Research Policy 39 (2010) 449458

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Research Policy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/respol

Energy regions: The transformative power of regional discourses on

socio-technical futures
Philipp Spth a, , Harald Rohracher b
a
b

IFP Institute of Forest and Environmental Policy, University of Freiburg, Tennenbacherstrasse 4, 79106 Freiburg, Germany
IFZ Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture, University of Klagenfurt, Schloegelgasse 2, 8010 Graz, Austria

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 1 August 2008
Received in revised form 1 December 2009
Accepted 1 January 2010
Available online 19 February 2010
Keywords:
Guiding visions
Transition management
Multi-level framework
Regional governance
Energy systems

a b s t r a c t
Guiding visions play an important role in the transition management approach as a central means of
mobilizing social actors and the co-ordination of dispersed agency.
Energy regions in Austria are an interesting example for the strategic promotion of such guiding visions
in the context of regional development. We describe the case of Murau, an alpine district in which a strong
actor network has been built around a vision of systematically exploiting renewable energy sources and
at the same time saving the region from economic decay. The vision gained much authority and has been
institutionalised at various levels of regional governance. It furthermore was supported by and played
an important role for regime level attempts to inuence socio-technical change.
Development and social propagation of such visions are inherently political and contested processes
involving much strategizing and anticipation of conict. We describe particular discursive strategies
applied in niches such as the combination and translation of sentiments into localised visions and
demonstrations of feasibility. These strategies can be understood as systematic attempts to support
discursive shifts at regime level by means of local activities, and aim to modify rather durable power
structures.
We suggest ways to analyse such discursive practices in order to orient strategic action in the
course of such processes: analysing guiding visions and their interference with other emerging trends;
extending analyses across spatial scales (e.g. translations) and across thematic elds (e.g. convergence
of agendas); and focusing on processes of stabilisation, institutionalisation and mutually reinforcing
developments.
2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
At both national and EU-level ambitious targets have been set
for a substantial redirection of energy systems towards greater
sustainability. When it comes to the translation of such general
objectives concerning our energy future into concrete policies and
practices, however, we nd not consent but much debate and
controversy. This is not surprising, as the concretisation and materialisation of general notions of sustainability into concrete decisions,
investments and practices always proves to be a matter of politics
and social dispute (Hajer, 1995; Meadowcroft, 2005).
In this paper we analyse and discuss the emergence and role
of guiding visions in such socio-technical transformation processes towards greater sustainability. In particular, we investigate a
regional vision building process for a sustainable energy system in
an Austrian energy region and discuss its contribution in terms of a

Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 761 2033725.

E-mail address: spaeth@ifp.uni-freiburg.de (P. Spth).
0048-7333/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.respol.2010.01.017

discursive niche to a transition towards a sustainable low-carbon

energy system.
There is a growing body of literature dealing with the transition
of socio-technical systems towards sustainability and the system
innovations this requires. As set out in more detail in the introductory paper of this special section (Smith, Voss, Grin; introduction
to this section) the dynamics of such transformation processes can
best be understood in a multi-level perspective (MLP) of innovation
(Rip and Kemp, 1998; Geels, 2005). This perspective distinguishes
a micro-level of protected niches, functioning as test-beds for the
emergence of new socio-technical constellations, a meso-level of
socio-technical regimes (such as energy systems) and a broader
context of the socio-technical landscape, which encompasses cultural norms, values and persistent socio-technical structures.
While the multi-level perspective convincingly explains the
obduracy of existing energy system congurations and the
dynamics of system transitions in a historical perspective, our
understanding of ongoing transition processes still is far from complete. The MLP mainly situates transformation dynamics in the
interplay of technology variation in (temporally protected) niches

450

P. Spth, H. Rohracher / Research Policy 39 (2010) 449458

and selection processes at the regime level. Recent work has additionally investigated pressures from the socio-technical landscape
as a driver for regime transitions (Geels and Schot, 2007). Another
focus of research is the dynamic relationship between niches and
regimes and the question of how such niche developments are generated, stabilised, translated into and linked with regime changes
(Raven, 2004, 2006, 2007; Geels and Raven, 2006; Lovell, 2007;
Smith, 2007). Schot and Geels identify (among others) the following
issues for future research:
- the role of visions in the process of niche formation, including
their inuence on the positive feedbacks between changes at the
niche, regime and landscape level;
- the nature and source of protection of niches that is conducive to
its further development, as well as the management of selective
exposure (Schot and Geels, 2008, p. 550).
The development of guiding visions has been identied as a central
element of governance strategies which aim at directing sociotechnical regime transitions towards desired outcomes. To what
extent such processes can be intentionally managed despite their
multi-level, multi-actor character is an open question central to
the critique of the transition management approach (Berkhout et
al., 2003; Healey et al., 2003; Shove and Walker, 2007).
In this article, we want to demonstrate how analysing the
emergence of such visions in discursive niches and their interrelation with broader discourses about sustainable energy futures can
indeed help us address some of the open questions about the ongoing transformation of energy systems in a multi-level perspective.
A close look at visions and local discourses will help us to better
understand how niche development and regime change is linked
with other socio-political processes such as urban or regional development, with other sectors (e.g. agriculture) and with policies and
controversies at a national level. We are especially interested in two
interrelated issues: (a) how do certain visions develop the power
to effectively coordinate action within and across different scales
while others dont and (b) what effects can hegemonic visions
developed in a small region have on transitions of broader scope.
Empirically, we examine a transformation process in a so-called
energy region in Austria where collective guiding visions play an
explicit role in the strategies of actors attempting to inuence sociotechnical change. Such ongoing processes are still in ux and the
outcome and radicalness of the transformation processes can only
be analysed in hindsight. We can nevertheless gain new empirical
insights about how such guiding visions are developed and diffused
by different groups of actors, about interrelations with discourses
at different spatial scales, and the possible role of such regional
processes within the multi-level dynamics of energy system
transitions.
The following Section 2 will review different strands of literature
on the role of visions in processes of socio-technical transformation.
Section 3 is devoted to the empirical analysis of vision building
processes as studied in one such energy region. We report on our
empirical insights focusing on the following four aspects:
(1) How do local actors link up with (a variety of) meso-level discourses when tailoring guiding visions?
(2) Which principles do they follow when aligning heterogeneous
networks of actors?
(3) How is dominance in regional discourse achieved? By drawing
from which resources?
(4) How is local discourse supported by meso-level actors and how
is meso-level discourse potentially inuenced?
We will embed the development of guiding visions for a particular energy region into the multi-level process of energy system

