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Explaining Sociotechnical Transitions: A Critical Realist Perspective

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  • Steven Sorrell

    (University of Sussex - Science and Technology Policy Research Unit (SPRU))

Abstract

Social innovation requires a transformation in innovation practices. These transformations should be democratic. At least that is the hypothesis in this paper. Makerspaces are studied as potential sites for democratising innovation activity. Makerspaces are community-based workshops where people access the tools, skills and collaborators to design and make almost anything they wish. Makerspaces are also networked spaces for reflection and debate over design and making in society. But they are many other things too, including a place for personal recreation, entrepreneurship, and education - features of increasing interest to institutions. Makerspaces are pulled and pushed in different directions. An open innovation agenda seeks to insert makerspace creativity into global manufacturing circuits under business as usual. Others see in makerspaces an inchoate infrastructure for a commons-based, sustainable and redistributed manufacturing economy. Activists anticipate new relations in material culture and political economy. Makerspaces are thus socially innovative and not socially innovative at the same time: a site of struggle over issues of profound social significance, and hence an example of innovation democracy in action.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven Sorrell, 2017. "Explaining Sociotechnical Transitions: A Critical Realist Perspective," SPRU Working Paper Series 2017-11, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    • Handle: RePEc:sru:ssewps:2017-11
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    Cited by:

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    4. Lenfle, Sylvain & Söderlund, Jonas, 2022. "Project-oriented agency and regeneration in socio-technical transition: Insights from the case of numerical weather prediction (1978–2015)," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(3).
    5. Geels, Frank W., 2022. "Causality and explanation in socio-technical transitions research: Mobilising epistemological insights from the wider social sciences," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(6).
    6. Jonas Heiberg & Christian Binz & Bernhard Truffer, 2020. "Assessing transitions through socio-technical network analysis – a methodological framework and a case study from the water sector," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2035, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Aug 2020.
    7. Thanos Fragkandreas, 2021. "Innovation Systems and Income Inequality: In Search of Causal Mechanisms," Working Papers 56, Birkbeck Centre for Innovation Management Research, revised Nov 2021.
    8. Johnstone, Phil & McLeish, Caitriona, 2022. "World wars and sociotechnical change in energy, food, and transport: A deep transitions perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    9. Chicombo, Adélia Filosa Francisco & Musango, Josephine Kaviti, 2024. "Urban households energy transition pathways: A gendered perspective regarding Mozambique," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 190(PA).
    10. Thanos Fragkandreas, 2023. "Case study research on innovation systems: paradox, dialectical analysis and resolution," Working Papers 65, Birkbeck Centre for Innovation Management Research, revised 15 May 2023.
    11. Kanger, Laur & Bone, Frédérique & Rotolo, Daniele & Steinmueller, W. Edward & Schot, Johan, 2022. "Deep transitions: A mixed methods study of the historical evolution of mass production," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    12. Kanger, Laur & Sillak, Silver, 2020. "Emergence, consolidation and dominance of meta-regimes: Exploring the historical evolution of mass production (1765–1972) from the Deep Transitions perspective," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    13. Rodrigo Luiz Morais-da-Silva & Eduardo Guedes Villar & Germano Glufke Reis & Hermes Sanctorum & Carla Forte Maiolino Molento, 2022. "The expected impact of cultivated and plant-based meats on jobs: the views of experts from Brazil, the United States and Europe," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-14, December.
    14. Francisco Chicombo, Adélia Filosa & Musango, Josephine Kaviti, 2022. "Towards a theoretical framework for gendered energy transition at the urban household level: A case of Mozambique," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    15. Haddad, Carolina R. & Bergek, Anna, 2023. "Towards an integrated framework for evaluating transformative innovation policy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(2).
    16. Chantal P. Naidoo, 2019. "Relating Financial Systems to Sustainability Transitions: Challenges, Demands and Dimensions," SPRU Working Paper Series 2019-18, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    17. Befort, N., 2020. "Going beyond definitions to understand tensions within the bioeconomy: The contribution of sociotechnical regimes to contested fields," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    18. Geddes, Anna & Schmidt, Tobias S., 2020. "Integrating finance into the multi-level perspective: Technology niche-finance regime interactions and financial policy interventions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(6).
    19. Luis Felipe Cândido & Jose Carlos Lazaro & Adriano Olivier de Freitas e Silva & José de Paula Barros Neto, 2023. "Sustainability Transitions in the Construction Sector: A Bibliometric Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-26, August.
    20. Chien-Heng Chou & Sa Ly Ngo & Phung Phi Tran, 2023. "Renewable Energy Integration for Sustainable Economic Growth: Insights and Challenges via Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-26, October.
    21. Menegat, Stefano, 2024. "Energy, urbanization, and complexity: Towards a multi-scale ecological economic theory of innovation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).

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    Keywords

    Multilevel perspective; Critical realism; Emergence; Process theory;
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