Fulvio Castellacci, Martin Binder, Tommaso Ciarli, Bipashyee Ghosh
{"title":"A multidimensional well-being framework for just transitions","authors":"Fulvio Castellacci, Martin Binder, Tommaso Ciarli, Bipashyee Ghosh","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101164","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101164","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The paper introduces the Special Issue on distributional justice and well-being in the context of sustainability transitions. Although there is currently much scholarly and policy attention around the concept of just transitions, research on the more specific aspect of distributional justice has received more limited consideration, and it lacks a clear foundation and understanding of the type of inequalities that it is relevant to look at. The main idea motivating this Special Issue is that the study of distributional justice should be guided by a thorough understanding of what well-being is. Moving beyond traditional economic measures, we argue that different notions and conceptual views on individual and social well-being (specifically preference satisfaction, subjective mental states, and human capabilities) may lead to radically different implications in terms of distributional justice and fairness, and how green transitions may affect these. The paper outlines these theories of well-being, and it proposes a novel pluralistic framework that evaluates policies against a vector of well-being criteria. We discuss implications in terms of distributional justice, political feasibility, and policies for directionality, and synthesize the contributions of the articles included in the Special Issue. We conclude that a legitimate just transition requires shifting from <em>ex-post</em> financial compensation to <em>ex-ante</em> procedural justice, thereby empowering groups and individuals to shape the direction of socio-technical change. Future research must focus on operationalizing multidimensional well-being metrics, evaluating spatial and intergenerational trade-offs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 101164"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148958708","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Governing urban low-carbon transitions: A configurational study of policy instrument mixes for China's new energy vehicle transition","authors":"Conghui Yin, Ye Li, Minghan Sun, Dong Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101176","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101176","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Facing increasingly pressing urban sustainability issues, the transition towards low-carbon urban transport has become a global priority. This study adopts a dynamic configurational approach to examine how policy instrument mixes drive low-carbon transitions, with a particular focus on China’s new energy vehicles (NEV) industry. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is used to identify effective policy instrument mixes and conceptualize them as distinct governance configurations for promoting NEV transition. Results show that successfully governing this transition depends on the strategic recombination of various policy instruments over time. We identify five such effective governance configurations (i.e., specific mixes of policy instruments): “financial-driven” and “market-driven” configurations are highly effective in the emergence phase; network-based and expectation management instruments are core enablers during the growth phase; “comprehensive-driven” configuration integrates multiple policy instruments to promote long-term market sustainability in the consolidation phase. A dynamic trajectory analysis further reveals distinct evolutionary patterns for each of the six policy instruments. The findings provide a novel, configurational perspective on transition governance and contribute to socio-technical transitions literature by enriching understanding of the dynamic interactions of policy instrument mixes in driving transitions. It offers policymakers valuable guidance for developing a governance toolkit to support low-carbon transitions in urban transport.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 101176"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148641264","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anna Maria Dzienis, Katarzyna Kamińska, Artur F. Tomeczek
{"title":"Socio-technical pathways of automotive decarbonization: evidence from patent network analysis in Germany and Japan","authors":"Anna Maria Dzienis, Katarzyna Kamińska, Artur F. Tomeczek","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101177","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101177","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines how distinct institutional configurations shape divergent automotive decarbonization pathways in advanced economies. Drawing on the multi-level perspective (MLP) and patent-based network analysis, it compares Germany and Japan, two leading automotive producers facing similar global decarbonization pressures but pursuing markedly different transition strategies. Using patent co-classification networks (2012-2023), the study maps the structure and evolution of technological niches and their integration into incumbent socio-technical regimes. The findings reveal two contrasting transition pathways. Germany follows a policy-driven, EU-aligned, substitution-oriented trajectory centered on battery electric vehicles. This pathway is characterized by modular innovation structures and rapid regime destabilization, but is accompanied by heightened risks related to labor adjustment and supply-chain dependence. Japan, by contrast, pursues an industry-led, reconfiguration pathway based on technological diversification across hybrid, battery electric, and fuel-cell vehicles, supported by dense innovation networks and strong state-industry coordination. This pathway prioritizes gradual regime adaptation and transition resilience over rapid substitution. By linking patent network structures to transition pathway dynamics, the paper advances sustainability transitions research in two ways. First, it demonstrates how institutional embeddedness conditions the balance between transition speed and resilience. Second, it shows that technological diversification can function as a stabilizing mechanism in regime transformation rather than a factor of transition delay. The findings underscore the need for context-sensitive transition governance and caution against one-size-fits-all decarbonization strategies in mobility transitions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 101177"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148641262","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annemiek de Looze, Eefje Cuppen, Antonella Maiello, Igor Nikolic