transformation in Austria and discuss their potential role in a transition of the Austrian energy system towards sustainability. In the
conclusions we nally aim at a more differentiated view of the
development and functions of guiding visions in socio-technical
transformation processes and ask how they might be better understood and more effectively inuenced in order to shape transitions
towards sustainability.
2. The role of guiding visions in socio-technical change
elements of a conceptual framework
In which ways are socio-technical transformation processes
inuenced by visions of future system states and to which extent
can such processes be intentionally inuenced by certain actors?
How do such visions correspond with actual socio-technical recongurations and new actor networks? How do they stabilise and
shape niche-regime interactions and link these interactions with
social processes outside of the niche or regime? These questions
are crucial for the debate of sustainability transitions and so far
have not been satisfactorily answered. During the last 15 years,
various elds of research have developed a renewed interest in
the role of visions and coalition building in bringing about political, technological and organisational change. Discursive strategies
regained recognition as an important explanatory factor in policy studies, and at the same time studies on the social shaping of
technology were inuenced by a new appreciation of the role of
expectations and guiding visions or Leitbilder as it was termed
in the German debate. With regard to the question (a) of how
visions become inuential, we will resort below to several debates
in techno-science and policy studies. The question (b) concerning
effects of regional discourse on broader transition dynamics will
then be debated primarily with reference to the multi-level perspective which is essential to the literature on system innovations
and socio-technical transitions.
2.1. Guiding visions and Leitbilder in technology development
The concept of Leitbild (literally guiding image), introduced
by Meinolf Dierkes and colleagues in the early 1990s, soon became
a major term of the scientic discourse on technology development
(Technikgenese) in Germany and beyond (Dierkes et al., 1996).
Leitbild refers to cognitive and discursive constructs decisive for
the co-ordination of the behaviour of the various actors involved in
the development of technology. Leitbilder are expected to bridge
language problems across a lay/expert divide or between different professional knowledge cultures (Mambrey and Tepper, 2000).
The extent to which these visions are open to differing individual
interpretations consequently is a crucial feature.
The Leitbild approach, although developed with rather high
ambitions, did not convincingly specify the possibilities and preconditions for the intentional use and promotion of guiding visions
in what necessarily are messy, multi-level, multi-actor processes.
From an analysts point of view, assessing the transformative potential of guiding visions in the making will always be much more
demanding than the retrospective reconstruction of the making of
heroes (Borup et al., 2006, p. 290) or of failed visions (Brown et al.,
2000; Geels and Smit, 2000). The Leitbild approach has been criticised mainly for underrating struggles about discursive hegemony
and authority. Grin and Grunwald (2000) for example expressed
scepticism about managerial ambitions to use visions as a steering device by reminding us of some important facts: while shared
visions are indeed always involved in shaping the development of
socio-technical systems, they are themselves closely bound to the
slow metamorphosis of the normative and discursive landscape
they are embedded in. Therefore they can hardly be shaped and

P. Spth, H. Rohracher / Research Policy 39 (2010) 449458

strategically used by single actors but rather tend to reproduce and

stabilise the status quo.
Out of similar concerns with pertinent practices of technology
assessment, the approach of constructive technology assessment
aims at an opening up of discourse and a critical discussion of such
visions by different actors in new arenas, bringing in new perspectives formerly excluded from the relevant processes of vision
building and therewith inducing a change in the course of the vision
development (Rip et al., 1995). However, creating new arenas for
deliberation does not guarantee increased reexivity of the politics
of visioning. Besides, important questions about the legitimacy of
institutional design in this regard remain unanswered (Grin, 2000).
2.2. Visions in the transition management approach
The governance approach of transition management as developed and implemented in the Netherlands during the past two
decades is concerned with the shaping of socio-technical system innovation by systematically creating transition arenas which
bring about directed pressure on certain socio-technical regimes.
In this perspective the term guiding vision depicts an instrument in an agenda building process with regard to long-term
policy goals and transformation strategies. The transition management approach stresses the importance of guiding visions
as a means of coordination: transition management is based on
long-term visions which function as a framework for formulating short-term objectives and evaluating existing policy. If they
are to adumbrate transitional pathways, these visions must be
appealing and imaginative and be supported by a broad range of
actors (Rotmans and Van Asselt, 2001). An important innovation
of the approach is the establishment of new arenas for deliberation,
the so-called transition arenas, bringing together knowledgeable and visionary experts and stakeholders who are supposed to
develop new solutions, consensus and long-term strategies for both
systematic and radical transition processes. Based on the common problem perception and the shared sustainability vision a
joint transition-agenda can be designed (. . .). It coordinates action
between mutually dependent actors. Coordination is thus achieved
not only through markets but also through collective choice and
new institutions (Kemp and Rotmans, 2004, p. 149).
This idea has been criticised for too optimistically portraying
the process of vision formation as a per se constructive process
overrating the potential for learning and underrating the probability for a clashing of interests. How exactly such guiding and
binding visions can be developed, shared, made inuential and
defended against deconstruction has not been thoroughly conceptualised for a long time nor has it been studied empirically.
Evolutionary language did not take analysis very far: based on a
process of variation and selection new visions emerge, others die
out and existing visions will be adjusted. Only during the course of
the transition process the most innovative, promising and feasible
transition visions and images will be chosen (Kemp and Rotmans,
2004, p. 148).
Berkhout and Smith et al. consequently demand transition
researchers to be more reective, explicit and specic about the
role of divergent interests and power in this essential rst step (the
building of support and expectations around a vision) in the transition management process (Berkhout et al., 2003, p. 15). They
also question the two fundamental yet implicit assumptions made
in much of the transition management literature, that a guiding
vision is functional to regime change and that it is possible to identify ex ante a vision which may then be followed with real prospects
of success (Berkhout et al., 2003, p. 13).
Only in recent years have the functions of guiding visions been
subject to more thorough conceptualisation (Smith et al., 2005;
Genus and Coles, 2008). Smith et al. for example distinguish ve

451

functions: visions (1) map a possibility space, (2) function as a

heuristic, (3) provide a stable frame for target setting and monitoring progress, (4) serve as a metaphor for building actor networks
and (5) offer a narrative for focusing capital and other resources.
With regard to the factors that make the visions inuential, Smith
et al. stress a visions degree of interpretative exibility, the t
with the cultural and political context, in which it is propounded
and the backing by inuential and credible supporters (Smith et al.,
2005, p. 15067).
Recent accounts of the transition management approach do
acknowledge the general dilemmas of any attempt to steer or
manage societal change by a discursive process in transition arenas (Kemp et al., 2007, p. 31620; Loorbach, 2007, p. 141ff). But
the question, under which conditions workshops with a heterogeneous set of actors can actually result in consensual guiding visions
(Berkhout, 2006; Shove and Walker, 2007) and to which extent this
is necessary, remains unanswered. Many case studies have been
illustrating how certain visions of a socio-technical future though
embraced by powerful actor networks can in fact be strongly
and effectively opposed by other actors with differing world views
(Callon, 1986; Brown et al., 2000). This feature of the generally contested nature of visions seems nevertheless still to be downplayed
by at least parts of the literature on transition management.
On the other hand, visions and discourses can develop in
a remarkably consensual way. Lovell et al. (2009) for example
observed a convergence of discourses and policy agendas on climate change and the transformation of the energy system in the
British debate, resulting in an astonishingly smooth shift in policy paradigms, at least at a rhetorical level. Our analyses of several
energy regions drawing on discourses of sustainable energy as
well as of rural development point in a similar direction. Conicts
may nevertheless appear in the process of translating such general
visions into concrete socio-technical congurations.
The direction of socio-technical change is obviously a result of
complex multi-level dynamics in which actors strategically aim for
inuence or even hegemony. Success in these games does not only
depend on power in its structural forms. Rather, as our case will
show, there is signicant leeway for the various actors to increase
their authority, to create legitimacy, in sum: to gain inuence and
power via several discursive strategies. For a more thorough conceptualisation of such dynamics, we will therefore also draw from
discourse-oriented studies of policy making and politics.
2.3. Guiding visions and discourse coalitions in policy studies
Obviously, rhetoric and the pro-active creation of storylines and
visions has always been an important means of politics. Discursive
strategies certainly modify a given distribution of power as the
inuence of actors e.g. on the shaping of visions depends on many
more factors besides formal power and democratic legitimacy.
Strange enough, for many decades, the importance of discursive
strategies has been largely neglected as an explanatory factor by
policy studies. But from the 1970s onwards, the role of ideas and
visions has been rehabilitated as an independent factor vis a vis
e.g. interests (Dryzek, 1990; Fischer and Forester, 1993; Campbell,
1998, 2002; John, 1998).
Especially Maarten Hajer pointed out how important it is
to understand the subtle discursive dynamics at the breeding
grounds of potentially guiding visions when we want to understand e.g. the different routes that environmental politics took in
different European countries (Hajer, 1995). What counts in the
game about discursive hegemony is not so much formal democratic legitimacy but other forms of authority and the resources
an alliance can gain access to. Hajer developed a framework for the
analysis of such discourse coalitions and how they are promoting particular visions, putting special emphasis on the strategies of

