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The Politics of Selection: Towards a Transformative Model of Environmental Innovation

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  • Daniel Hausknost

    (Institute for Social Change and Sustainability, Vienna University of Economics and Business, 1020 Vienna, Austria)

  • Willi Haas

    (Institute of Social Ecology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), 1070 Vienna, Austria)

Abstract

As a purposive sustainability transition requires environmental innovation and innovation policy, we discuss potentials and limitations of three dominant strands of literature in this field, namely the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions (MLP), the innovation systems approach (IS), and the long-wave theory of techno-economic paradigm shifts (LWT). All three are epistemologically rooted in an evolutionary understanding of socio-technical change. While these approaches are appropriate to understand market-driven processes of change, they may be deficient as analytical tools for exploring and designing processes of purposive societal transformation. In particular, we argue that the evolutionary mechanism of selection is the key to introducing the strong directionality required for purposive transformative change. In all three innovation theories, we find that the prime selection environment is constituted by the market and, thus, normative societal goals like sustainability are sidelined. Consequently, selection is depoliticised and neither strong directionality nor incumbent regime destabilisation are societally steered. Finally, we offer an analytical framework that builds upon a more political conception of selection and retention and calls for new political institutions to make normatively guided selections. Institutions for transformative innovation need to improve the capacities of complex societies to make binding decisions in politically contested fields.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Hausknost & Willi Haas, 2019. "The Politics of Selection: Towards a Transformative Model of Environmental Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-18, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:2:p:506-:d:199054
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Kastrinos, Nikos & Weber, K. Matthias, 2020. "Sustainable development goals in the research and innovation policy of the European Union," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
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    7. Andreas Novy & Nathan Barlow & Julia Fankhauser, 2022. "Transformative Innovation," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2022_01, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
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    9. Richard Bärnthaler & Andreas Novy & Leonhard Plank, 2021. "The Foundational Economy as a Cornerstone for a Social–Ecological Transformation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-19, September.

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