Interactions between Sustainability assessment and Sustainability transitions research: The benefits of combining approaches

Abstract

This article explored opportunities and benefits of combining insights from sustainability assessment and sustainability transitions research. First, an overview of both research areas regarding their key ontological, epistemological, and methodological assumptions is presented. Second, an analysis of what benefits both areas may bring to the another was conducted. Finally, a synthesis was done based on recent literature in the cross-section between the two areas of research. The overview showed that there are fundamental differences between the two research areas, such as in how sustainability is conceptualized, regarding what knowledge is needed to achieve sustainability, and in the units and levels of analysis applied. Despite this, several ways in which interaction between the two areas and cross-pollination of results could be beneficial was shown. Finally, it is argued that a multi-disciplinary approach—where theories and methods are combined sequentially or in parallel—is preferred from a practical perspective.