Towards an ‘alternative’ geography of innovation: Alternative milieu, socio-cognitive protection and sustainability experimentation

Longhurst, Noel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1630-0150 (2015) Towards an ‘alternative’ geography of innovation: Alternative milieu, socio-cognitive protection and sustainability experimentation. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 17. pp. 183-198. ISSN 2210-4224

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Abstract

This paper highlights the hitherto unrecognised role of ‘alternative’ places in protecting different forms of sustainability innovation. The paper uses the concept of an alternative milieu to illustrate how a geographically localised concentration of countercultural practices, institutions and networks can create socio-cognitive ‘niche’ protection for sustainability experiments. An alternative milieu creates protection for the emergence of novelties by (i) creating ontological and epistemological multiplicity; (ii) sustain- ing productive spatial imaginaries; and (iii) supporting ontological security. These different dimensions of protection are explored with reference to an in-depth, empirical case study of Totnes in the United Kingdom. The paper concludes with some reflections on the theoretical implications of this research for the theorising of niche protection and for the geographies of innovation more generally, along with some recommendations for future areas of enquiry.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	alternative milieu,geographies of transition,grassroots innovation ,niche protection ,socio-cognitive protection
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Science, Society and Sustainability University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	11 Feb 2016 12:00
Last Modified:	14 Jun 2023 12:26
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/57051
DOI:	10.1016/j.eist.2014.12.001

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