TY - JOUR

T1 - Futurizing politics and the sustainability of real-world experiments

T2 - What role for innovation and exnovation in the German energy transition?

AU - David, Martin

AU - Groß, Matthias

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2019, The Author(s).

PY - 2019/7/1

Y1 - 2019/7/1

N2 - The German energy transition towards more sustainable forms of energy production has been characterized as a large-scale or real-world experiment. Whereas experiments are open-ended processes set up explicitly to allow (or even generate) surprises, by contrast sustainability implies the pursuit of clearly defined, normative ends. Whereas much of the literature on system transformation builds on the concept of innovation, our hypothesis is that focusing on the “natural” flipside of innovation—called here “exnovation,” i.e., departing from unsustainable pathways—should also be seen as a valuable conceptual strategy for coping with the tension between the unavoidable indeterminacy resulting from unknown risks and the necessary amendment and redefinition of goals and rules. In this paper the German energy transition (Energiewende) is used to exemplify the recursive processes of experimentation that make it possible to accommodate surprise, and, thus, to conceptualize the unavoidable tension between innovation and the maintenance of older, unsustainable structures.

AB - The German energy transition towards more sustainable forms of energy production has been characterized as a large-scale or real-world experiment. Whereas experiments are open-ended processes set up explicitly to allow (or even generate) surprises, by contrast sustainability implies the pursuit of clearly defined, normative ends. Whereas much of the literature on system transformation builds on the concept of innovation, our hypothesis is that focusing on the “natural” flipside of innovation—called here “exnovation,” i.e., departing from unsustainable pathways—should also be seen as a valuable conceptual strategy for coping with the tension between the unavoidable indeterminacy resulting from unknown risks and the necessary amendment and redefinition of goals and rules. In this paper the German energy transition (Energiewende) is used to exemplify the recursive processes of experimentation that make it possible to accommodate surprise, and, thus, to conceptualize the unavoidable tension between innovation and the maintenance of older, unsustainable structures.

KW - Sustainability Science

KW - Futurization

KW - Transformation

KW - Innovation

KW - Exnovation

KW - Real-world experiment

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85063315245&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s11625-019-00681-0

DO - 10.1007/s11625-019-00681-0

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 14

SP - 991

EP - 1000

JO - Sustainability Science

JF - Sustainability Science

SN - 1862-4065

IS - 4

ER -