Learning through evaluation: A tentative evaluative scheme for sustainability transition experiments

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Christopher Lüderitz
  • Matthias Bergmann
  • Joannette J. Bos
  • Sarah Burch
  • Anna Davies
  • James Evans
  • Ariane König
  • Megan A. Farrelly
  • Niki Frantzeskaki
  • Robert B. Gibson
  • Braden Kay
  • Derk Loorbach
  • Kes McCormick
  • Oliver Parodi
  • Felix Rauschmayer
  • Uwe Schneidewind
  • Michael Stauffacher
  • Franziska Stelzer
  • Gregory Trencher
  • Johannes Venjakob
  • Philip J. Vergragt
  • Frances R. Westley

Transitions towards sustainability are urgently needed to address the interconnected challenges of economic development, ecological integrity, and social justice, from local to global scales. Around the world, collaborative science-society initiatives are forming to conduct experiments in support of sustainability transitions. Such experiments, if carefully designed, provide significant learning opportunities for making progress on transition efforts. Yet, there is no broadly applicable evaluative scheme available to capture this critical information across a large number of cases, and to guide the design of transition experiments. To address this gap, the article develops such a scheme, in a tentative form, drawing on evaluative research and sustainability transitions scholarship, alongside insights from empirical cases. We critically discuss the scheme's key features of being generic, comprehensive, operational, and formative. Furthermore, we invite scholars and practitioners to apply, reflect and further develop the proposed tentative scheme - making evaluation and experiments objects of learning.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Cleaner Production
Volume169
Pages (from-to)61-76
Number of pages16
ISSN0959-6526
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15.12.2017

    Research areas

  • Transdisciplinary studies - Sustainability transformation, Analytical-evaluative framework, Transition labs, Real-world laboratories, Sustainability assessment, Sustainability transition experiments

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Vocational identity as a mediator of the relationship between core self-evaluations and life and job satisfaction
  2. Higher Wages in Exporting Firms
  3. The 1986 Principles Relating to Remote Sensing of the Earth from Outer Space (RS Princi­ples)
  4. Mechanisms of teleological change
  5. Value of large-scale linear networks for bird conservation
  6. The Weird and the Eerie
  7. Generalizing Trust
  8. Dissolved carbon leaching from soil is a crucial component of the net ecosystem carbon balance
  9. Hacking Crowdfunding
  10. Towards a bridging concept for undesirable resilience in social-ecological systems
  11. Dimension theoretical properties of generalized Baker's transformations
  12. Noticing Colour
  13. The Timing of Daily Demand for Goods and Services
  14. A directional modification of the Levkovitch-Svendsen cross-hardening model based on the stress deviator
  15. Impact assessment of emissions stabilization scenarios with and without induced technological change
  16. Methodological Challenges in Sustainability Science: A Call for Method Plurality, Procedural Rigor and Longitudinal Research
  17. Headway Control and Comfort in Vehicle Automation
  18. Introduction to Music and the Politics of Memory
  19. Influence of Different Biogenic Fuels on Base Oil Aging
  20. Grassroots Innovations for Inclusive Development
  21. Die coatings influence evaluation and friction model selection in aluminium extrusion by means of visioplasticity technique
  22. Drivers of within-tree leaf trait variation in a tropical planted forest varying in tree species richness
  23. Life satisfaction in Germany after reunification: Additional insights on the pattern of convergence
  24. Introduction to the Psychology of Entrepreneurship
  25. BAuA-Arbeitszeitbefragung: Vergleich 2015 – 2017 – 2019
  26. Are the terms “Socio-economic status” and “Class status” a warped form of reasoning for Max Weber?
  27. Sustainable Development and Quality Assurance in Higher Education
  28. Towards a Sustainable Use of Phosphorus
  29. Putting sustainable chemistry and resource use into context
  30. Mythen der Edda in der deutschen Dichtung
  31. Initial hazard screening for genotoxicity of photo-transformation products of ciprofloxacin by applying a combination of experimental and in-silico testing
  32. Prototypische Lehr-Lern-Bausteine
  33. A Framework for Ecopreneurship
  34. Bottom-up effects of plant diversity on multitrophic interactions in a biodiversity experiment
  35. Unequal paths to clienthood