Wouter Spekkink
Biographic Data
| ID | 1577841 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Wouter Spekkink |
| GIVEN NAMES | Wouter |
| FAMILY NAME | Spekkink |
| SIGNATURE | SPEKKINK W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Erasmus University Rotterdam |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2773-4878 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Activity Systems Modelling as a Complex Systemic Approach to Develop Learning Partnerships Between Community Initiatives and Municipal Governments
The paper explores activity systems modelling (ASM) as a complex systemic approach to fostering learning partnerships between community initiatives and municipal governments. It highlights the increasing role of community‐led initiatives in cocreating public value and the challenges of collaboration due to differing perspectives on governance, responsibility and public value. Drawing on Wright's (1999) interpretation of soft systems methodology (…
Improving Understanding of the Dynamics of Biodiversity Generation in Agricultural Areas Through Participatory Systems Mapping
This paper examines how Participatory System Mapping (PSM), implemented through multiple parallel stakeholder workshops, can uncover interacting factors and feedback structures shaping ditch biodiversity, stimulate systemic learning and generate actionable insights for biodiversity governance. In the Alblasserwaard, a Dutch agricultural area, a living lab that unites diverse actors to develop ecological restoration measures revealed divergent sta…
Mapping the hydrogen transition in the Netherlands
Hydrogen is considered a promising energy carrier that can potentially contribute to low-carbon energy systems and achieving climate goals. Its introduction, however, is complex, involving multiple emerging niches and developments across various sociotechnical systems. Despite its significance, the multi-system nature of hydrogen has received limited attention in sustainability transition scholarship. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by ex…
The (un)Sustainable foodscape
Addressing the role of food practices in greenhouse gas emissions requires attention to their interconnections and material foundations. This study examines four key practices in the Netherlands using Social Practice Theory, extended with a New Materialist lens to highlight material agency and entanglement. Ethnographic fieldwork shows how food practices evolve and interconnect through resource-intensive arrangements. The analysis identifies thre…
From responsible to responsive innovation
Responsible innovation has emerged as a field of research dedicated to introduce sensitivity to societal values in innovation processes. However, much of the academic literature on RI deals with single technologies instead of technological systems and is future-orientated without explicitly using specialised knowledge of past developments. In this paper, we present a problem-focused approach to RI that aims to support researchers and stakeholders…
Something inside me has been set in motion”
The role of sustainability initiatives and niche groups in transitions towards sustainability has received a good deal of attention. However, little is known about the people who make up these groups. This paper discusses their psychological wellbeing – a concept that comprises six elements: self-acceptance, personal growth and development, purpose in life, environmental mastery, autonomy, and positive relations with others. In the study we perfo…
Social representations of governance for change towards sustainability
There is a substantial body of literature on public understandings of large-scale ‘environmental’ phenomena such as climate change and resource degradation. At the same time, political science and economics analyse the governance arrangements to deal with such issues. These realms of research rarely meet: there has been little research into people’s understandings of the governance of environmental change. This study adds a psychological perspect…
Industrial Symbiosis Dynamics and the Problem of Equivalence
Industrial symbiosis (IS), one of the founding notions within the field of industrial ecology, has diffused throughout significant parts of the world as a practice that can reduce the ecological impact of the industrial processes of groups of firms. In this article, we propose a fresh look at this research topic, building on the considerable advances that have been made in the last 15 years in understanding how IS comes about. We propose a concep…
The Emergence of Collaborations
In the literature on collaborative governance, it is often assumed that collaborative capacity (i.e., the ability of actors to coordinate their activities around public issues in a collaborative fashion) is primarily generated during the collaborative process itself. In this article, we show that collaborative capacity can already emerge before the start of collaborations, in the form of a common ground and the bridging position that some actors …
A Process Perspective on Industrial Symbiosis
It has been long recognized in the conceptual literature that industrial symbiosis requires a perspective that focuses on long‐term evolution. This has not yet been matched by adopting an adequate process‐oriented research methodology. This article provides the underpinnings for such a methodology, presents a developed methodology, event sequence analysis, and shows its added value through a set of research questions and an empirical example. It …
Levels of Institutional Capacity and Actor Expectations about Industrial Symbiosis
One assumption underlying the work on industrial symbiosis (IS) is that certain social conditions must be fulfilled in order for firms to develop symbiotic linkages. In this article we add depth to this insight by using institutional capacity as an underlying concept for these conditions, and we propose that such capacity influences IS by altering the opportunity set of actors. We then test the assumption on a dataset of 233 projects aiming to de…
The Emergence of Collaborations
In the literature on collaborative governance, it is often assumed that collaborative capacity (i.e., the ability of actors to coordinate their activities around public issues in a collaborative fashion) is primarily generated during the collaborative process itself. In this article, we show that collaborative capacity can already emerge before the start of collaborations, in the form of a common ground and the bridging position that some actors …