452

P. Spth, H. Rohracher / Research Policy 39 (2010) 449458

actors to win others to support their storylines. The dynamics of

this argumentative game is determined by three factors: credibility, acceptability, and trust. Credibility is required to make actors
believe in the subject-positioning that a given discourse implies for
them and to live by the structure positionings it implies; acceptability requires that position to appear attractive or necessary; trust
refers to the fact that doubt might be suppressed and inherent
uncertainties might be taken for granted if actors manage to secure
condence either in the author (whether that is an institute or a
person) e.g. by referring to its impeccable record, or in the practice
through which a given denition of reality was achieved, e.g. by
showing what sort of deliberations were the basis of a given claim
(Hajer, 1995 p. 59).
2.4. The role of visions in multi-level contexts
Hajers analytical framework of discourse coalitions has
already been fruitfully linked with the multi-level perspective on
transition processes (Smith et al., 2005; Smith and Kern, 2009;
Lovell et al., 2009). With regard to the interactions of discourses and
visions at various levels and the mainstreaming or translation of
innovations from niches to regimes, we have to be especially aware
of the specic contexts, settings and types of regime transformation processes as set out in the work of Smith et al. (2005) and Geels
and Schot (2007).
As the case of energy regions will illustrate, we need to particularly address the interplay of guiding visions and policy objectives
in different arenas of discourse and governance. As the nicheregime relations found in reality can be very complex, it is often
difcult to relate particular discursive developments to the basic
niches-regime-landscape model. Nevertheless, several suggestions
have been made to develop the model of the multi-level perspective
further with regard to complex multi-niche/multi-regime interactions (Geels and Raven, 2006; Raven and Verbong, 2006). Some
authors also pay particular attention to the role spatial scales can
play in MLP dynamics (Raven, 2007; Lovell, 2007; Smith, 2007;
Truffer et al., 2008; Truffer, 2007; Hodson and Marvin, 2009). Given
the idiom of local niches in the MLP, one needs to be careful not to
simply equate the levels of the MLP with spatial scales. The levels of
the MLP can in fact be better conceptualised as levels of structuration. Discourses as far as they are constraining actors behaviour
and in consequence their attempts of structuring are then to be
located at a meso-level of society, and some argue they therefore
belong to the regime level (Geels, 2005; Grin, 2008). The relationship of niche activities (including individual discursive practices)
to the regime (in our case the socio-technical regime concerning
energy) is then equalling the relationship of la parole to la langue
in the terms of the French linguists or of policy innovation (as the
achievement of policy outcome by agents in interaction) to policy
arrangement (as the positioning of agents in arrangements mediated by rules and resources) in the words of Arts and Van Tatenhove
(2004) (see also Smith, 2007).
In the following case study of energy regions, we will empirically
investigate the formation and translation process of regional energy
visions and their interrelation and interaction with discourses and
actor coalitions at different levels.
3. Experimenting with new socio-technical congurations
in an Austrian energy region
Energy regions have been set up and put forward by regional
initiatives in Austria since the early 1990s (Alber, 2009). Their
aim is to develop coherent visions for the regions energy future
and to translate them into practical strategies focusing at an
exploitation of regional renewable energy potentials. Towards

this end participatory processes of visioning and target setting

have been initiated, involving various stakeholders i.e. professionals from relevant businesses, experts in administration and
non-governmental organisations, and often also engaged citizens.
These regional initiatives combine (a) the formulation of a collective vision and target setting with (b) the strategic formation
of actor networks comprising stakeholders from different parts of
society and (c) the attempts to implement the guiding visions in
the local socio-technical context.
Our analysis is based on primarily one out of four case studies
in Austrian energy regions of a size between 30,000 and 270,000
inhabitants. Apart from documentary analysis, we interviewed 32
persons (mainly activists in the four regions but also administrative bodies at different levels, etc.) to document different views on
the individual processes and to discuss the adequate setup and support of such initiatives. In a series of workshops major players from
the four regions together with an interdisciplinary team of experts
(regional development, communication, social sciences) reected
on their experiences and developed improved individual strategies
for networking and communication (Spth et al., 2007).
We asked particularly for crucial preconditions of the widely
perceived success of some energy regions in Austria: how have
vision building processes been set up, how have guiding visions
been developed, transformed to a regional agenda and stabilised?
What is the institutional context of energy regions and which
actor congurations are at the basis of vision development and
implementation? And most importantly, can guiding visions really
coordinate concrete decisions and impact on technical change on a
regional level?
In the following section we exemplarily analyse the setup of one
of the four energy regions studied.
3.1. The Energy Vision of Murau
Murau is a rural, alpine district in Upper Styria. It is sparsely populated by roughly 31,000 inhabitants. The net loss of inhabitants
over the last decade exceeded Styrian average (2.4% in total from
19912001). It is located around a rather peripheral alpine valley
and is in large parts covered by forests. In terms of potentials for
renewable energy provision, the most dominant factor is an enormous stock of wooden biomass from the largely privately owned
forests. The topography furthermore provides several opportunities for small-scale hydropower and wind-farms.
Since the region is characteristic for many peripheral alpine
regions with a rather dire economic outlook, the Murau example for
a development strategy based on bio-energy has by now inspired
many more processes in deprived regions all over the country.
In 2003, the head of the regional energy agency of Upper Styria
together with a professional facilitator of participatory processes
started an initiative to develop and implement the Energy Vision
of Murau. The process was started off by bringing together a small
circle of energy activists. They developed the rst idea of creating a broader process of participation in order to kick-off, facilitate
and coordinate the implementation of various projects for renewable energy and energy efciency in the region. A central aspect
of their idea was to embed the renewed interest in biomass heating into a more comprehensive approach of energy system change
and regional development and to create synergies between and
legitimacy for a variety of agendas and projects.
3.1.1. The Murau Energy Objectives for 2015
The initiators invited organisations, companies and citizens of
the region to a series of workshops. In the beginning 30 people,
mostly representing local energy related organisations participated
in the process. They articulated their ideas about how the specic
situation of the region relates to general visions and objectives

