http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/20892/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37210/ 2012-11-22T00:00:00Z Zowel in mobiliteitsonderzoek als in de beleidspraktijk valt er recentelijk een onmiskenbaar streven naar 'robuustheid' waar te nemen. Dit streven is vaak een reactie op een als zeer dynamisch ervaren omgeving. Het is daarbij echter opvallend dat er zeer uiteenlopende invullingen aan dit concept worden gegeven. Dit roept de vraag op of het concept ‘robuustheid’ wel van toegevoegde waarde is voor het bestuur in het mobiliteitsdomein. Maar vooral roept het de vraag op hoe het dat kan zijn. In deze bijdrage wordt geredeneerd vanuit de complexiteit van een samengesteld mobiliteitssysteem: De gehanteerde premisse is dat pogingen om mobiliteit te sturen of te beïnvloeden plaatsvinden in dynamische en slechts deels controleerbare omgevingen. Het streven naar robuustheid is zo beschouwd dus begrijpelijk, maar ook inherent moeizaam. De centrale vraag die moet worden beantwoord is: “Hoe kan het concept ‘robuustheid’ helpen richting te geven aan het handelen in een samengesteld, gelaagd en padafhankelijk mobiliteitssysteem?” De vraag wordt beantwoord vanuit een theoretische reflectie op de verschillende verschijningsvormen en interpretaties van ‘robuustheid’. Vanuit onze empirie (in zowel weg, water als rail) komt dan naar voren dat robuustheid soms meer en soms minder dynamisch wordt ingevuld, dat soms fysieke, soms juist sociale dimensies worden benadrukt, en dat het onder uiteenlopende randvoorwaarden wordt vormgegeven. Daarbij valt ook op dat robuustheid in deelsystemen niet altijd tot algehele robuustheid leidt, en vaak deeloplossingen biedt. Sterker nog, in de meer omvattende analyses van het mobiliteitssysteem is de systemische robuustheid eerder deel van het probleem dan de oplossing. Op ‘robuustheid’ gericht mobiliteitsbeleid betreft gewoonlijk het managen van deelsystemen. Deze doorgaans lokale en tijdelijke robuustheid zal bijsturing, onderhoud en aanpassing vergen. Maar daarbij zal ook beseft moeten worden dat deze robuustheid gelijktijdig weer deel uitmaakt van een gelaagd, vervlochten en in sommige opzichten ook wel hardnekkig mobiliteitssysteem. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37286/ 2012-09-13T00:00:00Z Current sustainability challnges are increasingly acknowledged to be of a systemic nature. Instead of procrastinating further through incremental changes, societal systems (mobility, energy, agriculture) are therefore considered to be in need of system innovations and transitions. Thus far, system innovation has mainly been studied through synoptic bird's eye perspectives. This study responds to the calls for deeper investigation into system innovation 'in the making'. In a polycentric society, initiatives towards transformation are tentative, selected upon by diverse actors. Actors bend, modify and 'translate' innovation attempts. This interpretive study follows four sequences of translations in the Dutch traffic management field, and their intersections. Through 'translation dynamics' processes of system innovation can be better understood and navigated. Key dynamic is synchronization - the temporary attunement of translations that provides anchors to the translation game. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38404/ 2012-08-29T00:00:00Z This paper addresses a recurring theme in system innovation and sustainability transitions research, pertaining directly to the politics of system innovation: The issue of ‘barriers’ and ‘resistance’ to change. Framed as such, they appear as accidental and unfortunate phenomena, as obstacles on the road towards transformative change. These framings do not do justice to the multisided and contested nature of system innovation processes, however. Introducing a unidirectional ‘race-track metaphor’ (Stirling, 2011), they normatively dismiss the voices of actors experiencing interference from change attempts. Taking a more polycentric perspective, by contrast, ‘resistance to change’ can be appreciated with more nuance, through the bidirectional concept of ‘interference’. Based on four in-depth case studies into innovation attempts in the Dutch traffic management field (Pel, 2012), it is argued that alleged ‘resistance’ and ‘barriers’ are by no means accidental, but are only regular manifestations of innovations interfering with stakeholders: Interference occurs even in cases of seemingly ‘incremental’ innovation. Compared as sequences of translations (Callon, 1982, Akrich et al, 2002a,b), the cases bring forward various faces of interference. The key conclusion is that management of system innovation involves not only avoidance and reduction of interference, but also its somewhat paradoxical counterpart of interference-seeking. The term ‘interference management’ denotes the integrated handling of interference, offering both a framework for analysis and a repertoire for action. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34813/ 2012-08-01T00:00:00Z This paper addresses a recurring theme in system innovation and sustainability transitions research, pertaining directly to the politics of system innovation: The issue of ‘barriers’ and ‘resistance’ to change. Framed as such, they appear as accidental and unfortunate phenomena, as obstacles on the road towards transformative change. These framings do not do justice to the multisided and contested nature of system innovation processes, however. Introducing a unidirectional ‘race-track metaphor’ (Stirling, 2011), they normatively dismiss the voices of actors experiencing interference from change attempts. Taking a more polycentric perspective, by contrast, ‘resistance to change’ can be appreciated with more nuance, through the bidirectional concept of ‘interference’. Based on four in-depth case studies into innovation attempts in the Dutch traffic management field (Pel, 2012), it is argued that alleged ‘resistance’ and ‘barriers’ are by no means accidental, but are only regular manifestations of innovations interfering with stakeholders: Interference occurs even in cases of seemingly ‘incremental’ innovation. Compared as sequences of translations (Callon, 1982, Akrich et al, 2002a,b), the cases bring forward various faces of interference. The key conclusion is that management of system innovation involves not only avoidance and reduction of interference, but also its somewhat paradoxical counterpart of interference-seeking. The term ‘interference management’ denotes the integrated handling of interference, offering both a framework for analysis and a repertoire for action. