TY - JOUR
T1 - A framework to explain the role of boundary objects in sustainability transitions
AU - Franco-Torres, Manuel
AU - Rogers, Briony
AU - Ugarelli, Rita
PY - 2020/9
Y1 - 2020/9
N2 - Our modern society is characterized by increasing diversity and complexity, leading to overwhelming challenges like climate change or environmental degradation. These problems are posing impracticable ethical dilemmas and conflicts of interest among an expanding range of institutional logics. While this cognitive, ideological, scientific, and political diversity can represent a major barrier for the collaborative work that sustainability transitions require, it is also a necessary resource for innovation and adaptation. It is then natural to wonder how diversity and collaboration among institutional logics can be accommodated and balanced. In this article, we develop a framework to explain the role of boundary objects in sustainability transitions (BOIST framework), which describes how ambiguous artefacts (boundary objects) can be deliberately employed by actors to drive transitions through bridging conflicting logics without constraining their diversity. The applicability of the framework is demonstrated with an in-depth case study of the Copenhagen municipality's transition to more sustainable stormwater management.
AB - Our modern society is characterized by increasing diversity and complexity, leading to overwhelming challenges like climate change or environmental degradation. These problems are posing impracticable ethical dilemmas and conflicts of interest among an expanding range of institutional logics. While this cognitive, ideological, scientific, and political diversity can represent a major barrier for the collaborative work that sustainability transitions require, it is also a necessary resource for innovation and adaptation. It is then natural to wonder how diversity and collaboration among institutional logics can be accommodated and balanced. In this article, we develop a framework to explain the role of boundary objects in sustainability transitions (BOIST framework), which describes how ambiguous artefacts (boundary objects) can be deliberately employed by actors to drive transitions through bridging conflicting logics without constraining their diversity. The applicability of the framework is demonstrated with an in-depth case study of the Copenhagen municipality's transition to more sustainable stormwater management.
KW - Boundary objects
KW - Copenhagen
KW - Institutional logics
KW - Stormwater management
KW - Sustainability transitions
KW - Water sensitive
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85084845265&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.eist.2020.04.010
DO - 10.1016/j.eist.2020.04.010
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85084845265
VL - 36
SP - 34
EP - 48
JO - Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions
JF - Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions
SN - 2210-4224
ER -