{"title":"The dynamics of participation: A complex adaptive systems perspective","authors":"Annemiek de Looze, Eefje Cuppen, Antonella Maiello, Igor Nikolic","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101175","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101175","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Participatory processes in the energy transition rarely stay within the boundaries of the meetings, practices, and methods in which they are designed. They interact, accumulate, and resonate within and across institutional, spatial and temporal boundaries. Recent scholarship has begun to recognise this, developing systemic perspectives on participation. While these richly describe <em>what</em> these interactions look like in practice, we require additional conceptual tools for explaining <em>how</em> their adaptive dynamics unfold. This paper addresses this gap by conceptualising a collection of participatory processes as a Complex Adaptive System (CAS). We develop a framework that empirically applies CAS concepts – nestedness, coupled fitness landscapes, path dependence and emergence – to a collection of participatory processes in the Netherlands. Our results from 21 interviews show how participatory processes are nested within multiple spatial, temporal, institutional and social scales and domains, both within and beyond the energy sector. Furthermore, participatory processes continuously learn from and respond to each other. We observed an interaction with two main emergent patterns in the system as a whole: the development of a milieu of learning on participation and the institutionalisation of participation. Finally, we observed processes of self-reinforcing behaviour and path dependence. Our CAS perspective provides conceptual and methodological tools to better understand the complexity, interdependencies, and change implications of participatory governance in sustainability transitions. Our findings underline the need for (normative) reflexivity in designing and evaluating participatory processes as dynamic components of larger, evolving systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 101175"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148641263","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fostering just transition in the Italian automotive ecosystem: Firm-level insights on EV transition risks and pathways","authors":"Anna Novaresio, Anna Moretti, Francesco Zirpoli","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101179","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101179","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The global automotive industry is undergoing a profound transformation driven by the shift to electromobility, which is reshaping supply chains and reallocating value from traditional European and U.S. suppliers toward emerging Asian firms specializing in batteries and electric components. This transition raises pressing concerns about job losses and economic disruption in established automotive regions, particularly in Europe, highlighting the urgent need for a “just transition.” Despite its importance, fragmented stakeholder approaches and limited academic attention have hindered cohesive debate and actionable policy guidance. This study advances understanding by proposing a novel methodological framework that links firms’ product portfolios and economic characteristics to their exposure to the technological and market risks associated with the green transition with an innovative composite indicator. The purpose is to cluster firms using an original dataset of Italian automotive suppliers to assess their occupational outlooks in the context of the electric vehicle transition. The findings provide new insights into the dynamics of the automotive ecosystem, identify key challenges for suppliers, and offer evidence-based recommendations to support a sustainable and equitable transition toward electromobility.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 101179"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148843569","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From concept to practice: How agricultural and forestry living labs are implemented within European funded projects","authors":"María Rivera, Catarina Esgalhado","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101178","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101178","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Living Labs (LLs) have gained prominence in European research and innovation as mission-oriented, place-based approaches for jointly developing solutions to complex agricultural and forestry challenges. Despite this growing institutional momentum, the operational meaning of LLs remains fluid. This paper examines how LLs are operationalised in European agriculture and forestry research by analysing 36 Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects using data from a dedicated questionnaire distributed to project coordinators. Building on contemporary LL theory, we assess whether project-level LLs reflect four core dimensions of the LL approach: (i) aims, (ii) participants, (iii) activities, including co-creation, iteration, experimentation, and evaluation, and (iv) context.</div><div>Our findings show considerable variability in how LL principles are understood and applied. Most projects articulate innovation-driven aims and involve diverse stakeholders, yet co-creation often remains consultative rather than genuinely collaborative. Iteration is unevenly implemented, and evaluation practices are weak or fragmented. Although real-life experimentation is widely acknowledged, it is frequently delayed by ecological, organisational, or infrastructural constraints. Territorial embeddedness tends to be strong, but long-term sustainability is often not a main concern, with several established LLs lacking strategies for post-project continuity.</div><div>Overall, LLs appear constrained by structural features of EU research governance, which limit the openness, adaptability, and reflexive learning central to the LL ethos. By systematising current practices and identifying key gaps, this study provides an empirical basis to strengthen conceptual clarity, methodological coherence, and long-term sustainability in the design and implementation of LLs in future European research and innovation programmes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 101178"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148656594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Defensive versus adaptive action: contested path creation in the hydrogen transition in Zeeland","authors":"Wim Huibregtse, Joeri Wesseling, Koen Frenken","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101185","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101185","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sustainability Transitions (ST) literature increasingly recognizes the need to better conceptualize agency and power, specifically regarding how actors influence both path dependence and path creation. However, existing perspectives frequently under-theorize how actors actively maintain structural lock-ins or strategically mobilize resources to navigate and disrupt lock-in. To address this theoretical gap, we investigate the mechanisms shaping strategic interactions among stakeholders in the emerging green hydrogen market. We employ Evolutionary Governance Theory (EGT) to map structural dependencies and integrate Path Creation (PC) theory to analyze the strategic agency actors exercise