Making the most of community energies:Three perspectives on grassroots innovation

Smith, Adrian, Hargreaves, Tom ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3764-7364, Hielscher, Sabine, Martiskainen, Mari and Seyfang, Gill ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4696-0798 (2016) Making the most of community energies:Three perspectives on grassroots innovation. Environment and Planning A, 48 (2). pp. 407-432. ISSN 0308-518X

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Abstract

Grassroots innovations for sustainability are attracting increasing policy attention. Drawing upon a wide range of empirical research into community energy in the UK, and taking recent support from national government as a case study, we apply three distinct analytical perspectives: strategic niche management; niche policy advocacy; and critical niches. Whilst the first and second perspectives appear to explain policy influence in grassroots innovation adequately, each also shuts out more transformational possibilities. We therefore argue that, if grassroots innovation is to realise its full potential, then we need to also pursue a third, critical niches perspective, and open up debate about more socially transformative pathways to sustainability.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Science, Society and Sustainability Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Resources, Sustainability and Governance (former - to 2018) Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE) Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	17 Mar 2016 12:54
Last Modified:	15 Dec 2023 01:36
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/57540
DOI:	10.1177/0308518X15597908

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