Commentary
The role of inter-sectoral dynamics in sustainability transitions: A comment on the transitions research agenda

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2019.11.009Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Sustainability transitions must be accelerated to meet climate goals.

  • Political legitimacy of transitions in part rests on new job and industry creation.

  • A large diversity of sectors and firms are involved in, and affected by, transitions.

  • Need for more integrated view on industrial transformation and transitions.

  • This requires attention to inter-sectoral linkages and territorial innovation systems.

Abstract

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 transformation and sustainability transitions. We provide a tentative articulation of such a perspective by recombining insights from the fields of Industrial Dynamics and Transition Studies. We point to three issues that can serve as starting points for developing such a perspective and argue why those merit more attention in transition studies. These include: (a) attention to the diversity of sectors and firms involved in, and affected by, transitions through inter-sectoral linkages, (b) how existing knowledge bases influence the direction and scope of transitions, and (c) policy challenges associated with parallel transitions in multiple sectors that constitute economy-wide processes of structural change.

Introduction

Sustainability transitions redistribute resources, opportunities, and power among actors and are therefore often contested and conflict-ridden (Meadowcroft, 2011; Schlaile et al., 2017). To the wider public, aligning environmental and socio-economic goals, such as jobs and value creation, is a major concern (Foxon, 2018). The legitimacy of transition policies could thus be strengthened if transitions can be combined with the creation of new economic opportunities (Vona, 2019).

A transition refers to a ‘fundamental’ socio-technical reconfiguration in a focal sector1 fulfilling a societal function whereby established technologies are replaced by, or combined with, emerging niche technologies (Geels, 2002; Geels and Schot, 2007). While this conceptualization emphasizes that transitions involve multiple interlinked technologies, it portrays transitions as a single-sector phenomenon with limited attention to linkages to upstream sectors (Andersen and Markard, 2019). At the same time, many jobs affected by transitions are often located in upstream sectors providing the components, machinery and services that underpin the functioning of focal sectors. Viewing transitions as single-sector phenomena therefore inhibits our understanding of the associated industrial transformation processes.

We therefore see a need for more systematic conceptual integration of, on the one hand, changes in jobs and economic opportunities related to upstream sectors, and, on the other, the achievement of sustainability goals in focal sectors. We propose that more attention to the role of inter-sectoral linkages in transitions is a promising way forward. This is not only important for a better conceptual understanding of transitions, but it is also an important precondition for developing policies that combine decarbonization with economic opportunities—an issue which is at the heart of notions such as ‘green new deal’ and ‘just transitions’. We suggest that revisiting and recombining key insights from Industrial Dynamics (ID) can provide a platform for such a perspective.

Section snippets

Industrial dynamics

ID is an area of research that combines elements from Innovation Studies, Evolutionary Economics and Management Studies. It is concerned with understanding the driving forces of economic transformation, with particular attention to knowledge and innovation. Transformation processes are embedded in institutional, technological, political and geographic contexts. Of key interest is the changing sectoral composition—emergence, growth, and decline of sectors—associated with structural

Sustainability transitions and industrial transformation

Transition studies to some extent acknowledge the insights above. Guided by our interest in inter-sectoral linkages, we, however, recombine these insights to emphasize three novel aspects of the relationship between sustainability transitions and industrial transformation.

First, each particular technology involved in a focal sector transition consists of a technology value chain which encompasses upstream sectors that produce components and subcomponents of technologies and downstream sectors

Acknowledgement

Research Council of Norway, grant number 295021.

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