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socio-technical regimes (the locus of established practices and associated rules that stabilize
existing systems); and an exogenous socio-technical landscape (Geels, 2011). Each level
refers to a heterogeneous configuration of elements, with the regime more stable than the
niche in terms of number of actors and degrees of alignment between the elements (Geels,
2011). The MLP emphasizes that for a transition to be successful, processes at the niche,
regime and landscape level need to be aligned.
The three levels might at times seem like spatial concepts, not least because a regime is
often studied at the national level and socio-technical landscapes often refer to international
trends. However, the three levels are actually defined by their (relative) temporal stability,
not by their spatial spread. Nonetheless in practice, the two dimensions are often related as
practices that involve a wide variety of societal actors tend to be spread over larger areas,
and tend to be stable over time. On the other hand, smaller networks may be more
dependent on individual actors or susceptible to shocks and thus are less stable.
Niches are created by actors at the local level, for example through the invention of a
new technology, or entrepreneurs developing a new market. They may be protected spaces,
such as subsidized demonstration projects, or small market niches where users have special
demands and are willing to support emerging innovations (such as local organic food
chains). Niche innovations are often characterized by a mismatch with the existing regime,
lack of appropriate infrastructure, regulations, or incompatibility with consumer routines.
Over time some niches stabilize through activities such as: the articulation and adjustment
of expectations or visions; building of social networks and the enrolment of more actors; as
well as learning processes on issues such as technical design, user preferences,
organizational issues and business models, policy instruments and symbolic meanings
(Schot and Geels, 2008). Niches are crucial for transitions because they provide the seeds
for systemic change, even if many of these seedlings will eventually perish (Elzen
et al.
,
2004a).
The regime is the meso-level and is of central importance for transition research since
it defines the societal systems within which transitions are mainly analysed. The regime
includes both the tangible and measurable elements (such as artefacts, market shares,
infrastructure, regulations, consumption patterns, public opinion) as well as intangible
elements. This includes the deep structure made up of beliefs, rules of thumb, routines, and
standardized ways of doing things, policy paradigms, social expectations and norms
(Geels, 2011). A regime is characterized by fairly stable rules such as cognitive routines,
shared beliefs, capabilities and competencies, lifestyles and user practices, institutional
arrangements and regulations, and legally binding contracts. Since these elements, as well
as items such as physical infrastructures and organizations, are well aligned, regimes are
characterised by lock-in. Innovation occurs incrementally with small adjustments
accumulating into stable trajectories. A regime is composed of several sub-regimes (such as
user preferences, market, policy, and science) which have their own dynamics but
interpenetrate and co-evolve with each other. The concept of a socio-technical regime aims
to capture the meta-coordination between these different sub-regimes (Geels, 2004).
The socio-technical landscape designates the long-term exogenous trends at the macro-
level. This includes demographic trends, political ideologies, societal values, macro-
economic patterns, climate change. In the short-term, these processes at the level of the
socio-technical landscape cannot be influenced by niche or regime actors (Geels and Schot,
2010).
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