Sustainability transitions: An emerging field of research and its prospects

Jochen Markard, Rob Raven, Bernhard Truffer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleOtherpeer-review

2343 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Sustainability oriented innovation and technology studies have received increasing attention over the past 10-15 years. In particular, a new field dealing with "sustainability transitions" has gained ground and reached an output of 60-100 academic papers per year. In this article, we aim to identify the intellectual contours of this emerging field by conducting a review of basic conceptual frameworks, together with bibliographical analysis of 540 journal articles in the field. It is against this background that we position the six papers assembled in a special section in Research Policy. These papers pave the way for new conceptual developments and serve as stepping-stones in the maturation of sustainability transition studies, by linking with the scholarly literatures of management studies, sociology, policy studies, economic geography, and modeling.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)955-967
Number of pages13
JournalResearch Policy
Volume41
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Innovation studies
  • Literature review
  • Sustainability

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