Anchorage of Innovations: Using the Greenhouse Effect to Save Energy
Year: 2008
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: To make the agricultural sector more sustainable requires system innovations, i.e. new technologies as well as institutional change. The dynamic of such system innovations can be understood using the `multilevel perspective¿ (MLP). The two key levels in the MLP are the so-called `socio-technical regime¿ (an existing system) and `technological niches¿ (a breeding ground for radical alternatives to the system). The concepts used in the MLP, however, are too general to be directly useful for policies seeking to stimulate sustainable development. Using a case study on various attempts to reduce energy consumption in glasshouse horticulture in the Netherlands we have refined the MLP to make it more useful as a policy tool. Innovation within an existing regime tends to be rather incremental while more radical innovations are often developed by outsiders in niches. We use the term `anchorage¿ to explain how such radical innovations can start transforming an existing regime and overcome various barriers. It appears that an intermediary type of actor between outsiders and insiders plays an important role in these processes which we call `hybrid actors¿
Authors: Elzen, B., Leeuwis, C., van Mierlo, Barbara
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2794931064