P. Spth, H. Rohracher / Research Policy 39 (2010) 449458

about sustainable energy futures, regional development and climate protection. The discussions revolved around storylines like
by using fossil energy we transfer our money to the sheiks and
there is enough biomass in our woods for our full heat & electricity supply. All participants had a chance to contribute to the
debate and moderators made sure that priorities were selected in
consensus and reected the willingness of participants to actively
contribute to the implementation of objectives. These priorities
were then cast into a sketchy vision of the regional socio-technical
future the vision of energy autonomy for the district, consisting
of ve objectives to be realised before the year 2015.
The most important three of these objectives are:
The district of Murau is energy autonomous with regard to heat
and electricity i.e. a positive balance for renewables in primary
energy ows has been achieved.
Prospering regional economic circuits of energy production and
consumption have been established and a surplus of economic
value is created by a net export of energy carriers.
A high level of public awareness concerning the need for an energetic circular ow economy (energetische Kreislaufwirtschaft)
has been achieved (especially among pupils).
Measures that will help in achieving these objectives have been
identied and prioritized. For the top measures permanent working
groups were established.
3.2. Establishing the guiding vision for the region
The strategic selection of storylines linking ecological discourses with e.g. discourses of economic development seems to
be an important strategy in setting regional development agendas. Energy transitions and regional projects in support of such
transitions are thereby embedded and linked up with other sociopolitical agendas and social resources. The objective of creating
regional economic value by substituting the import of primary
energy carriers was a central concern in all energy regions studied, besides the environmental concern to support a move towards
more sustainable energy systems. That these two objectives are
concordant with each other was very much welcomed as the
initiators expected to mobilize more actors with the economic
objective than with the environmental concerns about fossil fuel
consumption. Emphasis was thus put on the assessment of regional
potentials for value creation by bringing regional, renewable
energy sources into use, with biomass naturally playing an important but not exclusive role in many alpine or agricultural regions of
Austria. The success of this strategy opened up particular opportunities for the formation of new heterogeneous actor networks. In
other words, it contributed to the formation of a discursive niche.
Besides selectively focusing on the regionally most attractive
aspects of energy transitions, the group also managed to relate
to very catchy ideographs (van Lente, 2000). The idea of energy
autarky or self-reliance for example is very attractive to Austrian
farmers and the term features very prominently in public debates at
all spatial scales. As far as the activists in the region are concerned,
this objective is not at all based on romantic ideas about regional
detachment. Nevertheless, it was welcomed that such connotations exist in the broader discourse. In the regional discourse, these
very general and imaginative catchwords were translated into a
set of more or less quantiable targets (see the three main objectives above) in order to render them applicable to the judgement
of certain actions and to give them trustworthy substance.
Such guiding visions share many features with political programmes. For the latter Campbell stated that the probability that a
programmatic idea will effect policy making varies in part according to the extent to which it provides clear and simple solutions

453

to instrumental problems, ts existing paradigms, conforms to

prevailing public sentiment, and is framed in socially appropriate ways (Campbell, 1998, p. 399). These conditions can be met
specically on a regional level. We saw that regionally specic
opportunities for mobilization (primary energy potentials, forest
owning farmers as engaged actors, etc.) have been identied and
consequently exploited. An important criterion for the in fact
strategic selection of specic storylines consequently was their
expected attractiveness to groups of actors who were seen to be
important for the implementation of the Energy Vision in various
contexts. Other issues, though in principle of utmost importance for
a regional transition towards a low-carbon and sustainable energy
system (e.g. alternative systems of mobility in rural regions), were
excluded from the agenda. The initiators of the Murau Energy Vision
argued that the vision needed to be focused and that too much of
thematic broadness would have hampered the process. However,
the important function of such a strategy is probably not the delimitation of scope alone but also the avoidance of contentious issues
which did not promise to yield consensual win-win solutions.
3.3. Aligning heterogeneous actors and mobilizing resources
In order to realise the objectives set out in the Energy Vision,
a wide network of relevant actors had to be gradually established.
What were the regional opportunities that the actors could build
upon? And which strategies did they pursue?
Being situated in a small region means that many relevant actors
know each other already from frequent face-to-face interaction in
various contexts, some being professional, some being related to
family ties. The initiator from the regional energy agency for example knew many public buildings and their heating installations due
to his work as an energy consultant and could easily link up with
interested parties. By organizing public seminars for (potential)
builders of private homes together with the regional branches of
two banks he could also use their contacts and publicity channels.
After the Murau Energy objectives for 2015 had been presented to the public in 2003, the group of people involved in
workshops and other events grew to about 50 individuals. Subgroups elaborated specic strategies to achieve the objectives,
focusing e.g. on wood-red district heating systems, on solar
heating systems for private homes, on projects for renewable electricity production and on ways to improve the energy efciency
of buildings. The frequent meetings of a heterogeneous group of
stakeholders have been functional to facilitate the realisation of e.g.
renewable electricity projects and biomass based heating systems
by signicantly reducing the transaction costs of such projects.
3.3.1. The composition of the alliance and the role of
intermediaries
Most of the participants were professionally occupied with
energy issues already before their active involvement in the Energy
Vision process. The aim of the actors was nevertheless to achieve
the broadest possible variety of actors and to gain access to key
resources via particular stakeholders. The owner of a company
installing heating systems met a former mayor, together with the
secretary general of an agricultural association. Beside their professional knowledge and competence to articulate expectations with
regard to a future energy system, these people also brought in
their reputation and means of inuencing various decisions due to
the positions they hold in several societal domains. Politicians and
ofcers of the regional and municipal administrations for example translated the joint vision into decision making processes on
public investments as well as into publicly funded awareness campaigns. Business people jointly and individually adopted strategies
explicitly in support of the objectives and promoted them to their
customers. The involvement of business people was furthermore

454

P. Spth, H. Rohracher / Research Policy 39 (2010) 449458

Fig. 1. The Murau Energy Vision discourse and informal network connects actors of
at least four different societal spheres.

sought after since they lent credibility to the economic objectives

and rationality of the process.
The participation of a specic variety of actors from different
parts of society can be of paramount importance for the momentum that such an alliance can generate. Only an alliance including
major businesses, NGOs and governmental authorities can assume
enough authority for their joint objectives, agendas and standards
because a more homogeneous or incomplete constellation would
not be trusted to produce socially robust and operational solutions
that reect some sort of public good but rather partial interests
(cf. Bostrm, 2006).
In Murau, a crucial role was played by few people who
strategically coordinated the initiative by selectively motivating
stakeholders to participate and communicating the results via
regional and trans-regional media and personal communication.
The members of this innermost circle describe themselves as
mediators between the spheres of government, enterprises and the
public (Fig. 1).
3.4. Successfully dominating the regional discourse
How and under which conditions can consensus be achieved in
such heterogeneous networks? In Murau, criticism of the objectives and the process was limited to a few singular events. The
fact that the regional manager of a company supplying the paper
industry with machines misused the occasion of a commemorative speech to demonize the energetic use of biomass and
the whole Energy Vision of Murau1 was critically perceived by
the activists but did not have any further negative impact on
the regional energy agenda. One nature conservationist articulated concerns about small hydropower generation along the
remaining unregulated rivers, but again he could not compromise the dynamic triggered by the Energy Vision process. And
the issue of wind turbines has been dealt with in such a modest way restricting the development largely to one mid-sized
wind park that even in this rather contested terrain no stronger
opposition arose. Similarly, unprecedented ads by an initiative
for the efcient use of oil heatings in the local press though
registered by some activists with annoyance did not have
a major impact on the public discourse about energy in the
district.
In Hajers words, the discourse coalition around the energy
vision process was successful in dominating the (regional) discursive space in the sense that it persuaded or forced actors to accept
its rhetorical power and mobilized sufcient levels of credibility,
acceptability, and trust (Hajer, 1995).

