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Beyond instrumentalism: Broadening the understanding of social innovation in socio-technical energy systems

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posted on 2023-07-26, 15:05 authored by Julia M. Wittmayer, Tessa de Geus, Bonno Pel, Flor Avelino, Sabine Hielscher, Thomas Hoppe, Susan Mühlemeier, Agata Stasik, Sem Oxenaar, Karoline S. Rogge, Vivian Visser, Esther Marín-González, Merel Ooms, Saskia Buitelaar, Chris Foulds, Kristian Petrick, Salvador Klarwein, Seweryn Krupnik, Gerdien de Vries, Aleksandra Wagner, Anja Härtwig
Social innovation is an important dimension of current transformations in energy systems. It can refer to alternative business models, novel policy instruments, financing schemes, participatory governance approaches to energy questions, or new discourses. Its significance for energy systems is often considered in narrow instrumentalist terms, reducing it to a tool serving particular policy objectives. Grounding the concept in social science and humanities insights, this review essay proposes a broadened social innovation understanding. We propose 1) to open up the normative complexity of the concept; 2) to appreciate the multi-actor nature of social innovation; 3) to understand it as an analytical entry point for socio-material intertwinement; and, 4) to understand social innovation as premised on experimentalism-based intervention logics. The proposed social innovation understandings provide a broader imagination and strategizing of structural changes in energy systems.

History

Refereed

  • Yes

Volume

70

Page range

101689

Publication title

Energy Research & Social Science

ISSN

2214-6296

Publisher

Elsevier

File version

  • Published version

Language

  • eng

Legacy posted date

2020-08-20

Legacy creation date

2020-08-20

Legacy Faculty/School/Department

Faculty of Science & Engineering

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