System Innovation and the Transition to Sustainability PDF Download
Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download System Innovation and the Transition to Sustainability PDF full book. Access full book title System Innovation and the Transition to Sustainability by Boelie Elzen. Download full books in PDF and EPUB format.
Author: Boelie Elzen
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 9781845423421
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 344
Get Book
Book Description
Modern societies face several structural problems such as transport congestion and greenhouse gas emissions due to the widespread use of fossil fuels. To address these important societal problems and achieve sustainability in the broad sense, major transformations are required, but this poses an enormous challenge given the complexity of the processes involved. Such transformations are called 'transitions' or 'system innovations' and involve changes in a variety of elements, including technology, regulation, user practices and markets, cultural meaning and infrastructure. This book considers two main questions: how do system innovations or transitions come about and how can they be influenced by different actors, in particular by governments. The authors identify the theories which can be used to conceptualise the dynamics of system innovations and discuss the weaknesses in these theories. They also look at the lessons which can be learned from historical examples of transitions, and highlight the instruments and policy tools which can be used to stimulate future system innovations towards sustainability. The expert contributors address these questions using insights from a variety of different disciplines including innovation studies, evolutionary economics, the sociology of technology, environmental analysis and governance studies. The book concludes with an extensive summary of the results and practical suggestions for future research. This important new volume offers an interdisciplinary assessment of how and why system innovations occur. It will engage and inform academics and researchers interested in transitions towards sustainability, and will also be highly relevant for policymakers concerned with environmental issues, structural change and radical innovation.
Author: Boelie Elzen
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 9781845423421
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 344
Get Book
Book Description
Modern societies face several structural problems such as transport congestion and greenhouse gas emissions due to the widespread use of fossil fuels. To address these important societal problems and achieve sustainability in the broad sense, major transformations are required, but this poses an enormous challenge given the complexity of the processes involved. Such transformations are called 'transitions' or 'system innovations' and involve changes in a variety of elements, including technology, regulation, user practices and markets, cultural meaning and infrastructure. This book considers two main questions: how do system innovations or transitions come about and how can they be influenced by different actors, in particular by governments. The authors identify the theories which can be used to conceptualise the dynamics of system innovations and discuss the weaknesses in these theories. They also look at the lessons which can be learned from historical examples of transitions, and highlight the instruments and policy tools which can be used to stimulate future system innovations towards sustainability. The expert contributors address these questions using insights from a variety of different disciplines including innovation studies, evolutionary economics, the sociology of technology, environmental analysis and governance studies. The book concludes with an extensive summary of the results and practical suggestions for future research. This important new volume offers an interdisciplinary assessment of how and why system innovations occur. It will engage and inform academics and researchers interested in transitions towards sustainability, and will also be highly relevant for policymakers concerned with environmental issues, structural change and radical innovation.
Author: Smail Aït-El-Hadjait
Publisher: Wiley-ISTE
ISBN: 9781786306388
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Get Book
Book Description
Faced with the scale and intensity of the ecological crisis, environmental transition is underway, consisting of a first phase of technological mutation, aimed at replacing technologies harmful to the environment with those which have no destructive effects on the earth system and its equilibrium. This book examines the roots of the concept of environmental transition, identifying and characterizing the negative effects of technology on the environmental crisis. We will then identify the technological mutations that have the potential to contribute to environmental transition, and demonstrate how these changes are already forming part of a new emerging "technological system". We will conclude by addressing the question of the limits of technological responses to the environmental crisis, demonstrating the importance of the dimensional factors of human activity and weight of growth in this crisis, thus raising the issue of global reconsideration, with reference to the place and articulation of human activity in the Earth system.
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309086388
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 380
Get Book
Book Description
World human population is expected to reach upwards of 9 billion by 2050 and then level off over the next half-century. How can the transition to a stabilizing population also be a transition to sustainability? How can science and technology help to ensure that human needs are met while the planet's environment is nurtured and restored? Our Common Journey examines these momentous questions to draw strategic connections between scientific research, technological development, and societies' efforts to achieve environmentally sustainable improvements in human well being. The book argues that societies should approach sustainable development not as a destination but as an ongoing, adaptive learning process. Speaking to the next two generations, it proposes a strategy for using scientific and technical knowledge to better inform future action in the areas of fertility reduction, urban systems, agricultural production, energy and materials use, ecosystem restoration and biodiversity conservation, and suggests an approach for building a new research agenda for sustainability science. Our Common Journey documents large-scale historical currents of social and environmental change and reviews methods for "what if" analysis of possible future development pathways and their implications for sustainability. The book also identifies the greatest threats to sustainabilityâ€"in areas such as human settlements, agriculture, industry, and energyâ€"and explores the most promising opportunities for circumventing or mitigating these threats. It goes on to discuss what indicators of change, from children's birth-weights to atmosphere chemistry, will be most useful in monitoring a transition to sustainability.
