Social innovation for regional energy transition? An agency perspective on transformative change in non-core regions
研究了奥地利非核心区域能源领域的社会创新案例，发现资源、关系和反思性促进了能动性，从而推动社会创新并维持能源转型，社会创新能产生新资源、提供变革方向，有助于巩固转型路径。
Regional energy transitions are largely understood as technology-driven processes. We argue that social innovation (SI) is as important and that scrutinizing it calls for an agency perspective. Analysing two examples of SI in energy in Austrian non-core regions, we show how resources, relations and reflexivity enabled agency to promote SI and consequently sustain energy transition. We find that SI produces new regional resources and capacities, provides directionality for transformative change, and herewith aids the consolidation of transition pathways. Hence, we conclude that agency and SI are key variables of sustainability transitions and transformative change that deserve more scholarly attention.