How does transformative innovation policy travel across physical and cognitive spaces? Exploring the role of mutable fluid space in experimental policy engagements

Abstract

The growing call for public policy to begin addressing more robustly the challenges posed by sustainability transitions puts the onus on researchers to study how new meta-frameworks of transformative innovation policy and accompanying practices are implemented, applied, and received when they travel across different geographies. We discuss this question by tracing debates with reference to geography of sustainability transitions, policy mobility and actor network literatures. A methodological approach to analyse a cross-country policy initiative is developed and examined through three experiments of transformative innovation policy in diverse policy organisations with different missions and in contrasting geographical and professional spaces. The discussion highlights the relevance of building what we call mutable fluid spaces between academics and policy makers and its importance for transferring transformative innovation policy across geographical spaces.¹