URL study guide
https://tue.osiris-student.nl/onderwijscatalogus/extern/cursus?cursuscode=0EM130&collegejaar=2026&taal=enDescription
In the last decade, the study of sustainable innovation and sociotechnical transitions towards sustainability has become a major growth area in the Innovation Sciences. Examples are energy innovation and transitions, mobility transitions, urban transitions, the agri-food system transition, and so on. Such transitions are considered long-term processes, in which societal and technical transformations interact in powerful yet often unexpected ways, and produce radical historical change, for better or worse. This makes them difficult to understand and govern.
Research shows that such transitions in single sociotechnical systems (say energy, mobility, agri-food, chemical industry etc) may take half a century to unfold. So-called 'Deep Transitions', where multiple sociotechnical systems change in mutual interaction, may take even longer--this includes the envisioned society-wide transition towards sustainability. On top of that, historical research shows that sociotechnical transitions display strong transnational dynamics. And yet, the bulk of innovation and transition studies research has a 'here and now' character, studying ongoing (sustainable) innovations in a narrowly delineated location and time span (e.g. a few years). A broader historical perspective brings to light important innovation and transition dynamics, conflicts, and trade-offs that unfold across diverse social groups, across distant regions, across generations, and across species. Current (sustainable) innovation and transition projects should be aware of these.
0EM130 introduces research approaches to study these matters. We tentatively call this emergent field for 'historical transition studies'.
Phase 1 of the course (weeks 1-4) offers an intensive program of semiweekly plenary research seminars, hosted by diverse lecturers, introducing key approaches to studying the long term (and transnational and cross-sectoral) dynamics of socio-technical transitions. Students are expected to prepare intensively for each session by thoroughly selected readings and preparing questions, which are discussed with lecturers during the session. Students then write an individual essay demonstrating their ability to grasp individual approaches and relate them to each-other and the broader debate on the temporal, transnational and cross-sectoral dynamics of transitions.
In Phase 2 of the course, students select one of the approaches/themes of phase 1 for in-depth study. Smaller thematic group meetings (max 10 students per group, supervised by a teacher) support the writing of a second, larger individual essay on the selected approach/theme. Please note that though this essay focuses on the selected approach/theme, it must also explicitly discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the selected theme/approach relative to the other approaches/themes and the broader debate on the spatio-temporal dynamics of transitions discussed in Phase 1.
Research shows that such transitions in single sociotechnical systems (say energy, mobility, agri-food, chemical industry etc) may take half a century to unfold. So-called 'Deep Transitions', where multiple sociotechnical systems change in mutual interaction, may take even longer--this includes the envisioned society-wide transition towards sustainability. On top of that, historical research shows that sociotechnical transitions display strong transnational dynamics. And yet, the bulk of innovation and transition studies research has a 'here and now' character, studying ongoing (sustainable) innovations in a narrowly delineated location and time span (e.g. a few years). A broader historical perspective brings to light important innovation and transition dynamics, conflicts, and trade-offs that unfold across diverse social groups, across distant regions, across generations, and across species. Current (sustainable) innovation and transition projects should be aware of these.
0EM130 introduces research approaches to study these matters. We tentatively call this emergent field for 'historical transition studies'.
Phase 1 of the course (weeks 1-4) offers an intensive program of semiweekly plenary research seminars, hosted by diverse lecturers, introducing key approaches to studying the long term (and transnational and cross-sectoral) dynamics of socio-technical transitions. Students are expected to prepare intensively for each session by thoroughly selected readings and preparing questions, which are discussed with lecturers during the session. Students then write an individual essay demonstrating their ability to grasp individual approaches and relate them to each-other and the broader debate on the temporal, transnational and cross-sectoral dynamics of transitions.
In Phase 2 of the course, students select one of the approaches/themes of phase 1 for in-depth study. Smaller thematic group meetings (max 10 students per group, supervised by a teacher) support the writing of a second, larger individual essay on the selected approach/theme. Please note that though this essay focuses on the selected approach/theme, it must also explicitly discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the selected theme/approach relative to the other approaches/themes and the broader debate on the spatio-temporal dynamics of transitions discussed in Phase 1.