transition from railways to highways as the dominant British transport system during the twentieth century shows that public storylines about competing niche and regime technologies can have a powerful influence on socio-technical transitions. These storylines are developed by supporters and opponents of the competing technologie...

This paper engages with the debate on niche-regime interactions in sustainability transitions, using a study of plant-based milk and its struggles against the entrenched liquid dairy-milk regime, which has various sustainability problems. Plant-based milk is under-studied, so our empirical contribution consists of an exploration of its diffusion in...

Meeting the climate change targets in the Paris Agreement implies a substantial and rapid acceleration of low-carbon transitions. Combining insights from political science, policy analysis and socio-technical transition studies, this paper addresses the politics of deliberate acceleration by taking stock of emerging examples, mobilizing relevant th...

Improvements in energy efficiency and reductions in energy demand are expected to contribute more than half of the reduction in global carbon emissions over the next few decades. These unprecedented reductions require transformations in the systems that provide energy services. However, the dominant analytical perspectives, grounded in neoclassical...

In this study, we present and apply an interdisciplinary approach that systematically draws qualitative insights from socio-technical transition studies to develop new quantitative scenarios for integrated assessment modelling. We identify the transition narrative as an analytical bridge between socio-technical transition studies and integrated ass...

Research on climate change mitigation tends to focus on supply-side technology solutions. A better understanding of demand-side solutions is missing. We propose a transdisciplinary approach to identify demand-side climate solutions, investigate their mitigation potential, detail policy measures and assess their implications for well-being.

Social acceptance and political feasibility are important issues in low-carbon transitions. Since computer models struggle to address these issues, the paper advances socio-technical scenarios as a novel methodological tool. Contributing to recent dialogue approaches, we develop an eight-step methodological procedure that produces socio-technical s...

Much research and policy advice for addressing climate change has focused on developing model-based scenarios to identify pathways towards achieving decarbonisation targets. The paper's first aim is to complement such model-based analysis with insights from socio-technical transition analysis to develop socio-technical storylines that show how low-...

'Perspectives on transitions to sustainability' presents a variety of analytical perspectives on systemic change, exploring what insights they collectively offer for policy, governance and knowledge creation. The report includes five academic papers drafted by internationally recognised experts in the field of sustainability transitions. For each o...

Research on climate change mitigation tends to focus on supply-side technology solutions. A better understanding of demand-side solutions is missing. We propose a transdisciplinary approach to identify demand-side climate solutions, investigate their mitigation potential, detail policy measures, and assess their implications for well-being.

Effective mitigation of climate change will require far-reaching transformations of electricity, heat, agricultural, transport, and other systems. The energy studies and modeling research that so often dominate academic and policy debates provide valuable insights into these transitions, but remain constrained by their focus on rational decision-ma...

Accelerating innovation is as important as climate policy

Fig. 1. Development of the Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) of the Big-4 utilities, in million euros.

Cities, and the networked infrastructures that sustain urban life, are seen as crucial sites for creating more sustainable futures. Yet, although there are many plans, the realisation of sustainable urban infrastructures on the ground is uneven. To develop better ways of understanding why this is the case, the paper makes a conceptual contribution...

The emergence of a dedicated modelling community within the transitions field is to be welcomed, and the authors of a recent paper in EIST (Holtz et al., 2015) make many valuable points. We build on their position paper in two ways. First, we reflect on some of the ways in which modelling in other areas of ‘sustainability science’ has sometimes fal...

Low-carbon transitions are long-term multi-faceted processes. Although integrated assessment models have many strengths for analysing such transitions, their mathematical representation requires a simplification of the causes, dynamics and scope of such societal transformations. We suggest that integrated assessment model-based analysis should be c...

This paper aims to make two contributions to the sustainability transitions literature, in particular the Geels and Schot (2007. Res. Policy 36(3), 399) transition pathways typology. First, it reformulates and differentiates the typology through the lens of endogenous enactment, identifying the main patterns for actors, formal institutions, and tec...

Addressing persistent environmental problems (climate change, bio-diversity and resource scarcity) requires shifts in our existing transport, energy, buildings, and agro-food systems. These system innovations will be analyses as socio-technical transitions, because they entail not only new technologies, but also changes in policy, consumer practice...

Addressing persistent environmental problems (climate change, bio-diversity and resource scarcity) requires shifts in our existing transport, energy, buildings, and agro-food systems. These system innovations will be analyses as socio-technical transitions, because they entail not only new technologies, but also changes in policy, consumer practice...

The paper sets out a proposal for bridging and linking three approaches to the analysis of transitions to sustainable and low-carbon societies: quantitative systems modelling; socio-technical transition analysis; and initiative-based learning. We argue that each of these approaches presents a partial and incomplete picture, which has implications f...

This conceptual review article provides a critical appraisal of Sustainable Consumption and Production research, which is currently framed by two generic positions. First, the ‘reformist’ position, which focuses on firms pursuing green eco-innovations and consumers buying eco-efficient products, represents the political and academic orthodoxy. Seco...

This paper uses the Dialectic Issue LifeCycle-model (DILC-model) to analyze the co-evolution of the climate change problem and strategic responses from the American car industry. The longitudinal and multi-dimensional analysis investigates the dynamics of the climate change problem in terms of socio-political mobilization by social movements, scien...

While most studies of low-carbon transitions focus on green niche-innovations, this paper shifts attention to the resistance by incumbent regime actors to fundamental change. Drawing on insights from political economy, the paper introduces politics and power into the multi-level perspective. Instrumental, discursive, material and institutional form...

Addressing societal problems requires the reorientation of firms-in-industries, including changes in technology, belief systems, and mission. The paper aims to make two contributions to the Dialectic Issue LifeCycle (DILC) model, which captures the dynamics of socio-political mobilization around societal problems and industry responses. First, the...