Strategy for Sustainability Transitions

Reviews / Votes

'Always insightful, sometimes challenging, Strategy for Sustainability Transitions tackles global issues that have been piling up, from climate change to social inequality. The interdisciplinary approach of the authors is unique and inspiring. The crux of their argument is that the transition requires strategies underpinned by a comprehensive understanding of governance.' -- Fikret Berkes, University of Manitoba, Canada and author of Advanced Introduction to Resilience (Edward Elgar, 2023) 'Sustainability transitions and transformations are indeed political struggles. The Agenda 2030 is a political, not a technical agenda. Reducing it to implementation means that the conflicts of interest between different actor groups and governance levels, the trade-offs between different sustainability concerns and the power differences that are real and generally prioritise the existing rather than the to be achieved are not addressed. Transitional change brings about winners and losers. It is a struggle between private sector, civil society, policy-making and academia, with politics being its moderator. The presented volume gives insights into this non-linear search process and reflects on it conceptually, methodologically and based on empirical examples from across the world. Worth reading by anyone interested in societal change processes for sustainable futures.' -- Anna-Katharina Hornidge, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) 'This eye-opening book profoundly recasts our understanding of the interrelationship between transformative governance, communities and the environment. Developing a new conceptuality while relying on hands-on methods and driven by a focus on concrete problems it provides a comprehensive framework useful for both academics and practitioners of transition.' -- Poul F. Kjaer, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark 'Kristof Van Assche, Raoul Beunen and Monica Gruezmacher's book starts with a quote by Machiavelli. Therefore it might be appropriate to close it with another, no less fitting, Machiavelli quote: "It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things." Strategy for Sustainability Transitions is a courageous book that might help readers to rethink the order of things and start exploring new possible orders.' -- Martin Kornberger, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden and University of New South Wales, Australia 'This excellent volume examines a key question of our time - the possibility of sustainability transitions - through an evolutionary governance lens. In addition to exploring how climate change, biodiversity and energy crises, water and food scarcity require societal transitions, it keeps a firm eye focused on the lessons that have been learned about why societal transitions occur (or not) and especially on the role played in these processes by governing institutions writ large. Drawing on earlier work by the authors and others in the field, the book introduces and applies the idea of a "governance path" in assessing how likely any sustainability transition might be and in what directions any such transition is likely to go. Concluding with a discussion of the interplay between governance and policy strategies, the book highlights the need for both good governance and good strategies if any kind of successful transition is to occur.' -- Michael Howlett, Simon Fraser University, Canada