Author: John Grin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135151172
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 398
Get Book
Book Description
Over the past few decades, there has been a growing concern about the social and environmental risks which have come along with the progress achieved through a variety of mutually intertwined modernization processes. In recent years these concerns are transformed into a widely-shared sense of urgency, partly due to events such as the various pandemics threatening livestock, and increasing awareness of the risks and realities of climate change, and the energy and food crises. This sense of urgency includes an awareness that our entire social system is in need of fundamental transformation. But like the earlier transition between the 1750's and 1890's from a pre-modern to a modern industrial society, this second transition is also a contested one. Sustainable development is only one of many options. This book addresses the issue on how to understand the dynamics and governance of the second transition dynamics in order to ensure sustainable development. It will be necessary reading for students and scholars with an interest in sustainable development and long-term transformative change.
Author: Smail Aït-El-Hadjait
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1786306387
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Get Book
Book Description
Faced with the scale and intensity of the ecological crisis, environmental transition is underway, consisting of a first phase of technological mutation, aimed at replacing technologies harmful to the environment with those which have no destructive effects on the earth system and its equilibrium. This book examines the roots of the concept of environmental transition, identifying and characterizing the negative effects of technology on the environmental crisis. We will then identify the technological mutations that have the potential to contribute to environmental transition, and demonstrate how these changes are already forming part of a new emerging "technological system". We will conclude by addressing the question of the limits of technological responses to the environmental crisis, demonstrating the importance of the dimensional factors of human activity and weight of growth in this crisis, thus raising the issue of global reconsideration, with reference to the place and articulation of human activity in the Earth system.
Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
ISBN: 926447384X
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 135
Get Book
Book Description
This report offers guidance on how to prepare regions and cities for the transition towards a climate-neutral and circular economy by 2050 and is directed to all policymakers seeking to identify and implement concrete and ambitious transition pathways. It describes how cities, regions, and rural areas can manage the transition in a range of policy domains, including energy supply, conversion, and use, the transformation of mobility systems, and land use practices.
Author: Frank W. Geels
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 9781845424596
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Get Book
Book Description
This important book addresses how long term and large scale shifts from one socio-technical system to another come about, using insights from evolutionary economics, sociology of technology and innovation studies. These major changes involve not just technological changes, but also changes in markets, regulation, culture, industrial networks and infrastructure. The book develops a multi-level perspective, arguing that transitions take place through the alignment of multiple processes at three levels: niche, regime and landscape. This perspective is illustrated by detailed historical case studies: the transition from sailing ships to steamships, the transition from horse-and-carriage to automobiles and the transition from propeller-piston engine aircraft to turbojets. This book will be of great interest to researchers in innovation studies, evolutionary economics, sociology of technology and environmental studies. It will also be useful for policy makers involved in long-term sustainability and systems transitions issues.
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309067839
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 380
Get Book
Book Description
World human population is expected to reach upwards of 9 billion by 2050 and then level off over the next half-century. How can the transition to a stabilizing population also be a transition to sustainability? How can science and technology help to ensure that human needs are met while the planet's environment is nurtured and restored? Our Common Journey examines these momentous questions to draw strategic connections between scientific research, technological development, and societies' efforts to achieve environmentally sustainable improvements in human well being. The book argues that societies should approach sustainable development not as a destination but as an ongoing, adaptive learning process. Speaking to the next two generations, it proposes a strategy for using scientific and technical knowledge to better inform future action in the areas of fertility reduction, urban systems, agricultural production, energy and materials use, ecosystem restoration and biodiversity conservation, and suggests an approach for building a new research agenda for sustainability science. Our Common Journey documents large-scale historical currents of social and environmental change and reviews methods for "what if" analysis of possible future development pathways and their implications for sustainability. The book also identifies the greatest threats to sustainabilityâ€"in areas such as human settlements, agriculture, industry, and energyâ€"and explores the most promising opportunities for circumventing or mitigating these threats. It goes on to discuss what indicators of change, from children's birth-weights to atmosphere chemistry, will be most useful in monitoring a transition to sustainability.
Author: Rod Coombs
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Get Book
Book Description
Neoclassical economics, in particular the orthodox theory of the firm, offers little insight into the question of company strategy. It contributes even less to the understanding of the strategic management of technological change. In this volume, a number of international scholars from a variety of related disciplines explore the possibility of a more unified approach to linking company strategy and technological change. Each author examines the contributions from his own discipline, (economics, sociology, organization and systems theory), in order to build new multidisplinary theories of the firm, which will contribute to the debate surrounding the effects of new technology on company strategy and economic growth. Key Features * Links evolutionary economics to sociological analysis * Presents new case studies featuring this synthesis
Author: Luke Georghiou
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349074551
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 301
Get Book
Book Description
