In this paper, we demonstrate the complexity of intermediation in practice. Intermediaries are seen as crucial actors in a transition process, but so far the transition intermediary literature has had a positive bias towards their role. We mobilize strong structuration theory to develop an analytical perspective that captures how complexity, tensions, and ambiguity influence the transition intermediary’s role and activities. We apply the perspective to the case of Connecting Mobility, a transition intermediary in the Dutch smart mobility field. Results show that Connecting Mobility has fulfilled several transition intermediary roles to different degrees, both simultaneously and sequentially, but they also experienced difficulties in fulfilling these. We conclude that the roles and the engagement of transition intermediaries in meaningful activities are a response to their dynamic context and internal learning processes. As an additional consequence, a single transition intermediary’s direct impact on the overall transition process should not be overstated.

在本文中，我们演示了实践中中介的复杂性。中介被视为过渡过程中的关键角色，但迄今为止，过渡中介文献对其作用一直持积极态度。我们动员强大的结构化理论来发展分析视角，以捕捉复杂性，紧张关系和歧义如何影响过渡中介者的角色和活动。我们将这种观点应用于荷兰智能出行领域的过渡中介“连接出行”的案例。结果表明，Connecting Mobility在不同程度上同时和顺序地履行了几种过渡中介角色，但在实现这些过渡中介方面也遇到了困难。我们得出结论，过渡中介者在有意义的活动中的角色和参与是对他们动态环境和内部学习过程的回应。另外一个结果是，一个过渡中间人对整个过渡过程的直接影响不应被夸大。