Markus Steen

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Verified

Markus verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• PhD in Geography
• Senior Research Scientist at SINTEF

This paper suggest that we need to better understand the relationship between policy rationales and their scalar orientation. The former refers to the underlying motivations for proposing policies. The latter refers to two dimensions: the geography of challenges that policy seek to address, and the geography of effects that policy seek to instigate...

As energy transitions progress from formative to growth or acceleration phases, issues related to resource formation increase in importance. In this paper we address a type of resource formation that has received scant attention in the sustainability transitions literature to date: developing the industrial capacity to manufacture and deliver key c...

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...

CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) is today seen as a key technology to cut carbon emissions in many hard-to-abate sectors such as energy-intensive processing industries and the waste sector. Although CO2 capture is technically possible, key challenges for realizing CCS persist. Over the past decade, CCS has taken a new direction with more focus on appl...

Fixed-bottom offshore wind is exploited as a maturing technology in many European countries. Floating wind has impressive potential for deep waters but needs technological and market development. How these two partially related technologies interact remains unclear. We address the ambiguity of these interactions to investigate floating offshore win...

Decarbonization of energy-intensive process industries (EPIs) is a central unresolved challenge for limiting global warming to 1.5°C or well-below 2°C. In this article, we investigate the alignment between government policy and applicable industry strategy in decarbonization efforts across six European countries – Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Nor...

The energy-intensive process industries account for a high share of global carbon emissions but have so far been slow to decarbonise. One of the reasons for the slow pace is that central problems and solutions are contested among stakeholders. To develop effective and inclusive transition policy, there is a need to better understand different persp...

To meet the decarbonisation targets for maritime transport, a sectoral energy transition is required. This report presents an overview of the maritime energy transition in the Nordics, from several perspectives. First, governmental strategies, policies, regulations and supporting schemes are reviewed, followed by a description of the Nordic ship tr...

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...

Despite the extensive literature on port sustainability, empirical research has so far paid limited attention to experiences with implementing measures that contribute to decarbonisation in small and medium-sized ports. This study contributes to the literature by investigating decarbonisation measures implemented by Norwegian ports, and drivers and...

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 increasing deployment of renewable energy (RE) hinges on the development and upscaling of manufacturing and logistics capacities, offering industrial development opportunities for regions and countries. In this paper, we analyze how contextual factors pertaining to pre-existing regional assets and multi-scalar institutional environments influen...

This book focuses specifically on policy mixes and wind power diffusion in four Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Although these Nordic welfare states have much in common, they have adopted different wind power policies and experienced dissimilar diffusion trajectories. Understanding these patterns across the Nordic countries...

Wind energy in Sweden has developed substantially—despite the absence of a domestic wind-turbine industry, the use of hydropower and nuclear exceeding fossil fuels in the power sector, weak pressure from the EU, and firm preferences for a market-based policy approach. The main factors explaining the development in policies and wind power production...

The role of the state remains underdeveloped in the regional path development literature. This paper analyses how the Norwegian state via different roles (regulator, purchaser, owner, facilitator) directly and indirectly has enabled and influenced path development in two defence-related high-tech manufacturing regions in Norway since the end of the...

Norge har vedtatt en rekke ambisiøse mål for å møte klima- og miljøutfordringene. Innen 2030 skal 55 prosent av de norske klimagassutslippene kuttes, målt mot 1990. Dette er bare et delmål på veien mot netto nullutslipp innen 2050 og innebærer en betydelig omstilling som blant annet vil kreve et stort behov for ny kompetanse. Derfor skal Kompetanse...

Call for papers, session (#15) on Multi-sectoral transitions: mechanisms, processes and agency, at Beyond Crisis / Beyond Normal, a social science and humanities conference on sustainability in Trondheim, Norway, 27-28 September 2023. https://www.ntnu.edu/energy/society/team-society-conference

This policy briefing discusses decarbonization policies of “hard-to-abate” sectors, emphasizing the implications of these sectors’ complexity. Specifically, we discuss two sources of complexity: (a) heterogeneity in the form of variation across and within technologies and user segments and (b) interdependencies between technologies (within and betw...

