Garcia i Mateu, Adrià
This presentation builds on design-led research of just sustainability transitions practices. The analysis is based on a case study of the enabling practices carried out in intermediary spaces where organisations in the cooperative housing niche in Catalonia meet. The work has been structured around two main questions. On the one hand, it asks what the practices of just sustainability transitions in the intermediary spaces of the cooperative housing niche of Catalonia are—and in what transition contexts those practices co-develop. Then, a second general question arises: how might we refine the theories of transition practices in intermediary spaces? This paper empirically applies Meadows (1999) leverage points framework to argue that the studied niche is broadening and deepening its transformative potential and entering the acceleration phase.
The activity of steering transitions in intermediary spaces can be called enabling transition practices, with differentiation between direct and indirect activities. For example, the well-known transition categories of visioning, learning, and networking would be considered indirect enabling practices and policy instruments, and campaigns or services would be direct enabling transition practices. The notion of indirectness is argued to broaden and deepen transition studies attention from methodologies or convergence-based indirect enabling practices to distributed instrumental direct enabling practices. Together with existing categories of practices, these form a framework for transition practices.
KEYWORDS: Transition, practices, intermediaries, cooperative housing
RSD TOPIC(S): Cases & Practice, Methods & Methodology, Policy & Governance, Sociotechnical Systems