Historical transitions

i1: Historical transitions II Room: s6, Friday August 31 at 12.10-13.40, Chair: Johan Schot and Ulrik Jørgensen Historical material and cases are informing most of the research done and the articles written within the field of transition studies. In large parts of the literature cases are selected within sectors of society like e.g. energy, transportation, housing, etc. where existing socio-technical regimes demonstrate the path dependent and institutionally specific character and reproductive patterns of the existing provision of societal functions. Historical cases are also sometimes used to show how change occur and how controversies and competing regimes are part of a change. As such the historic material in neither neutral nor final but rather crucially dependent on the selection, the theorisation and the perspective employed by the researcher. This session is a discussion organised and guided by Johan Schot and Ulrik Jørgensen. It is based on brief examples setting the stage for an open discussion of how historical material and different approaches to history can inform and support transition studies.