Something inside me has been set in motion”
The role of sustainability initiatives and niche groups in transitions towards sustainability has received a good deal of attention. However, little is known about the people who make up these groups. This paper discusses their psychological wellbeing – a concept that comprises six elements: self-acceptance, personal growth and development, purpose in life, environmental mastery, autonomy, and positive relations with others. In the study we perfo…
Levels of Institutional Capacity and Actor Expectations about Industrial Symbiosis
One assumption underlying the work on industrial symbiosis (IS) is that certain social conditions must be fulfilled in order for firms to develop symbiotic linkages. In this article we add depth to this insight by using institutional capacity as an underlying concept for these conditions, and we propose that such capacity influences IS by altering the opportunity set of actors. We then test the assumption on a dataset of 233 projects aiming to de…
A Process Perspective on Industrial Symbiosis
It has been long recognized in the conceptual literature that industrial symbiosis requires a perspective that focuses on long‐term evolution. This has not yet been matched by adopting an adequate process‐oriented research methodology. This article provides the underpinnings for such a methodology, presents a developed methodology, event sequence analysis, and shows its added value through a set of research questions and an empirical example. It …
The Emergence of Collaborations
In the literature on collaborative governance, it is often assumed that collaborative capacity (i.e., the ability of actors to coordinate their activities around public issues in a collaborative fashion) is primarily generated during the collaborative process itself. In this article, we show that collaborative capacity can already emerge before the start of collaborations, in the form of a common ground and the bridging position that some actors …
Industrial Symbiosis Dynamics and the Problem of Equivalence
Industrial symbiosis (IS), one of the founding notions within the field of industrial ecology, has diffused throughout significant parts of the world as a practice that can reduce the ecological impact of the industrial processes of groups of firms. In this article, we propose a fresh look at this research topic, building on the considerable advances that have been made in the last 15 years in understanding how IS comes about. We propose a concep…
Social representations of governance for change towards sustainability
There is a substantial body of literature on public understandings of large-scale ‘environmental’ phenomena such as climate change and resource degradation. At the same time, political science and economics analyse the governance arrangements to deal with such issues. These realms of research rarely meet: there has been little research into people’s understandings of the governance of environmental change. This study adds a psychological perspect…
Something inside me has been set in motion”
The role of sustainability initiatives and niche groups in transitions towards sustainability has received a good deal of attention. However, little is known about the people who make up these groups. This paper discusses their psychological wellbeing – a concept that comprises six elements: self-acceptance, personal growth and development, purpose in life, environmental mastery, autonomy, and positive relations with others. In the study we perfo…
From responsible to responsive innovation
Responsible innovation has emerged as a field of research dedicated to introduce sensitivity to societal values in innovation processes. However, much of the academic literature on RI deals with single technologies instead of technological systems and is future-orientated without explicitly using specialised knowledge of past developments. In this paper, we present a problem-focused approach to RI that aims to support researchers and stakeholders…
Mapping the hydrogen transition in the Netherlands
Hydrogen is considered a promising energy carrier that can potentially contribute to low-carbon energy systems and achieving climate goals. Its introduction, however, is complex, involving multiple emerging niches and developments across various sociotechnical systems. Despite its significance, the multi-system nature of hydrogen has received limited attention in sustainability transition scholarship. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by ex…
The (un)Sustainable foodscape
Addressing the role of food practices in greenhouse gas emissions requires attention to their interconnections and material foundations. This study examines four key practices in the Netherlands using Social Practice Theory, extended with a New Materialist lens to highlight material agency and entanglement. Ethnographic fieldwork shows how food practices evolve and interconnect through resource-intensive arrangements. The analysis identifies thre…
Activity Systems Modelling as a Complex Systemic Approach to Develop Learning Partnerships Between Community Initiatives and Municipal Governments
The paper explores activity systems modelling (ASM) as a complex systemic approach to fostering learning partnerships between community initiatives and municipal governments. It highlights the increasing role of community‐led initiatives in cocreating public value and the challenges of collaboration due to differing perspectives on governance, responsibility and public value. Drawing on Wright's (1999) interpretation of soft systems methodology (…
Improving Understanding of the Dynamics of Biodiversity Generation in Agricultural Areas Through Participatory Systems Mapping
This paper examines how Participatory System Mapping (PSM), implemented through multiple parallel stakeholder workshops, can uncover interacting factors and feedback structures shaping ditch biodiversity, stimulate systemic learning and generate actionable insights for biodiversity governance. In the Alblasserwaard, a Dutch agricultural area, a living lab that unites diverse actors to develop ecological restoration measures revealed divergent sta…
Sociology (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Ecology (5 works) · Sustainability (5 works) · Business (4 works) · Biology (3 works) · Complex Systems and Decision Making (3 works) · Economics (3 works) · Industrial ecology (3 works) · Industrial Symbiosis (3 works)