Transitions reconsidered: navigating dilemmas, negotiating futures, affecting identities

We present a perspective on sustainability transitions, structured by the understanding of governance developed in previous chapters. We consider the need for transitions in different circumstances and highlight the common character of situations that scream for transitions but create obstacles for it. Governance gaps can be arguments for transition strategies yet hinder even the consideration of such strategy. Transitions are conceived as processes that create instability and new problems for the integration of policy and knowledge. We argue that learning in and for transitions is particularly important because of the instability introduced with new narratives, goals, institutions, forms of knowledge and through questioning identities. We discuss extreme cases, including community reinvention, and explore the possibilities for the construction of transitional governance configurations, as new platforms from which more can be seen and coordinated, in situations where bringing about change is particularly difficult.