Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
the regional dimension/character of the transitions. These include mainly contextual
information on each case study concerning, for example, size, structural characteristics,
typologies of rural areas, and extending up to various institutional arrangements and
networks of actors.
The analysis of the material from the current research would benefit from a more
explicit spatial account of transitions to sustainability, as the above mentioned findings
from the literature suggest. In analytical and methodological terms this would imply
clarifying the spatial variety in regime structures and landscape forces (Coenen
et al.
, 2012)
as well as understanding how the functional socio-technical spaces of niche, regime and
landscape relate to other dimensions of space, such as territorial, administrative and
communicative spaces (and their particular topologies) (Smith
et al.
, 2010), a theme that
has been prioritized for future research in sustainability studies. In a similar vein, the study
of emerging transitions has to address the differentiation of regime, niche, and innovation
system structures in specific regions of the world (Markard
et al.
, 2012) and analyse
transitions as interdependent processes between territorialized, local and trans-local
networks within the context of (changing) multi-scalar, institutional structures (Coenen
et
al.
, 2012).
Conclusion
This research focuses on some novel aspects of transition studies, particularly emerging
transitions occurring in the agri-food sector at the regional scale (see Darnhofer, this
volume). Intriguing methodological challenges stem from the application of the MLP to
emerging transitions. Responses to these challenges include strategies that were
implemented in order to cope with interdisciplinarity problems as well as the active
involvement of stakeholders in the context of NSPGs, in a transdisciplinary perspective.
This research has been conducted with some difficulties due to the elusiveness of the
ideas which form the core of the research question (transition towards regional
sustainability). In an effort to overcome these difficulties, various analytical endeavours
have been applied. These are an alternative definition of the agri-food regime and its
constituent parts on the basis of the multiple functions of agriculture; the detailed
examination of both a niche and a regime in terms of technical, human-societal and
institutional dimensions; and the linking process between niche and regime along the same
three dimensions ('anchoring'). The focus on the regional scale in the research of an
emerging transition has some noteworthy implications, especially in relation to the
characterization of some factors as 'internal' or 'external' to the regime. This was
exemplified by the cases of prices and policy measures.
The lack of relevant literature, particularly pertinent to the temporal and spatial levels
this research is aiming at, as well as the need for an operationalization of the theoretical
concepts, enabled the researchers to establish an evaluation matrix comprising 'transition'
thresholds. This provided the criteria and the degree of fulfilment that were used in order to
distinguish a 'potential transition' process from a mere practice change or a farm level
'trajectory'.
Furthermore, a procedure for sustainability assessment in emerging transitions has
been proposed, involving a consultation process between researchers and stakeholders for
the identification of the main sustainability issues of the region concerned, their
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