Personal communication with the head of the regional energy agency.

This is probably only partly a result of the inclusive and

consensus-seeking strategy of the intermediating actors. Besides
strategic anticipation, several factors helped achieve agreement in
this case: rst, incumbents who could lose from this reorientation of regional development and decisions concerning energy use
and infrastructure have limited interest in such rather peripheral
regions (e.g. no gas network has to be extended or maintained).
Vested interests might well exist, but opposition was not voiced.
It could be that powerful actors might rely rather on invisible networks and the trajectories of former energy related decisions, or
that they just wait for a window of opportunity to strike back.
But in fact the new framing of which energy future was desirable
and what sort of regional development activities were feasible was
so clear to a majority of the regional population that it immediately gained discursive hegemony. With the merger of the policy
agendas concerning energy infrastructure, climate protection and,
most importantly, regional development, we also observe a convergence of regional policy agendas, which according to Lovell et
al. (2009) can contribute to surprisingly consensual policy shifts.
Another feature of the regional constellation which is also clearly
supportive of such discursive hegemony is the integrity of wellknown long-standing energy experts rooted in the region.
3.4.1. A new in-between arena for creating consensus
The process has furthermore been experienced as negotiating
objectives and jointly organising their implementation in between
the realms of administration, major associations, enterprises and
other stakeholders in an inter-organisational network resulting
in actors agreeing with the joint agenda who would usually not
agree with each other. The process has in fact created a new inbetween arena for negotiating and coordinating common agendas.
Characteristically, these new spaces of politics initially exist in
an institutional void: there are no pre-given rules that determine
who is responsible, who has authority over whom, what sort of
accountability is to be expected. Yet as politics takes place between
organizations, all people bring their own institutional expectations
and routines with them. And, as different participants follow their
own logic of appropriateness (. . .), politics in new political spaces
is never only about content, but inevitably also about the rules of
the game and a dynamics of credibility (Hajer and Wagenaar, 2003,
p. 9).
3.4.2. Building up moral authority for the vision
The initiators of the Murau Energy Vision had not been given any
mandate to do what they were doing by a democratically elected
or somehow formally legitimized institution. The guiding vision is
therefore not formally binding to any actor, especially not beyond
the parties of the initial agreement. Nevertheless, the Energy Vision
of Murau managed to reach a remarkably high level of commitment
by diverse regional actors and even some relevance as a moral
imperative to be taken into account for energy related investment decisions. According to the actors themselves, this increasing
social compliance with the vision has been achieved by accumulating trust, credibility, publicity and authority for a process which
was nally perceived as a very comprehensive and integrative
attempt in which all engaged experts and citizens ambitiously
work together.
3.4.3. Reinforcing outcomes: joint strategies and
institutionalisation at various governance levels
Since their publication, the Murau Energy Objectives for 2015
though not binding in a legal sense have played a major role in
the negotiation of many plans, projects and concrete decisions of
public authorities and private enterprises alike.
Firstly private investment decisions have been brought in line
with the Energy Vision. After co-operating in the Murau Energy

P. Spth, H. Rohracher / Research Policy 39 (2010) 449458

Vision initiative, four companies offering and installing heating

systems for example decided to merge their marketing under the
brand of Natur-Installateure (nature installers) and committed
themselves to a minimum quota of bio-based system whenever
offering new heating systems. One of the four companies even
committed itself to installing nothing but renewable energy based
options in all newly built houses, a commitment which brought
the company a lot of attention and its charismatic leader the prize
entrepreneur of the year 2005.
Various calls for tender concerning the replacement of old heating systems in public buildings explicitly called for renewable
energy based solutions. In one case an envisaged touristic development in the district has been subject to an environmental impact
assessment as it involved hundreds of new chalets. The plans submitted to the authorities featured decentralised heating systems
based on liquid natural gas. One of the involved ofcials from the
provincial government wanted to reject these plans with reference
to an incompatibility with the Murau Energy Objectives for 2015.
However, he could not formally do so as these targets had no legally
binding character.
This case led the core group of the process to push for further
steps of institutionalisation and meanwhile the guiding vision
has been given the formal status of binding priorities for economic development at various regional levels. These attempts at
institutionalisation beneted from the fact that the head of the
regional energy agency is not only a key actor in the Energy Vision
process but also ofcially appointed manager of the regional EULEADER-programme and at the same time involved in development
planning on the NUTS-3 level the broader region of Upper Styria
West, inhabited by roughly 105,000 people. As a result the objectives and priorities of the Energy Vision have been recognised
as a guideline at ve different regional levels: single municipalities, small planning associations of 410 municipalities (regionext),
LEADER-Regions (equivalent with district level), NUTS-3 region,
and province (Bundesland). The dynamics between actors and
institutions at so many different scales certainly form an important
part of the opportunity structure of regional energy initiatives (in
Styria in particular). Support mechanisms and planning procedures
of regional development at the inter-municipal and sub-provincial
levels provide crucial opportunities for the funding of the regional
process of networking and capacity building.
The consideration of ways to realize the objectives furthermore
led to projects involving the development of new artefacts like a
special truck for delivering wood chips, the development of new
logistical infrastructures like a regional biomass bourse and of new
services related to biomass heating in private homes. The process
also initiated and coordinated R&D efforts leading to the improvement of technical solutions and business strategies beyond a mere
adaptation to regional circumstances. These complementary and
incremental innovations also play an important role in the communication of the initiative as being practical, down to earth and
benecial in economic terms.
3.5. The interplay of regional dynamics with meso-level
discourses
3.5.1. Support from above
Right from their rst proclamation, the energy objectives
achieved a positive resonance in the local and regional press. This
can be read as an indicator of the fact that the vision and the further
implementation process related well to broadly shared basic norms
and the Zeitgeist. What the initiators experienced as a breakthrough event was the winning of the Energy Globe Award on
both the Styrian and national level in 2004. This glamorous prize
the handing over of which was broadcast on TV drew much
attention to the region and was well appreciated by the regional

