Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
transition case studies, at the regional or even sub-regional level, in a different way. In
these specific cases, prices are imposed by forces pertaining to the socio-technical
landscape domain and can in no way be influenced by regime or niche actors. This is the
case in energy, tourism and most of the agri-food regimes described in the case studies in
this volume. However, the opposite is true in some agri-food regimes, for example when
the product is not a commodity but a consumer good, or in agri-tourism and rural amenities
sub-regimes. A further complication arises when there is no market, or existing market
structures present important deficiencies, as in the case of public goods or quasi-public
goods, where prices can be imposed externally, for example in the form of either agri-
environmental compensations or as a result of open internal negotiations. Therefore, prices
could be either an 'external' or 'internal' element of a regime. Another case of the same
challenge is that relevant to policy measures, especially the CAP. It is important to
distinguish between EU policy objectives and design, and locally implemented measures
that have been mediated and influenced by national, regional or even local policy agendas,
implying a continuum and not a binary distinction. As with any conceptualization, the MLP
inevitably represents idealized distinctions which need to be negotiated and considered
during operationalization.
The interactions between the niche(s) and the regime, thus, assume major importance
to transition processes because they are most easily influenced by actor strategies. This
means that the focal point of an emerging transition is the linking process between niche
and regime, termed '
anchoring
' by Elzen
et al.
(2012). Anchoring denotes the way a
novelty is linked ('anchored') with the technical, human-societal and institutional aspects:
technological anchoring, network anchoring and institutional anchoring. An innovative
action could take place in either a niche, a regime, or the overlapping niche -regime area,
called a 'hybrid forum'. Therefore, the linking process refers to any of those three 'areas'.
Hybrid actors are those regime actors who are engaged in innovative niche activities.
Anchoring is an evolving process; hence there is no certainty about the final outcome of an
initial development of niches. In each emerging transition, the factors that play the most
important role in making the links between a niche and a regime more durable could be
identified through a detailed exploration. Furthermore, as the niche-regime relationship is a
continuous interactive process, after the analysis of 'anchoring' it is important to look again
at the niche(s) and find out if anything has changed from its interaction with the regime.
Moreover, regime change is not simply a result of transferring practices from a niche to
a regime. Every transition involves a 'translation' by actors; this translation could refer to
sustainability problems, to adaptation of lessons or altering contexts (Smith, 2007). Which
actors translate opportunities, where the process of translation takes place (whether in a
niche, a regime or their overlapping area) and what kind of translation is involved, are all
important issues in this respect.
Various learning processes are involved in niche-regime interactions. Along with the
articulation of expectations and visions, and the building of social networks, Schot and
Geels (2008) distinguish learning as one of the processes for successful development of a
technological niche. In particular, learning processes refer to issues such as technical
aspects and design specifications; market and user preferences; cultural and symbolic
meaning; and regulations and government policy. Two forms of learning are usually
distinguished: (i) single loop learning or first-order learning, which concerns new insights
into the policy options (solutions) in the case of a given policy problem and a given policy
context; and (ii) double loop learning or second-order learning, with new insights not only
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