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Jan-Peter Voß
Posterpräsentation auf der ersten Konferenz des „Netzwerks TA“: „Technik in einer fragilen Welt. Die Rolle der Technikfolgenabschätzung“, 24. - 26. November 2004, Berlin
Sustainability and innovation studies have come up with many thoughtful policy strategies over the last years. Among them are concepts like Constructive Technology Assessment, Strategic Niche Management, Innovation-oriented Environmental Regulation, Green Technology Foresight, Vision Assessment, Transition Management, Time Strategies to name just a few. These concepts contain innovative strategy proposals to be adopted by policy-makers and managers. In most cast cases, however, the conditions for these strategies to be actually implemented in real world policy contexts are not discussed. This, although many aspects of the proposed strategies would imply radical innovations in the context of existing governance regimes. To realise their full potential for actually shaping the course of socio-technical transformation it is therefore necessary to investigate the dynamics and conditions of governance innovation. These need to be related to empirical contexts given by specific actor constellations, policy paradigms, institutional set-up of sectoral and national governance systems, and technical and ecological opportunity structures. The presented PhD project takes three steps into this direction:
It presents a synthetic formulation of strategy requirements for shaping sustainable transformation which are proposed in literatures on socio-technical change and sustainability. These requirements are compiled into the notion of “reflexive governance" which is contrasted with an ideal-typical characterization of “modernist governance" as a still dominant paradigm of governance practice in Western countries. The opposition of the two types forms a starting point to formulate research questions about radical governance innovations as a prerequisite for implementing sustainable innovation policies.
Against this background a co-evolutionary framework for the analysis of governance innovation is developed. The framework combines elements from theories of socio-technical change (multi-level framework, co-evolution of heterogeneous regime elements) with elements from theories of social change (recursiveness of agency and structure, self-organisation) and governance theory (strategic interaction, institutional arrangements, policy windows).
The empirical part of the project applies the analytical framework to investigate the emergence and consolidation of governance patterns to shape the transformation of electricity systems in the Netherlands, Great Britain and Germany. From a first explorative study it can be said that actual governance patterns are remarkably different. Whereas the Netherlands, in their “Energy Transition" project, follow a collective bottom-up approach, Great Britain, in its “Sustainable Energy Strategy", follows an integrated public management approach, and Germany, without any specific strategy, follows a pattern of public struggle and neo-corporatist negotiation. The aim of the study is to identify conditions and mechanisms which explain the specific course of governance innovation in each of these cases. They shall help to formulate robust policy strategies which take into account the specific socio-technical context and respective opportunities for governance innovation.
Jan-Peter Voß
Öko-Institut e.V., Institute for Applied Ecology
Novalisstr. 10
10115 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0) 30 - 280486 - 62
E-Mail:
j.voss@oeko.de
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