Norway exemplifies a number of paradoxes in relation to the just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy provision. We investigate these paradoxes by focusing on key controversies from the oil and gas sector and onshore wind power. Despite the widespread interest in avoiding conflict and increasing public acceptance, this article sees cont...

CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is today seen as a key technology to cut carbon emissions in many of the hard-to-abate sectors such as energy-intensive process industries and the waste-to-energy sector. Although CO2 capture is technically possible, key challenges for realizing CCS persist. Over the past decade, CCS has entered a new phase with more f...

CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is today seen as a key technology to cut carbon emissions in many of the hard-to-abate sectors such as energy-intensive process industries and the waste-to-energy sector. Although CO2 capture is technically possible, key challenges for realizing CCS persist. Over the past decade, CCS has entered a new phase with more f...

Recent literature has begun to discuss complementarities between sectors and technologies in the context of sustainability transitions. This paper contributes to this literature by theorizing complementarity formation mechanisms underlying such positive interactions within and across technology value chains. It pursues empirically founded theory bu...

Global production networks (GPN) research has given limited attention to lead firms' competitive strategies in emerging project-based industries (PBIs). Informed by the industry life cycle approach, the authors develop a process-sensitive approach that unpacks the black-boxed notion of lead firms' competitive capabilities development processes to a...

The shipping sector's rising greenhouse gas emissions are often considered "hard-to-abate". Some shipowners have recently adopted or started to consider the adoption of alternative fuels, but systematic studies of this are still lacking. We address this gap by studying how shipowners differ in both actual and intended adoption of alternative fuels....

Global production networks (GPN) research has given limited attention to lead firms' competitive strategies in emerging project-based industries (PBIs). Informed by the industry life cycle approach, the authors develop a process-sensitive approach that unpacks the black-boxed notion of lead firms' competitive capabilities development processes to a...

Specialized clusters rely on common knowledge resources and extra-cluster linkages, but how such resources develop over time is unclear. A case in point is how extra-cluster linkages are integrated into intra-cluster networks and the role of different cluster actors in enhancing cluster absorptive capacity. The paper explores the role of cluster in...

The paper explores knowledge recombination by analysing how knowledge networks in established technological fields influenced the formation of the emerging field of green shipping in the period 2007–2018. Previous research has demonstrated that embeddedness, proximity, and status are important mechanisms for the evolution of single technological fi...

This paper contributes to the recent debate between two important streams within current economic geography and regional studies: global value chains/global production networks theories, and regional innovation system theory. Based on the review of key literature, the authors first identify the key conceptual differences between these two streams a...

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...

Maritime transport has received little attention in sustainability transitions research. This sector is mature and heterogeneous, which suggests the need for a more nuanced perspective on socio-technical regimes to understand variation in conditions for adoption of novel technologies that may support sustainability transitions. We consider this imp...

The innovation literature increasingly addresses grand challenges and transformative change. However, the issue of to what extent transformative change can build upon the resources, actors and institutions of existing innovation systems has not received sufficient attention. Against this background this paper aims to advance our understanding of th...

Intermediation has received substantial attention from transition scholars. Intermediaries play important roles in configuring, brokering, and facilitating transition efforts and operate in different parts of socio-technical systems. Their node position between transport and energy systems makes port authorities a potentially crucial intermediary i...

Despite extensive literature on port sustainability, research has so far neglected to explicitly investigate the empirical experiences with implementing measures that improve ports' environmental sustainability. This study abates this deficiency by investigating what measures Norwegian ports implement to improve their environmental sustainability a...

The innovation literature increasingly addresses grand challenges and transformative change. However, the issue of to what extent transformative change can build upon the resources, actors and institutions of existing innovation systems has not received sufficient attention. Against this background this paper aims to advance our understanding of th...

The report discusses policies for green growth of a number of regional (or county) councils in Finland, Norway, and Sweden. These policies, which vary in scope, in ambition, and in degree of place-basedness, provide fertile meeting grounds for policy traditions for decarbonization of public services through public procurement and for innovation ori...

The shipping sector's rising greenhouse gas emissions are often considered "hard-to-abate", and shipowners play an important role in emissions reduction. Some of them have recently adopted or started to consider the adoption of green fuels, but systematic studies of such adoption practices are still lacking. We address this gap by studying how ship...