455

population, since it also meant that the Murau Energy Vision was
to represent Austria in the competition on the European level. Such
successes further arouse the interest of the regional and specialized
press. This effect was further multiplied by the general tendency of
sharply rising interest in energy and climate issues over the last
4 years, which was experienced by some activists of the Energy
Vision as a warm shower of interest and consent.
In 2004 the initiative participated in a competition called
Energy Regions of Tomorrow which was arranged by the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT)
and among nine initiatives won a major prize. Through this
competition and by partly funding the further development of the
Murau Energy Vision within its R&D-programme Energy Systems
of Tomorrow the BMVIT gave the Murau Energy Vision and other
initiatives also at least some ofcial character. In this way, nonregional actors (the press, the federal ministry, the actors behind
the Energy Globe competition) indirectly shaped not the vision
itself but the diffusion and authority within and outside the region.
Besides the general public interest improving the prospects of
the initiative in successfully inuencing (government) decisions
on various levels were also crucial. The initiators established good
relationships with ofcers in the provincial government and the
relevant federal ministry and these expressed their support for
the initiative at various occasions. It has to be mentioned though
that this has not been materialised into any form of continuous
institutional funding or any sort of ofcial mandate.
Nevertheless, and in contrast to assumptions about the limited impact of such regional initiatives, the model of energy
regions has been almost enthusiastically embraced by some actors
at the national level. Publicly funded research programmes and
public climate change mitigation initiatives emphasise the importance of such regional initiatives for energy system change in
Austria, support the implementation of these models in other
regions and facilitate networking activities across existing energy
regions. Despite the inconsistency that such regional visions cannot be directly generalised they seem to interlink synergistically
with the dynamics of sustainable energy visions at the national
level.
3.5.2. Regional experiments functioning as proof of principle for
meso-level discourse
So, what was the effect of such Energy Regions on the transition of the energy regime? Most actors engaged at the regional
level indeed consider their activities to be closely linked to
broader, trans-regional initiatives to national and global attempts
of transforming energy systems towards more sustainability
(Energiewende) and to climate change mitigation. Consequently,
they expect their activities to be benecial not only to their individual regions economy, but to societal sustainability in general.
Consequently, they want to disseminate their model to other
regions even if this reduces attention for them as a pioneer region
and increases competition for funding. However, the longer-term
impact of such energy regions on a transition of the Austrian
energy system towards greater sustainability is not so clear. Indirect effects on the broader energy and climate change discourse
appear to be more important than the immediate achievements
and model projects at regional level. We can identify a number of
mechanisms which seem to be functional for the success of energy
regions within the broader energy regime context.
Obviously, regional targets such as a shift towards 100% renewable energy supply within less than a decade cannot be simply
generalised to the Austrian context or even transferred to urban
agglomerations or industrialised regions in Austria. Energy region
visions and targets so far have mainly been adopted in very specic
types of regions, mostly in provinces dominated by agriculture with
a low level of industrialisation and a high potential in renewable

456

P. Spth, H. Rohracher / Research Policy 39 (2010) 449458

energy sources2 . The benet of targets such as an increased use

of bio-energy is especially high for economically underdeveloped
rural areas as a source of additional economic activity and income
generation, for the strengthening and reorientation of the regional
innovation system towards renewable energy technologies, and for
the regional image and touristic attractiveness. Under such specic
preconditions the chances for a successful implementation of aims
such as energy autarky are indeed unusually high.
Moreover, as our case study illustrates, the strategies of these
initiatives are rather conict avoiding. They do not directly confront the interests of powerful incumbent actors, such as national
utilities or large companies, and they do not aim at radical sociotechnical changes such as different systems of mobility. There are
indeed many practical reasons for such a consensus-oriented and
inclusive approach3 as regional capacities to achieve radical change
are very restricted (no laws can be changed; legal enforcement of
action is hardly possible; administrative capacity is limited; many
core actors and elements of the incumbent energy system are simply out of reach large-scale generation and network facilities,
regulation, etc.). This consensus-oriented strategy is also facilitated by a broad social agreement (including many incumbent
actors) that a shift towards renewable energy sources, increased
energy efciency, and generally less dependency on fossil fuels are
desirable aims and an unspoken acquiescence with the priority
of regional economic development by the proponents of energy
regions.
Nevertheless, by translating ambitious visions of a sustainable
energy future into rather mundane regional practices and demonstrating that such transformations need not lead to serious social
disruptions but may even benet the regional economy, energy
regions offer a perspective for a potential up-scaling to national or
international level (whether realistic or not). Consequently, they
can be of great argumentative value for proponents of change
involved in discourses e.g. at national level who are otherwise
caught up in interest-driven disputes about targets and their implementation.
Specic regional circumstances (rural regions, high potential of
biomass, absence of actors strongly interested in providing gas, etc.)
by this way provide niches which allow for translations of radical
visions (on the regime level) into concrete social practice without
necessarily radical changes in the regional energy and social system
and lend credibility to ambitious visions of a sustainable energy
system. The other way round, the resonance of regional visions with
broader discourses is used by regional actors to increase legitimacy
and gain access to additional resources for the implementation of
regional energy visions.
4. Conclusions
It is in principle difcult to assess the long-term impact of ongoing discursive dynamics. While some of these initiatives might just
have picked up current buzz words of regional development without much practical effect, some other initiatives experimented in a
very interesting way with the alignment and coordination of various actors and with the creation of a somehow durable consensus

2
Indeed, the major success stories of Austrian Energy Regions are found in rather
peripheral, economically deprived regions, which often correlates with the absence
of strong incumbent energy companies trying to capture provincial energy policy and systematically counteracting all regional initiatives in favour of renewable
energy sources (e.g. by strategically investing in gas networks).
3
It should be added that beyond practical reasons such a strategy is also well
embedded in the Austrian socio-cultural context with a culture of rather avoiding
open confrontation and seeking cooperation and consensus as e.g. expressed in the
institution of social partnership between labour and commerce (compare Spth et
al., 2006).

