Original Research Paper
Transformative innovation and translocal diffusion

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2020.01.009Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Transformative innovations are shared activities, ideas and objects across locally rooted initiatives that challenge incumbent regimes.

  • Sustainability initiatives develops through growing, partnering, replicating, instrumentalising and embedding.

  • Their diffusion is supported by translocal networks that enable exchange of ideas, objects and practices to develop broader transformative innovations.

  • Transformative innovations are thus translocal: locally rooted and globally connected.

  • Transition governance should develop better strategies to facilitate and empower. translocal diffusion as a way to contribute to sustainability transitions based on context-sensitive local and sustainable economies.

Abstract

This paper develops a conceptual understanding of transformative innovations as shared activities, ideas and objects across locally rooted sustainability initiatives that explore and develop alternatives to incumbent and (perceived) unsustainable regimes that they seek to challenge, alter or replace. We synthesize empirical work from two European research projects (TRANSIT and ARTS), in which initiatives and networks were empirically studied, to develop a broader conceptual understanding of the emergence of transformative innovation. The development of initiatives can occur through growing, replicating, partnering, instrumentalising and embedding. This is supported through translocal networks that connect initiatives by sharing ideas, objects and activities across local contexts. This translocal characteristic of transformative innovations harnesses an enormous potential for sustainability transitions, but requires further understanding as well as governance support. The perspective we present provides a conceptual starting point to further explore the development and diffusion of transformative innovation as well as transition governance strategies.

Keywords

Innovation
Translocal
Diffusion
Transformative
Sustainability
Transition

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