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• Phase-out research and policy should mind systems change rather than emphasize technological substitution. • Research and policy should mind the timing and interaction among phase-out and innovation efforts. • Research and policy should mind the politics of phase-out, including issues of power, legitimacy, and equity. Phase-out is rapidly gaining traction as a central part of practical efforts to address sustainability challenges. However, the way it has been conceived of in policy debates and some academic work is problematic in that it (1) tends to be narrowly focused on substitution; (2) underexposes the bi-directional relationship between phase-outs and innovation; and (3) pays insufficient attention to political challenges. To fully reap the potential of phase-out in sustainability transitions, we call for a more integrative body of scholarship. We identify three important avenues to advance this agenda: First, shifting the unit of analysis to socio-technical systems and the reconfiguration of entire regimes will help to elucidate the multiple logics underlying phase-outs. Second, deepening insights on the timing and interaction between phase-out and innovation will unveil the potential of phase-outs in accelerating transitions. Finally, engaging with issues of power, political legitimacy, and equity is required to mitigate political challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Coal phase-out is vital to address climate change. • Two discourse coalitions sought to influence coal phase-out policy in Germany. • The anti-coal coalition was very stable, congruent and had a strong actor base. • Both coalitions, and their storylines, left their mark on the phase-out law. • Discourse network analysis allows us to systematically study discourse coalitions. Discourse analysis is gaining attention in transition studies. This paper uses discourse network analysis (DNA) to study how discourse coalitions, and the storylines they mobilize, change over time. Drawing from archival data of two daily newspapers, we analyze the struggle over coal phase-out in Germany (2000–2020). We identify an anti-coal discourse coalition, which was stable and ideationally congruent over time. It used climate change as the dominant storyline to delegitimize coal. The phase-out policy decision in 2020 can be interpreted as the success of this coalition. The pro-coal coalition, in contrast, was more dispersed and less consistent in their arguments. Nonetheless, it was able to institutionalize some of its key storylines in the final policies. We argue that DNA is a powerful tool we can mobilize in sustainability transitions research for the study of politics and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• It is vital to widen the scope of transition studies. • We suggest two areas: unsustainable shifts and deterioration of critical context systems. • We will encounter new phenomena to advance our frameworks. • Policy shift from repair approaches to precautionary transition policies. Sustainability transitions are key to addressing grand challenges confronting humanity, yet there are many developments that undermine this endeavor. For example, new products and industries emerge that exacerbate existing challenges, instead of mitigating them. Context systems such as policy making, finance, education or independent journalism, which provide critical resources for transitions, transform in ways that hamper their ability to support sustainability transitions. We argue that transitions research needs explicitly to confront unfavorable developments in order to create a broader repertoire of strategies, including precautionary policies, to better orchestrate sustainability transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An updated research agenda of the Sustainability Transitions Research Network is presented. • The literature is growing rapidly, although research on transitions in practice and everyday life is still limited. • How to best interact with other relevant disciplines remains a challenge for transitions scholars. • The broader questions of limits to growth or alternative economic systems are open areas for transitions research. Research on sustainability transitions has expanded rapidly in the last ten years, diversified in terms of topics and geographical applications, and deepened with respect to theories and methods. This article provides an extensive review and an updated research agenda for the field, classified into nine main themes: understanding transitions; power, agency and politics; governing transitions; civil society, culture and social movements; businesses and industries; transitions in practice and everyday life; geography of transitions; ethical aspects; and methodologies. The review shows that the scope of sustainability transitions research has broadened and connections to established disciplines have grown stronger. At the same time, we see that the grand challenges related to sustainability remain unsolved, calling for continued efforts and an acceleration of ongoing transitions. Transition studies can play a key role in this regard by creating new perspectives, approaches and understanding and helping to move society in the direction of sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Discourse analysis on hydrogen of 179 newspaper articles and new multi-sector transition framework. • Most actors generally support hydrogen deployment, but conflicts on use, production method, and imports. • Policymakers highlight economic opportunities and role for climate change mitigation. • Especially NGOs argue that hydrogen is expensive, inefficient, and overestimated in its potential. • Positions range between a restricted use of exclusively green hydrogen, and a wide use including non-green hydrogen. With net-zero emission goals, low-carbon transitions enter a new phase of development, leading to new challenges for policymaking and research. Multiple transitions unfold in parallel across different sectors. This involves a broad range of technologies, while actors engage in increasingly complex discourses. Here, we study the discourses on hydrogen in Germany. Based on the analysis of 179 newspaper articles from 2016 to 2020, we find that a diverse set of actors, including many industry incumbents, speak favorably about hydrogen, emphasizing economic opportunities and its relevance for the energy transition, whereas skeptics highlight its low energy efficiency and expected scarcity. With the help of discourse network analysis, we identify three emerging conflicts around the use, production, and import of hydrogen. We explain these conflicts and the widespread support of incumbents with a conceptual framework that captures the complex interplay of sectoral contexts, specific technologies and actor interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policies and politics are an integral part of socio-technical transitions but have not received much attention in the transitions literature so far. Drawing on the advocacy coalition framework, our paper addresses this gap with a study on actors and coalitions in Swiss energy policy. Our results show that advocacy coalitions in Switzerland have largely remained stable despite the Fukushima shock. However, heterogeneity of beliefs has increased and in 2013, even a majority of actors expressed their support for the energy transition – an indication that major policy change might be ahead. It seems that in socio-technical transitions, changes in the policy issue and in the actor base also work toward policy change, next to changes in core beliefs. We make suggestions how the advocacy coalition framework can inform analysis and theory building in transition studies. We also present first ideas about the interplay of socio-technical systems and policy systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The technological innovation systems framework (TIS) is widely used to study the emergence and growth of new technological fields and industries. At the same time, it has been criticized for a number of issues and innovation scholars have made suggestions of how to improve the framework. In this viewpoint, we respond to six areas of criticism: (1) TIS context, (2) system delineation, (3) spatial aspects, (4) transitions, (5) politics, and (6) policy recommendations. We point to promising conceptual developments of how to address shortcomings and highlight needs for further research. We also discuss the prospects of the TIS approach for the analysis of socio-technical transitions. The TIS framework, in our view, has the potential to outgrow its original scope – explaining the dynamics and performance of a technological field – and to address many of the issues relevant when studying transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses interactions between technological innovation systems (TIS) and wider “context structures”. While TIS studies have always considered various kinds of contextual influences, we suggest that the TIS framework can be further strengthened by a more elaborated conceptualization of TIS context structures and TIS–context interactions. For that purpose, we identify and discuss four especially important types of context structures: technological, sectorial, geographical and political. For each of these, we provide examples of different ways in which context structures can interact with a focal TIS and how our understanding of TIS dynamics is enhanced by considering them explicitly. Lessons for analysts are given and a research agenda is outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We analyze the relevance of institutional structures for technological diffusion. [•] We highlight the importance of informal institutions. [•] Biogas development in Austria shows substantial differences on the regional level. [•] Different professional cultures play a major role in the implementation of biogas. [•] Systematic analysis of a technology's institutional environment is important. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]