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34795/ 2012-07-05T00:00:00Z Current and future sustainability challenges are increasingly acknowledged to be of a persistent and systemic nature. This gives rise to calls for likewise systemic solution strategies: Transformative system innovations instead of incremental system improvements, and societal transitions rather than procrastination on current locked-in trajectories. On these accounts, incremental change will not do. Still it proves difficult to achieve truly radical transformations. Insights from innovation theory, governance, sociology and critical theory help understand why radical transformation is unlikely to occur: Novelty, if it is to spread at all, should be acceptable to potential ‘adopters’, and should not be overly disruptive to existing practices. Initiatives should be radical enough to constitute transformative potential, but also shallow enough to be acceptable in current institutional constellations: This contradiction between transformation and non-disruption, the ‘paradox of acceptable novelty’, can be considered a key system innovation challenge. It is only paradoxical in its idealized form, however. System-innovative practices bring out various ways of dealing with the contradiction and its tradeoffs. This paper returns to the archetypical example of the more favorable case: The Trojan horse, the seemingly innocuous innovation with latent transformative force. Addressing its ambiguities, the concept’s practical relevance is elicited. Clever levers to systemic change may be devised, but inversely they may become ‘domesticated’ and neutralized. Based on a comparative case study on innovation attempts in the Dutch traffic management field, it is shown how these two faces can even alternate. The ‘incremental’ turn towards ‘network-oriented’ traffic management and the ‘radical’ call for the social sharing of space display an intriguing mixture of transformative and non-disruptive faces. Analyzed as sequences of ‘translations’, these cases help understand and deal with the ambiguities of Trojan horses. A dialectical approach to ‘acceptable novelty’ helps combine system-innovative idealism with Machiavellian agility. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34812/ 2012-06-12T00:00:00Z The mission-oriented turn as proposed in the 2009 Lund declaration advocates ‘research addressing the Grand Challenges of our time, moving beyond the current rigid thematic approaches’. This contribution exposes how such research is taken up in the Dutch ‘Integral Planning and Design in the southwest Delta’ (IPDD) project2, specifying the challenges of spatial design in the context of societal complexity and sustainability transitions. To redefine societies’ challenges is to redefine the task of spatial design, as well as its relations with governance and data management. One of the key questions raised in the project is therefore the following: In what way do the composed nature and complex dynamics of the delta areas on the one hand and the anticipation to future transformations and transitions on the other hand put new demands on the form, function and role of spatial design in reaching synchronized/integrated/interconnected delta area development? http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34810/ 2012-06-06T00:00:00Z Interactive metal fatigue (IMF) is an elegant re-appreciation of the concept of ‘interpassivity’, describing how it develops through minifractures in subjects’ attempts to keep up with societal demands for interactivity. Other than the original art-philosophical and psychoanalytical understandings, this rather historical conceptualization opens up the ‘interpassivity’ notion to sociological and political research. Particularly promising, it will be argued, is its aptitude to diagnose and articulate the often so elusive (side-) effects of socio-technical ‘system innovations’. Currently these tend to be evaluated in terms of ‘sustainability’, but this notion seems insufficient to capture the multi-sidedness of the reconfigurations involved. Socio-technical innovations are known to be contested social changes. Yet what is it that makes them contested? How can their societal relevance be appreciated? And considering that assessment in terms of ‘sustainability impacts’ leaves certain problematic aspects underexposed, how could the notion of ‘interactive metal fatigue’ enrich our understanding of socio-technical innovations? http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34811/ 2012-05-31T00:00:00Z Current sustainability challenges are increasingly acknowledged to reveal systemic flaws in societal systems such as energy, mobility and agriculture. Adequate solutions then require system innovations and societal transitions. The quest for system innovation is notoriously hard, however: In a polycentric society systemic problems tend to be elusive, and solution strategies are contested. So whereas the quest for system innovation is typically backed by substantive analyses of system pathologies, polycentric perspectives emphasize that the intrinsic properties of an innovation attempt are hardly decisive. Innovation attempts need to be relevant to the targeted actors in the first place. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34809/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Met steeds slimmere maatregelen probeert de Nederlandse overheid de hardnekkige mobiliteitsproblematiek te attaqueren. De effectiviteit van de maatregelen stelt evenwel regelmatig teleur2. Met name het mobiliteitsdomein wordt geplaagd door het beeld dat de implementatie van maatregelen te lang duurt, en dat deze duurder worden dan begroot en vervolgens niet de oplossing brengen die vooraf werd beloofd. De kloof tussen opbrengst en verwachting kan veroorzaakt worden doordat de maatregelen niet doordacht zijn. Deze verklaring wordt in ieder geval in de media vaak gebruikt – zowel als de overheid de verantwoordelijkheid naar zich toe trekt, als wanneer zij iets van zich af organiseert. Ook de parlementaire commissie onder leiding van Duivesteijn leek deze mening toegedaan: meer controle vooraf vanuit het parlement en een extra toets vanuit een onafhankelijk onderzoeksbureau van het parlement zouden de problemen kunnen voorkomen. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17440/ 2009-11-19T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17456/ 2009-06-04T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17443/ 2009-04-06T00:00:00Z