Dette notatet diskuterer status for sentrale naturressursbaserte næringer i Norge og ser nærmere på drivere og barrierer for ny naturressursbasert næringsvirksomhet. Mens en kunnskapsbasert utvikling av naturressursbaserte næringer har skapt rikdom og velferd, er de også forbundet med noen av vår tids største samfunnsutfordringer knyttet til klima,...

Facing increasing pressure to decarbonize, innovation within the shipping sector has turned to low-and zero carbon solutions. In this paper we investigate how the development and implementation of biodiesel and liquefied biogas (LBG) in Norwegian coastal shipping has been influenced by the technological alignment with fossil fuels. We understand th...

The paper applies the multi-level perspective (MLP) in a descriptive study of three Norwegian ports, to shed new light on the sociotechnical processes that structure their efforts to develop into zero emission energy hubs. While exogenous pressures cause tensions over port governance, the studied ports utilize their full spectre of functions; as la...

This paper assesses legitimation as a crucial dimension of industry emergence, addressing the neglect of institutional and political aspects of path creation in economic geography. It investigates how the legitimacy of emerging industries is built up over time and examines differences in legitimation across space. The paper focuses on the evolution...

Sectoral interdependencies of low-carbon technologies arguably become increasingly important as sustainability transitions accelerate. Nevertheless, few conceptual and empirical studies examine how the formation of interdependencies with various sectors, providing key inputs or applications within and across value chains of low-carbon technologies,...

This report is an output from the INTRANSIT Research Centre on Innovation Policy for Industrial Transformation, Sustainability and Digitalisation. The report presents an analysis of green and digital transformations in five Norwegian industrial sectors: oil and gas, maritime, aquaculture, manufacturing and process industries. By drawing on perspect...

Maritime transport faces increasing pressure to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to be in accordance with the Paris Agreement. For this to happen, low- and zero-carbon energy solutions need to be developed. In this paper we draw on sustainability transition literature and introduce the technological innovation system (TIS) framework to the field...

The paper explores knowledge recombination by analysing how knowledge networks in established technological fields influenced the formation of the emerging field of green shipping in the period 2007–2018. The authors build hypotheses to investigate whether important mechanisms for the evolution of single technology networks, embeddedness, proximity...

The explorative paper investigates the drivers for the emerging trend of manufacturing reshoring from low- to high-cost locations. To date research on the reshoring phenomenon has been dominated by micro-level analyses of firms in supply chain management and reported in international business literature. The paper introduces reshoring as a research...

Offshore wind energy development in South Denmark and Normandy

Specialized clusters are based on common knowledge resources and other positive externalities, but it is unclear how such resources develop over time. A case in point is how extra-cluster knowledge linkages are integrated into intra-cluster linkages by firms or other actors and subsequently shared with other cluster actors. To advance the understan...

Building on the chapter “Businesses and industries in sustainability transitions” in the STRN agenda, this viewpoint calls for more attention to how economic and environmental goals can be aligned to enhance the political legitimacy of transitions. This requires, we suggest, a more integrated understanding of the relationship between industrial tra...

Rapporten drøfter norske havners mulighetsrom for utvikling til nullutslipps energiknutepunkter, med utgangspunkt i tre case-havner: Oslo, Narvik og Kristiansand. Studien viser hvordan et økende ytre press for bærekraftig omstilling gir seg ulike utslag lokalt. En rekke faktorer - knyttet til sted og trafikk, samspill med forvaltningssystemet, aktø...

Governments in countries across the world increasingly adopt the “green growth” discourse to underline their ambition for the greening of their economies. The central tenet of this narrative is the economic opportunities rather than challenges arising from the pursuit of environmental sustainability. Our paper synthesises insights from 113 recent s...

The maritime shipping sector (MSS) is coming under increasing pressure to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For Norway, emission reductions in the MSS are furthermore crucial for meeting the national 40% emission reduction obligations in accordance with EU and the Paris agreements. Using a technological innovation systems (TIS) approach, t...

