What roles do governments play vis-à-vis niche actors? A typology illustrated with transition dynamics in the Dutch agri-food system

Abstract

Regime change is considered essential for sustainability transitions. An important source of regime change is pressure from alternative innovations developed in niches and the actors involved. Governments often play an important role in such niche-regime interactions and affect whether, and how, this results in regime change. However, an overview of the various roles governments can play with respect to niche innovations and actors is lacking. In this paper, we identify a diversity of roles of governments vis-à-vis niche innovations and the actors involved. An iterative research design was employed that combines literature, team brainstorm sessions, interviews, and empirical analysis of dynamics in the Dutch agri-food system. We propose a typology consisting of 6 roles, ranging from facilitating regime change in favour of niche actors to actively defending incumbent regimes. The typology is a first attempt to enable the characterisation and analysis of governmental roles and their implications for regime change, either statically at a particular moment or dynamically in how roles evolve over time. We invite policy-makers and politicians to use the typology to reflect on their positionality in ongoing agri-food transitions.