THE DYNAMICS OF SUSTAINABILITY TRANSITIONS: AN ARCHETYPE FOR TRANSFORMATION

This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. The published version of this Preprint is available: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2023.100767. This is version 1 of this Preprint.

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Authors

Lawrence Gottschamer, Jeffery Walters

Abstract

Significant global sustainability challenges include among others, energy, climate, and sanitation. Previous Sustainability Transition research has attempted to understand transformation complexity and interdependence, primarily through single-case methodological studies or large-scale analytical frameworks such as the Multi-Level Perspective. This leaves a knowledge gap on common dynamics underlying transition processes and emergent behaviors. To fill this gap, we conducted a cross-sectoral analysis of five system dynamics sustainability transition models with the objective of finding a common system archetype. An archetype emerged from a multi-step, mixed method structural analysis of these models. The extracted archetype captures generalizable sustainable transition dynamics across a diversity of research domains and temporal scales. The structural drivers of sustainability transitions within this archetype are used to discuss future research and practice that seeks to provide insight on common transition dynamics, deeper clarity on leverage points capable of managing transitions, and a framework for subsequent transition modeling archetype analyses.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31223/X5VH3G

Subjects

Engineering, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Keywords

Sustainability Transitions, System Dynamics Modeling, Model Structure/Behavior/Pattern Analysis, Systems Archetype

Dates

Published: 2023-02-05 14:49

Last Updated: 2023-02-05 22:49

License

CC-By Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Additional Metadata

Conflict of interest statement:
Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Data Availability (Reason not available):
The manuscripts used for the data analysis in this paper are publicly available