Societal Innovation: between dream and reality lies complexity

Jan Rotmans (1961) is one of the founders of Integrated Assessment (IA), and has outstanding experience in IA modeling, scenario-building, uncertainty management and transition management. During the past twenty years he has led a diversity of innovative projects in the field of climate change, global change, sustainable development and transitions and system innovations. He is founder and director of the International Centre for Integrative Studies (ICIS) (1998) at Maastricht University. Since 2004 he is a full professor in Transitions and Transition Management at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where he founded the DRIFT-institute: Dutch Research Institute For Transitions. He is vice-president of The Integrated Assessment Society (TIAS), and founder and director of the Dutch Knowledge Network on System Innovations and Transitions (KSI). Jan Rotmans is founder of two scientific journals, Environmental Modeling and Assessment and Integrated Assessment, and has published ten books and more than 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles in journals and books in the fields of environment, sustainability, governance, transitions and system innovations.

There are no easy, off-the-shelf solutions for persistent societal problems, because these are caused by fundamental flaws in our societal systems. Such systemic errors demand radical changes in our thinking and actions, i.e. transitions and system innovations. Transitions require a long period (one to two generations), and take time, patience, money, confidence, but also courage, daring and perseverance to gain the upper hand over various types of resistance. Research into transitions is by definition multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. For this we need knowledge and experience from systems analysis, social administration, history, innovation science, economics, business administration and technology. The nature of research into transitions is fundamental, explorative, creative and practical. A conceptual framework for research into transitions is presented that consists of four interlinked conceptual building blocks, which in turn provide an outline of a transition theory in its embryonic stages. These concepts are rooted in common notions from complexity theory, new forms of governance and social theory. Central here is the concept of transition management, for which a new management framework is developed. Transition management is an attempt to tackle persistent stubborn problems by steering them in a more sustainable direction, through a visionary, cyclical process of putting issues on the agenda, learning, orchestrating and experimenting. Not based on management and control but through clever, subtle changes and adjustments at several levels concurrently. Transition management is a very promising management concept that can initially be applied to a wide range of complex societal problems: from health care to energy provision, and from social security to mobility. Transition management can also be applied to complex processes of change in a business context.

Voor hardnekkige maatschappelijke problemen bestaan geen pasklare oplossingen. Deze zijn het gevolg van weeffouten in onze maatschappelijke stelsels. Deze systeemfouten vergen radicale veranderingen in ons denken en handelen: transities en systeeminnovaties. Transities vergen een lange periode (1 à 2 generaties), en kosten tijd, geduld, geld, vertrouwen, maar ook moed, durf en doorzettingsvermogen om verschillende soorten weerstand te overwinnen. Onderzoek naar transities is per definitie multi-en interdisciplinair, waarbij kennis nodig is vanuit de systeemkunde, bestuurskunde, geschiedenis, innovatiewetenschappen, economie, bedrijfskunde en techniek. Transitieonderzoek is zowel fundamenteel, exploratief, ontwerpend en praktisch van aard. Een conceptueel kader voor transitieonderzoek wordt gepresenteerd, dat bestaat uit een viertal samenhangende conceptuele bouwstenen, die de contouren vormen van een transitietheorie in wording. Deze concepten zijn geworteld in gemeenschappelijke noties uit de complexiteitstheorie, nieuwe vormen van governance en de sociale theorie. Centraal hierin staat het concept van transitiemanagement, waarvoor een nieuw sturingsraamwerk is ontwikkeld. Transitiemanagement beoogt hardnekkige problemen bij te sturen in een meer duurzame richting, via een visionair, cyclisch proces van agenderen, leren, instrumenteren en experimenteren. Niet op basis van controle en beheersing, maar via slim, subtiel schakelen en bijsturen op meerdere niveaus. Transitiemanagement is een veelbelovend sturingsconcept wat in beginsel toepasbaar is op tal van complexe maatschappelijke problemen: van gezondheidszorg tot energievoorziening, en van sociale zekerheid tot mobiliteit. Ook in de bedrijfscontext kan transitiemanagement worden toegepast op complexe veranderingsprocessen.