Socio-technical change linking expectations and representations: Innovating thermal treatment of municipal solid waste

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

This paper combines two theoretical perspectives: future technological expectations mobilising resources, and social representations assimilating new ideas through anchoring onto familiar frames of reference. The combination is applied to the controversial case of thermal-treatment options for municipal solid waste, especially via gasification technology. Stakeholders' social representations set criteria for technological expectations and their demonstration requirements, whose fulfilment in turn has helped gasification to gain more favourable representations. Through a differential 'anchoring', gasification is represented as matching incineration's positive features while avoiding its negative ones. Despite their limitations, current two-stage combustion gasifiers are promoted as a crucial transition towards a truly 'advanced' form producing a clean syngas: R&D investment reinforces expectations for advancing the technology. Such linkages between technological expectations and social representations may have broader relevance to socio-technical change, especially where public controversy arises over the wider systemic role of an innovation trajectory.

OriginalspracheEnglisch
ZeitschriftScience and Public Policy
Jahrgang44
Ausgabenummer2
Seiten (von - bis)211-224
Anzahl der Seiten14
ISSN0302-3427
DOIs
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 01.04.2017

DOI

Zuletzt angesehen

Publikationen

  1. Productivity and International Firm Activities: What do we know?
  2. Intra- and interspecific hybridization in invasive Siberian elm
  3. Biological Diversity and Education for Sustainable Development
  4. Reconstructing the “biopiracy” debate from a justice perspective
  5. Beta diversity of plant species in human-transformed landscapes
  6. Uncertainty and sustainability in the management of rangelands
  7. La diplomatie française face à la crise royale en Hongrie (1921)
  8. Synchronisation und Desynchronisation von Innovationsprozessen?
  9. The impact of perceived partisanship on climate policy support
  10. Einfluss von (digitalen) Displays auf das Kundenverhalten am POS
  11. Metaphern mehrsprachiger Schüler*innen zu abstrakten Phänomenen
  12. The Inada conditions for material resource inputs reconsidered
  13. Inklusive Gestaltung einer Einheit offenen Forschenden Lernens
  14. Silent reading fluency and comprehension in bilingual children
  15. Integrative Nachhaltigkeitsökonomie und Naturschutzmanagement
  16. Die ökonomischen Kosten des Klimawandels und der Klimapolitik
  17. Arzneimittel, Diagnostika und Desinfektionsmittel in der Umwelt
  18. Performance measurement in sustainable supply chain management
  19. Introduction to celebrating Latin American talent in chemistry
  20. Bedeutung von Lerngelegenheiten für den Erwerb von DaZ-Kompetenz
  21. Article 28 Relationship with Existing International Conventions
  22. Differentiating customer engaging behavior by targeted benefits
  23. "ich heule Rotz und Wasser!" - Metaperspektiven auf Online-Fan-Trauer
  24. Worship as the Heart of Theology: Luther`s intercultural approach
  25. Cross-national attunement to popular songs across time and place
  26. From simulation to real-world robotic mobile fulfillment systems
  27. The relation of COVID-19 to the UN sustainable development goals
  28. Environmental Management Accounting and Supply Chain Management
  29. Schülerfeedback - was steckt hinter dem Kreuz auf dem Fragebogen?