| Title |
Incumbents' enabling role in niche-innovation: Power dynamics in a wastewater project |
| ID_Doc |
25103 |
| Authors |
Ampe, K; Paredis, E; Asveld, L; Osseweijer, P; Block, T |
| Title |
Incumbents' enabling role in niche-innovation: Power dynamics in a wastewater project |
| Year |
2021 |
| Published |
|
| DOI |
10.1016/j.eist.2021.03.004 |
| Abstract |
More pluralised understandings of incumbencies are often overlooked in transitions research, which may lead to underestimating the enabling roles of incumbents in niche projects. This study explores these roles by applying a power framework to five struggles revolving around a path-breaking decentralised wastewater treatment project in the city of Ghent (Belgium). Remark-ably, incumbents from multiple regimes use power to enable the niche project. The study iden-tifies and discusses four patterns in the enabling role of incumbents in niche projects. These patterns are clarified by focussing on incumbents from multiple regimes, belonging to local au-thorities, neighbouring and more distant regimes, as well as on the power of structural trends related to the urgency of sustainability challenges. As such, the study contributes to the under-standing of multiple incumbencies and the conditions under which these may reinforce niche projects. For practitioners, the study underscores the role of power dynamics in the water/ wastewater sector. |
| Author Keywords |
Sustainability transitions; Incumbents; Niche-innovation; Power dynamics; Wastewater; Circular economy |
| Index Keywords |
Index Keywords |
| Document Type |
Other |
| Open Access |
Open Access |
| Source |
Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED); Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) |
| EID |
WOS:000671613400006 |
| WoS Category |
Environmental Sciences; Environmental Studies |
| Research Area |
Environmental Sciences & Ecology |
| PDF |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2021.03.004
|