This working paper summarises the results of eight comparative case studies on green growth in four Nordic countries: Northern Jutland and Southern Denmark in Denmark, Tampere and Central Finland for Finland, Hordaland and Trøndelag for Norway, and Scania and Värmland for Sweden. The eight case studies give some background information and explain...

The explorative paper investigates the drivers for the emerging trend of manufacturing reshoring from low-to high-cost locations. To date research on the reshoring phenomenon has been dominated by micro-level analyses of firms in supply chain management and reported in international business literature. To provide a better understanding of the resh...

This report analyses the conditions for developing a Norwegian offshore wind industry. To date, large-scale off-shore wind projects have not been deployed in Norway, but large international markets provide opportunities. It is commonly assumed that Norway’s resource base—capabilities, knowledge and technology—from the petroleum and maritime sectors...

The transition to a low-carbon economy is a major challenge confronting policymakers at all government levels. In the European Union (EU), ambitious targets for reductions in greenhouse gas emission are linked to aspirations of fostering green growth at national and regional levels. These aspirations have been manifested in a recent radical policy...

Report from research area 4 in FME CenSES

Maritime transport is arguably a neglected empirical field within sustainability transitions research, despite the global importance of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other pollutants also from this sector. What makes this especially interesting from a sustainability transitions perspective is that low-and zero-carbon energy (LoZeC) te...

The question of how regions and nations develop new sources of industrial growth is of recurring interest in economic geography and planning studies. From an evolutionary economic geography (EEG) perspective, new growth paths emerge out of existing economic activities and their associated assets and conditions. In response to the micro-economic and...

Although economic geography has made considerable progress in explaining the emergence of new industrial development paths, a number of issues have yet to be sufficiently explored. The purpose of the article is to contribute to economic geography research on path creation by developing a conceptual framework that specifies key conditions and reinfo...

Med bakgrunn i Paris-avtalen har Norge forpliktet seg til å redusere klimagassutslippene med 40 % innen 2030 relativt til utslipp i 1990. Avtalen omfatter både kvotepliktige og ikke-kvotepliktige sektorer, deriblant landbruket. Dette notatet vurderer muligheter og barrierer for bruk av biokull som klimatiltak i norsk landbruk. Biokull har potensial...

Within the sustainability transitions literature, established, mature or incumbent firms have been stereotyped as ‘locked-in’ to socio-technical regimes. However, we believe regimes have been black-boxed, and few studies have explored incumbents’ responses to transition processes. This article aims to achieve an improved understanding of incumbents...

The emergence of new industrial development paths is an important topic in economic geography. However, current perspectives emphasizing the constraining forces of historical trajectories on innovation and change have shortcomings in accounting for how and where new industries arise. This article argues that more attention needs to be paid to agenc...

Knowledge spillovers are crucial to innovation and upgrading, but it is largely unclear what knowledge spillovers are made of and how they actually happen. The importance of Marshall–Arrow–Romer vs. Jacobs externalities is also a debated matter, whereas the concept of “related variety” has recently come to occupy a middle-ground position. However,...

Path creation is a new topic in economic geography and stems from the debate on path dependence. The article fills a gap in the path creation literature by exploring old and new path trajectories in a ‘constraining context’, namely a single-industry town. The authors analyse the development of this local system in an evolutionary perspective. Empir...

The article investigates the long-term effects of 10 restructuring programmes (RPs) in Norway. RP is a policy instrument rooted in endogenous theory aimed at peripheral regions with particularly negative development trajectories. The purposes of RPs are to contribute to the development of new jobs, improve business development capacity, and diversi...

Denne rapporten beskriver utviklingstrekk i norsk energibransje i nåtid samt nær fortid og framtid. Mer spesifikt handler rapporten om hvilke nye energisektorer og markeder bedrifter i energibransjen orienterer seg mot, hvilke strategiske hensyn som ligger til grunn, hva de motiveres av og hvilke barrierer de opplever. Med norsk energibransje mener...

Steen, M. & Underthun, A. 2011. Upgrading the 'Petropolis' of the North? Resource peripheries, global production networks and local access to the Snohvit natural gas complex. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift-Norwegian Journal of Geography Vol. 65, 212-225. ISSN 0029-1951. The article explores and assesses local and regional firms' access to a natural ga...