TY - JOUR

T1 - Socio-technical change linking expectations and representations

T2 - Innovating thermal treatment of municipal solid waste

AU - Levidow, Les

AU - Upham, Paul

N1 - Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council EP/K036793/1 EPSRC

PY - 2017/4/1

Y1 - 2017/4/1

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Transdisciplinary studies

KW - Advanced thermal treatment

KW - Gasification

KW - Incineration

KW - Municipal solid waste

KW - Social representations

KW - Technological expectations

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85019685705&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1093/scipol/scw054

DO - 10.1093/scipol/scw054

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85019685705

VL - 44

SP - 211

EP - 224

JO - Science and Public Policy

JF - Science and Public Policy

SN - 0302-3427

IS - 2

ER -