This contribution outlines how transition processes can be analysed as ‘transition work’. We draw on the concept of institutional work, review existing applications in transition research and adapt it to transitions, labelling the result ‘transition work’. Transition work details how actors ‘create’, ‘maintain’ and ‘disrupt’ transition processes. By analysing instances around the evolution of policies, organisations, networks and technologies in two cases of energy transitions in Germany, we observe how actors apply transition work to accelerate and decelerate transitions. Despite analysing very different cases, we find that creating, maintaining, and disrupting are all integral activities of transition processes. Particularly, we observe a lack of stabilisation of a transition process where ‘maintain’ activities of transition proponents are scarce: Maintain activities cannot only preserve the status quo, but also stabilise transition activities. For understanding disruption, likewise, we need to consider both disruptive and defensive work.

本文概述了如何将过渡过程分析为“过渡工作”。我们借鉴机构工作的概念，审查转型研究中的现有应用，并将其适应转型，将结果标记为“转型工作”。过渡工作详细说明了演员如何“创造”、“维持”和“破坏”过渡过程。通过分析德国两个能源转型案例中政策、组织、网络和技术演变的实例，我们观察了参与者如何应用转型工作来加速和减速转型。尽管分析了非常不同的案例，我们发现创建、维护和破坏都是过渡过程中不可或缺的活动。特别，我们观察到过渡过程缺乏稳定性，过渡支持者的“维持”活动很少：维持活动不仅可以维持现状，而且可以稳定过渡活动。同样，为了理解破坏性，我们需要同时考虑破坏性和防御性工作。