within this constrained environment. Based on 25 semi-structured interviews within the Zeeland industrial cluster in the Netherlands, our analysis reveals a central tension between defensive and adaptive action. Defensive action, predominantly deployed by incumbents, relies on discursive delegitimation—e.g., framing policy goals as unattainable due to infrastructural delays—and substantive investments to secure path-extending trajectories (blue hydrogen). Conversely, adaptive action, primarily driven by new entrants and proactive local governments, combines discursive counter-framing of incumbent narratives with substantive institutional entrepreneurship—such as bottom-up rule creation and local de-locking—to accelerate radical path creation of green hydrogen. We contribute to transition literature by demonstrating how actors navigate persistent institutional uncertainty shaped by co-evolving mechanisms of trust and distrust, thereby driving pragmatic responses like hybrid strategies and coopetition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 101185"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148884735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The affective politics of transitions: insights from public opinion and party dynamics","authors":"Elena Baro, Gisle Solbu, Tomas Moe Skjølsvold","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101180","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101180","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Amid growing political polarisation and populist backlash against climate policies, sustainability transitions research is increasingly focusing on how such political dynamics influence transition processes. However, transition studies have tended to treat questions about political feasibility and public opinion formation with a certain empirical and conceptual distance. Seeking to bridge transitions research with insights gained through political science and public opinion, this paper zooms in on how public opinion formation and partisan dynamics, particularly the dislike of political parties, are associated with public responses to climate policy proposals. Drawing on survey data from the Norwegian Citizen Panel (N = 9997), we find that dislike of specific political parties is a significant, and often stronger, predictor of climate policy support or opposition than party identification or sociodemographic factors. Party dislike has the greatest effect on responses to salient and contested issues, such as wind power expansion. These reactions are particularly pronounced toward smaller challenger and populist parties associated with specific positions on climate-related matters. These dynamics show strong associations between affective responses to political parties and policy attitudes and point at a fragmentation in public opinion, not necessarily over the need for climate action, but over the political associations of specific climate measures. We highlight that understanding these affective and identity-related dynamics of public opinion is essential for assessing the political feasibility of ambitious climate policies and for advancing sustainability transition research, especially in light of the increasingly contentious character of climate policy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 101180"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148843505","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Conceptualizing a framework of transition governance: On understanding trajectory and managing future change","authors":"Taylor R. Gray, David J.A. Foord","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101182","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101182","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper we examine the governance of sociotechnical transitions. Prevailing conceptualizations often focus on the execution of state authority though the development of policy-mixes, conflating governance and governing. As the system transition literature expands from a procedural analysis informed by past transitions to one capable of addressing and managing transitions which are broadly perceived as being necessary, we re-conceptualize governance with a focus on stakeholder alignment as being necessary in understanding transition trajectory. We develop a holistic framework of transition governance premised on three windows of governance, <em>transition enablement, transition readiness</em>, and <em>transition embedment</em>, which are additional to procedural frameworks of transition development and facilitate the prioritization of interventions toward ensuring, or accelerating, the development of the desired outcomes within the desired timeframe.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 101182"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148843506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Linking just transition and regime destabilization through sub-regime interactions: evidence from South Korea’s coal phase-out","authors":"Seona Park","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101183","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2026.101183","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Although just transition in coal phase-out has received considerable policy and societal attention, research has yet to explain how it is impeded structurally by interactions among sub-regimes within an incumbent energy system. We investigated how the coal regime structure was stabilized through interactions among the electricity policy, labor market, and affected region sub-regimes. To explore coal regime structure and its potential toward destabilization under the coal phase-out policy and just transition in South Korea, we conducted in-depth interviews with 18 representatives, systematically recruited from the coal power industry and its policy sector. Data analysis revealed the following findings. First, the electricity policy sub-regime is characterized by centralized state decision-making and limited proactiveness among public power generation companies. Second, the labor market sub-regime demonstrates uneven employment impacts within a multi-layered structure spanning public power generation companies and subcontractors. Third, the affected region sub-regime plays a limited role in the transition process owing to constrained legal and fiscal autonomy. Our analysis shows that interactions among these sub-regimes mutually reinforce regime lock-in, explaining the slow pace of coal phase-out and persistent tensions for a just transition in South Korea. This framework explains why just transition is difficult to reach when each sub-regime is addressed separately, and their interactions are beyond the scope of analysis, leading to missing the intervention entry for destabilization. By linking regime destabilization theory with just transition imperatives, the sub-regime interaction framework provides a transferable analytical framework for equitable coal phase-out pathways beyond South Korea.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 101183"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148884736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}