to guide and constrain action on the development of the energy

system.
Our analysis of energy regions has for one been instructive to
better understand the regional dynamics of guiding visions with
respect to energy futures. We described how different strands of
discourse were merged and structured and how heterogeneous
actor networks were strategically formed at a regional level. The
vision gradually matured into a strong social norm as it was (a) tailored in accordance with public sentiments widely shared among
the regional audience; (b) concretized to a degree that made it
deployable as a moral standard; (c) sufciently convincing and
backed by credible knowledge and authority; (d) launched into various societal spheres in order to align various actors in command
of useful resources; and nally (e) it was inscribed into plans and
policy guidelines at various levels following particular institutional
opportunities given in the region.
Although a regions potential contribution to broader transitions
is certainly limited by principal constraints (e.g. the lack of control over important actors and framework conditions), human and
institutional capacities in the region can make a great difference: by
wittily combining attractive storylines, by mediating between different spheres of society and by strategically tapping into resources
of authority and other relational aspects (such as social and spatial
proximity of actors and the existence of various social networks) in
order to align the most relevant actors impacts on energy transition
beyond the regional scope can be achieved.
However, the fate of visions in such transition processes is
depending not only on strategic capacities to construct and shape
collective visions but also on the results of rather unpredictable
interactions of various actors, with at certain stages prestigious
awards and the press playing an important role. The case study has
in particular pointed out the difcult challenge to organise such
regional processes of envisioning and network-building as these
processes require much creativity, strategising and anticipation of
possible conicts.
The importance of regional niches for a transition towards
more sustainable energy systems would be underestimated, however, if we looked only at the immediate contribution to a shift of
generation capacity and consumption patterns at the regional level,
since their capacity in this regard seems to be principally limited
e.g. by their tendency to consensus-oriented strategies and the very
little access they have to the arenas in which decisions over important framework conditions (such as energy market regulation and
support schemes) are taken.
What seems to be more important for multi-level transitions is
that discourses are interlinked in different ways across different
geographical scales and levels of structuration. Guiding visions or
Leitbilder here play an important role as they travel across spheres
and levels and are used intentionally to co-shape socio-technical
change in a multi-level, multi-actor process. Actors purposefully
link up with national and international discourses and translate
them into regional contexts. Moreover, they align actors across governance levels to increase authority and resources for the promotion
of their visions.
As we have seen, guiding visions from a regional level can
translate broader and rather abstract visions of sustainable energy
futures into more concrete agendas reecting the specic requirements and opportunities of a particular regional context (primary
energy potentials, actor constellations, etc.). As far as any guiding vision must inevitably be re-invented and grounded in local
agendas and contexts if its promise is to become realised (Eames
et al., 2006, p. 361) they full an important function which has
already been acknowledged e.g. in the literature on strategic niche
management (Schot and Geels, 2008).
Although such localised visions cannot simply be up-scaled or
transferred to regions of differing character, they are nevertheless

P. Spth, H. Rohracher / Research Policy 39 (2010) 449458

taken up as model by policy entrepreneurs in other regions. Since

they also translate rather radical visions with regard to the regime
(100% renewable) into locally achievable solutions and even provide visible evidence of their feasibility (putting aside that they
are feasible only in very particular regions) the achievements
of Energy regions often serve as an argument for the feasibility
of certain changes at the regime level and consequently support
particular discourse coalitions at the meso-level. Although their
primary function is to coordinate and orient change at the level
of regional niches, such visions can hence also facilitate transitions
at the regime level.
By providing niches for the development of quantiable targets
and new practices, for the adaptation of technologies, actor constellations and material infrastructure and by integrating the vision of
a sustainable energy future into regional socio-economic contexts
and complementary visions (e.g. economic regionalisation, regional
autarky) they can also give such discourse coalitions at meso-level
orientation with regard to doable, preferable and credible pathways
towards an envisaged regime transition.
Our empirical case conrms the important role of guiding
visions in the strategies of actors attempting to inuence sociotechnical change. Our study, however, also demonstrates that the
complexity of such dynamics and especially the interactions of various discursive arenas and governance levels are not yet sufciently
conceptualised.
The success of such multi-level strategies of course depends
on many factors which are beyond the control of any coalition
of actors, such as fundamental shift in the discursive landscape.
Under ideal conditions, however, they may even result in a positive
feedback loop: if it is acknowledged at regime level, how important regional niches are in providing credible translations of radical
visions, than this will lead to signicant support of these regional
niches. Consequently resources will be mobilised and framework
conditions be improved. This can in turn result in even more ambitious and convincing initiatives at the local level.
The most important contribution of the niche activities of
energy regions, we believe, is found at the discursive level. However, we would again not fully understand the transformative
potential of these discursive strategies, if we did not take their
structural impacts sufciently into account. The strategic work
with guiding visions at multiple levels rather consists of systematic attempts to modify the very structures of discourse. A simplied
application of the multi-level framework with localising practices
and experiments primarily at the (usually local) niche level and
discourse primarily at the regime level can in effect inhibit our
understanding of the complex dynamics around actors attempts
to discursively stabilise and institutionalise their visions of desirable futures. In terms of formative analyses of such processes we
therefore need to look at discursive strategies not only as one-off
events, but as attempts of possibly durable re-positioning. And we
need to keep in mind that actors apply these strategies of structuring discourses across spatial scales as much as they can. By studying
such struggles at multiple levels of power dynamics we can ideally reveal different levels of transformative opportunity (Lovell,
2007) at the moment of their emergence.
The recommendation found in the literature on transition management to collectively develop scenarios and visions should from
this perspective be accompanied by a more thorough understanding of how such discursive elements develop, and how they
interlink with developments at different levels and scales. What
we found to be crucial extensions of our analytical perspective
also indicates directions for the constructive shaping of visioning
processes: inducing visioning or assessment processes at a single scale transition arena can only be a rst step. What is very
important for the impact of such processes is their contextualisation (which discourses and regimes on which geographical scales

457

and levels of structuration do they effect) and the consequent

co-shaping of their interrelations with other processes across governance levels and with discourses on various issues and policy
agendas.

