Trajectories and turning points: Objects of intermediation for generalisation
提出推广是一种中介化的轨迹，通过知识、价值、基础设施和规则四类中介对象，解释替代食品系统等创新如何扩散，并基于法国自然酒、可持续养蜂和参与式研究三个案例揭示转折点如何重塑变革路径。
We introduce generalisation as an intermediated trajectory to explain how system innovations, like alternative food systems, diffuse. While existing literature on diffusion and scaling focuses on human agency and steady progression, we propose a relational, object-oriented approach that highlights the role of situated intermediation punctuating/disrupting trajectories of generalisation. We identify four key objects of intermediation—knowledge, value(s), infrastructures, and rules—and demonstrate their role in reconfiguring actor networks and redirecting transformative trajectories. Through three empirical cases (natural wine, sustainable apiculture, and participatory research in France), we demonstrate how intermediation around these objects resolves challenges (interdependencies, uncertainties, complexities, controversies) and creates turning points that redirect transformative pathways. Our framework integrates the trajectory-turning point model to identify four conditions for transformative change: stability, resistance, identity transformation, and role commitment. Findings reveal that generalisation is dynamic and intermediated, whereby objects and actors collaboratively reconfigure networks, institutional contexts, and innovation objectives. The original contribution of this meso-level perspective lies in theorising generalisation as an intermediated trajectory, emphasising the material and relational work of objects alongside human agency. This reframing advances transition studies and innovation policy research by shifting focus from diffusion mechanisms to the situated, iterative processes that enable systems transformation.