Exploring paths toward enabling transitions: Systems thinking-based approach and its application to shifts toward sustainable circulation of materials in transportation infrastructure

Operationalizing sustainability transitions is associated with, for example, complexity-related challenges. This article describes an approach designed to facilitate handling such challenges, including compilation of the different perspectives of actors and facilitating analysis of interactions between interventions, in a manner suitable for integration of results in policy development contexts. Building on systems thinking and understanding of transitions, it is designed to support dialogue on (i) problems motivating policy interventions to enable a desired shift, (ii) priority areas for interventions, (iii) possible paths toward enabling transitions including interactions between priority areas for interventions, as well as (iv) chains of reasoning for policy interventions. The approach was piloted to explore how shifts toward sustainable circulation of materials in Swedish transportation infrastructure could be enabled. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect actors’ assumptions on system failures as well as drivers and possible interventions, supported by the system failures framework of Weber and Rohracher. Seven priority areas for interventions were suggested. A causal loop diagram as well as a simplified version here referred to as “transition logics” were then prepared and used to explore paths toward enabling the desired shift, including possible near-term priorities considering interactions between suggested priority areas for interventions. The causal loop diagram was also used as a basis to develop a chain of reasoning for policy interventions. Results shall be seen as a basis for further dialogue and analysis. Finally, possibilities for further development of the approach are also discussed.