References
Alber, G., 2009. Energieregionen in sterreich. In: Keppler, D., Walk, H., Tpfer,
H., Dienel, H.-L. (Eds.), Erneuerbare Energien Ausbauen!. Oekom, Mnchen, pp.
131150.
Arts, B., Van Tatenhove, J., 2004. Policy and power: a conceptual framework between
the old and new policy idioms. Policy Sciences 37 (34), 339356.
Berkhout, F., 2006. Normative expectations in systems innovation. Technology Analysis and Strategic Management 18 (3/4), 299311.
Berkhout, F., Smith, A., Stirling, A., 2003. Socio-technological Regimes and Transition
Contexts. SPRUScience & Technology Policy Research, Brighton.
Borup, M., Brown, N., Konrad, K., van Lente, H., 2006. The sociology of expectations in
science and technology. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management 18 (3/4),
285298.
Bostrm, M., 2006. Regulatory credibility and authority through inclusiveness:
standardization organizations in cases of eco-labelling. Organization 13 (3),
345467.
Brown, N., Rappert, B., Webster, A., 2000. Contested FuturesA Sociology of Prospective Techno-science. Ashgate Publishing Company, Burlington.
Callon, M., 1986. The sociology of an actor-network: the case of the electric vehicle. In: Callon, M., Law, J., Rip, A. (Eds.), Mapping the Dynamics of Science and
Technology: Sociology of Science in the Real World. Macmillan, London, pp.
1934.
Campbell, J.L., 1998. Institutional analysis and the role of ideas in political economy.
Theory and Society 27, 377409.
Campbell, J.L., 2002. Ideas, politics, and public policy. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 28, 2138.
Dierkes, M., Hoffmann, U., Marz, L., 1996. Visions of Technology. Social and Institutional Factors Shaping the Development of New Technologies. Campus Verlag,
Frankfurt/New York.
Dryzek, J.S., 1990. Discursive Democracy: Politics, Policy, and Political Science.
Eames, M., McDowall, W., Hodson, M., Marvin, S., 2006. Negotiating contested
visions and place-specic expectations of the hydrogen economy. Technology
Analysis & Strategic Management 18 (3/4), 361374.
Fischer, F., Forester, J., 1993. The Argumentative Turn in Policy Analysis and Planning
London. Durham.
Geels, F., 2005. Technological Transitions and System InnovationsA CoEvolutionary and Socio-Technical Analysis. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
Geels, F., Raven, R., 2006. Non-linearity and expectations in niche-development trajectories: ups and downs in dutch biogas development (19732003). Technology
Analysis & Strategic Management 18 (3/4), 375392.
Geels, F.W., Schot, J., 2007. Typology of sociotechnical transition pathways. Research
Policy 36 (3), 399417.
Geels, F.W., Smit, W.A., 2000. In: Brown, N., Rappert, B., Webster, A. (Eds.), Lessons
from failed technology futures: Potholes in the road to the future. Contested
FuturesA sociology of prospective techno-science, Ashgate Publishing Company, Burlington, pp. 129156.
Genus, A., Coles, A.-M., 2008. Rethinking the multi-level perspective of technological
transitions. Research Policy 37 (9), 14361445.
Grin, J., 2000. Vision assessment to support shaping 21st century society? Technology assessment as a tool for political judgement. In: Grin, J., Grunwald, A. (Eds.),
Vision Assessment. Springer, pp. 930.
Grin, J., 2008. The multilevel perspective and design of system innovations. In:
van den Bergh, J.C., Bruinsma, F.R. (Eds.), Managing the Transition to Renewable EnergyTheory and Practice from Local, Regional and Macro Perspectives.
Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 4779.
Grin, J., Grunwald, A., 2000. Vision assessment: Shaping technology in the 21st
century. Springer, Heidelberg.
Hajer, M., Wagenaar, H., 2003. Introduction. In: Hajer, M., Wagenaar, H. (Eds.), Deliberative Policy Analysis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 130.
Hajer, M.A., 1995. The Politics of Environmental Discourse. Ecological Modernization
and the Policy Process. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Healey, P., de Magalhaes, C., Madanipour, A., Pendlebury, J., 2003. Place, identity and
local politics: analysing initiatives in deliberative governance. In: Hajer, M.A.,
Wagenaar, H.E. (Eds.), Deliberative Policy Analysis. Understanding Governance
in the Network Society. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 6087.
Hodson, M., Marvin, S., 2009. Cities mediating technological transitions: understanding visions, intermediation and consequences. Technology Analysis & Strategic
Management 21 (4), 515534.
John, P., 1998. In: John, P. (Ed.), Ideas. Analyzing Public Policy, Pryter, London, pp.
144166.
Kemp, R., Rotmans, J., 2004. Managing the transition to sustainable mobility. In:
Elzen, B., Geels, F.W., Green, K. (Eds.), System Innovation and the Transition to
Sustainability. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, pp. 137167.
Kemp, R., Rotmans, J., et al., 2007. Assessing the Dutch Energy Transition Policy: How
Does it Deal with Dilemmas of Managing Transitions? Journal of Environmental
Policy & Planning 9 (3), 315331.
Loorbach, D., 2007. Transition ManagementNew mode of governance for sustainable development. IPG Books, Utrecht.

458

P. Spth, H. Rohracher / Research Policy 39 (2010) 449458

Lovell, H., 2007. The governance of innovation in socio-technical systems: the difculties of strategic niche management in practice. Science & Public Policy (SPP)
34 (1), 3544.
Lovell, H., Bulkeley, H., Owens, S., 2009. Converging agendas? Energy and climate
change policies in the UK. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy.
Mambrey, P., Tepper, A., 2000. The technology assessment as metaphor assessment:
visions guiding the development of information and communications. In: Grin, J.,
Grunwald, A. (Eds.), Vision Assessment, Shaping Technology in the 21st Century:
Towards a Repertoire for Technology Assessment. Springer Verlag, Berlin, pp.
3352.
Meadowcroft, J., 2005. Environmental political economy, technological transitions
and the state. New Political Economy 10 (4), 479498.
Raven, R.P.J.M., 2004. Implementation of manure digestion and co-combustion in
the Dutch electricity regime: a multi-level analysis of market implementation
in the Netherlands. Energy Policy 32 (1), 2939.
Raven, R., 2006. Towards alternative trajectories? Recongurations in the Dutch
electricity regime. Research Policy 35 (4), 581595.
Raven, R., 2007. Co-evolution of waste and electricity regimes: Multi-regime dynamics in the Netherlands (19692003). Energy Policy 35 (4), 21972208.
Raven, R., Verbong, G., 2006. Boundary Crossing Innovations. Case studies from the
Energy Domain. University of Sussex, Sussex.
Rip, A., Kemp, R., 1998. In: Rayner, S., Malone, E.L. (Eds.), Technological change.
Human Choice and Climate Change: Resources and Technology, 2. Batelle Press,
Columbus, Ohio, pp. 327399.
Rip, A., Misa, T.J., Schot, J., 1995. Constructive technology assessment: a new
paradigm for managing technology in society. In: Rip, A., Misa, T.J., Schot, J.
(Eds.), Managing Technology in Society. The Approach of Constructive Technology Assessment. Pinter, London/New York, pp. 112.
Rotmans, J., Van Asselt, M., Kemp, R., 2001. More evolution than revolution: transition management in public policy. Foresight 3 (1), 1531.

Schot, J., Geels, F.W., 2008. Strategic niche management and sustainable innovation
journeys: theory, ndings, research agenda, and policy. Technology Analysis &
Strategic Management 20 (5), 537554.
Shove, E., Walker, G., 2007. Comment: CAUTION! Transitions ahead: politics, practice, and sustainable transition management. Environment and Planning A,
763770.
Smith, A., 2007. Emerging in between: the multi-level governance of renewable
energy in the English regions. Energy Policy 35 (12), 62666280.
Smith, A., Kern, F., 2009. The transitions storyling in Dutch environmental policy.
Environmental Politics 18 (1), 7898.
Smith, A., Stirling, A., Berkhout, F., 2005. The governance of sustainable sociotechnical transitions. Research Policy 34 (10), 14911510.
Spth, P., Rohracher, H., et al., 2006. In: Vo, J.-P., Bauknecht, D., Kemp, R. (Eds.), The
Transition towards sustainable production systems in Austriareexive experimentation? Reexive Governance for Sustainable Development, Edward Elgar
Publishing, Cheltenham, UK, pp. 355382.
Spth, P., Koblmller, M., Kubeczko, K., et al., 2007. EnergieRegionen: Wirksame
Leitbildprozesse und Netzwerke zur regionalen Gestaltung sozio-technischen
WandelsEndbericht Wien. BMVIT: Berichte aus Energie- und Umweltforschung, Band 29/07.
Truffer, B., 2007. Knowledge Integration in Transdisciplinary Research ProjectsThe
Importance of Reexive Interface Management. GAIAEcological Perspectives
for Science and Society 16, 4145.
Truffer, B., Vo, J.P., et al., 2008. Mapping expectations for system transformations:
Lessons from Sustainability Foresight in German utility sectors. Technological
Forecasting and Social Change 75 (9), 13601372.
van Lente, H., 2000. Forceful futures: from promise to requirement. In: Brown, N.,
Rappert, B., Webster, A. (Eds.), Contested FuturesA Sociology of Prospective
Techno-science. Ashgate Publishing Company, Burlington, pp. 4364.