Bernhard Truffer
Biographic Data
| ID | 766191 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bernhard Truffer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bernhard |
| FAMILY NAME | Truffer |
| SIGNATURE | TRUFFER B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8635-0911 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 63 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1013 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 63 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 14 |
Sustainability experiment led by city government: Lessons from Shenzhen’s waste management
Urban waste management has become a key area for collaborative experimental interventions in China. These experiments are often led by city governments, yet little is known about their internal processes and dynamics. This study examines Shenzhen’s “Dandelion Plan,” a city-led sustainability experiment that later became a national model for urban waste governance. Using socio-technical configuration analysis, interviews, and focus groups, this st…
Pathways towards successful urban community waste management: Insight from 26 experiments in China
Understanding factors influencing the outcomes of innovative community waste management experiments is crucial for improving urban waste management. Yet, there is limited evidence on what are the critical factors and how different combination, and interaction of these factors influence outcomes. This study analyses 26 community waste management experiments in Shenzhen, China, using a mixed-method approach. Through analyzing data obtained from int…
Exploring the Economic Geographies of Sustainability Transitions: Commentary and Agenda
This commentary provides a short review of the history and current state of transition studies, and explores how a deepened exchange with economic geographers could be fostered at the geography of sustainability transitions interface along three fronts. First, we argue that a combined transitions–economic geography perspective allows elucidating how the coevolution of technologies, institutions, and actor networks creates multiscalar and spatiall…
The missing link for effective informal settlement upgrading: Appropriation shaping the outcome of new infrastructure
Infrastructure investments, a core element of slum upgrading, play a role in improving the livelihoods of over 1 billion slum residents globally. Established planning practices often successfully deliver functional infrastructure but evidence shows that their contribution to improved livelihoods often either is absent or declines sharply after some time. To explain this limited effectiveness, this article identifies the missing link between infra…
Beating the Casino: Conceptualizing an Anchoring-based Third Route to Regional Development
pegging of external resources (De
The lack of organizational learning in slum upgrading success: The case of the Kenya Informal Settlement Improvement Programme 2011–2020
Not all the challenges of informal settlement upgrading programmes can be anticipated from the start. It calls for cumulative learning within the programme’s timeline. This paper investigates the role of organizational learning in influencing programme outcomes. The analysis of the Kenya Informal Settlement Improvement Programme (KISIP) shows that a lack of organizational learning routines can lead to reduced programme success, and that programme…
Structural tensions limiting success of infrastructure upgrading: A multi-regime perspective
Unfettered growth of slums is a daunting transition challenge and many upgrading programs fail to sustainably improve the livelihoods of slum residents. This paper elaborates a transitions perspective on structural tensions that may lead to success or failure of slum upgrading programs. We conceptualize slums as urban subsystems, governed by sociotechnical (infrastructure) and socioeconomic livelihood regimes (related to production and social rep…
Developing local industries and global value chains: The case of offshore wind
Renewable energy sectors are becoming increasingly globalized with lead firms appropriating value on a global scale: This creates challenges for nations seeking to anchor some of the value locally through indigenous industrial development. Since lead firms select their suppliers for a given deployment project, national governments can set incentives for these firms to opt for local suppliers. We use the case of offshore wind in Europe to quantita…
The role of institutional logics during participation in urban processes and projects: Insights from a comparative analysis of upgrading fifteen informal settlements in Kenya
The academic literature largely acknowledges participation as a key condition for the successful upgrading of informal settlements. However, how individual participative actions of different actor groups and reactions of dwellers combine to influence project outcomes of upgrading processes has not been studied. This article posits that different combinations of presence or absence of collaborative interactions between dwellers and other actors wi…
Contouring ‘earth-space sustainability
A perspective on the future of sustainability transitions research
The journal Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions (EIST) recently celebrated its tenth anniversary. Its development represents a great success, contributing substantially to the consolidation and maturation of the research field of sustainability transitions. However, being content with past successes will not be sufficient for tackling emerging challenges. In this perspective paper, we take stock of recent dynamics in the field by an…
The emergence of a global innovation system – A case study from the urban water sector
Towards transformative leapfrogging
Latecomer countries are increasingly confronted with the simultaneous challenge of achieving industry competitiveness and sustainability transitions. We revisit the long-standing debate on how latecomers may break free from the trajectories of the developed countries and leapfrog into more sustainable directions. Connecting insights from the fields of catching-up, socio-technical transitions, and economic geography, we propose a heuristic typolog…
Overcoming the harmony fallacy: How values shape the course of innovation systems
Shaping the directionality of sustainability transitions: The diverging development patterns of solar photovoltaics in two Chinese provinces
This paper investigates how actors across spatial levels shape the directions of transition. We examine two Chinese provinces, Inner Mongolia and Jiangsu, with contrasting directionalities of solar photovoltaic (PV) development. The former developed PV as part of the large-scale centralized power system, and the latter focused on PV development as a core element of an alternative distributed form of power generation. We argue that three aspects h…
Celebrating a decade of Eist: What's next for transition studies
The challenges of livelihoods reconstruction in the context of informal settlement upgrading
Community involvement is recognized as a core condition for success in informal settlements upgrading. However, the wider ramifications of this requirement are not well understood. Mostly, community involvement has been equated with a narrow interpretation of participation, largely focusing on the elicitation of dwellers' preferences at the planning stages. We argue that this approach overlooks the actual needs for livelihoods reconstruction in t…
Directionality of transitions in space: Diverging trajectories of electric mobility and autonomous driving in urban and rural settlement structures
Geographies of transition—From topical concerns to theoretical engagement: A comment on the transitions research agenda
The Geography of Technology Legitimation: How Multiscalar Institutional Dynamics Matter for Path Creation in Emerging Industries
Research in economic geography has recently been challenged to adopt more institutional and multiscalar perspectives on industrial path development. This article contributes to this debate by integrating insights from (evolutionary) economic geography as well as transition and innovation studies into a conceptual framework of how path creation in emerging industries depends on the availability of both knowledge and legitimacy. Unlike the extant l…
Towards sustainable urban basic services in low-income countries: A Technological Innovation System analysis of sanitation value chains in Nairobi
Virtual user communities contributing to upscaling innovations in transitions: The case of electric vehicles
Users are increasingly acknowledged as important actors fostering those fundamental socio-technical innovations needed to achieve a sustainable society. In the literature, users have so far been portrayed mostly to play a role in early phases of technology formation. However, more recently users have become important players in the upscaling of various innovations. With the advent of new social media, users may interact effortlessly across large …
Innovation challenges of utilities in informal settlements: Combining a capabilities and regime perspective
Analysing transition pathways in developing cities: The case of Nairobi's splintered sanitation regime
Screening European market potentials for small modular wastewater treatment systems – an inroad to sustainability transitions in urban water management
Environmental Innovation and Sustainability Transitions in Regional Studies
Truffer B. and Coenen L. Environmental innovation and sustainability transitions in regional studies, Regional Studies. Sustainable development and environmental innovations have received increasing attention in regional studies and the related literature. In how far sustainability concerns might also lead to fundamental transformations in technologies, industries and lifestyles (so-called sustainability transitions) has, however, found much less…
Technological innovation systems in contexts: Conceptualizing contextual structures and interaction dynamics
Towards a theory of regional diversification: Combining insights from Evolutionary Economic Geography and Transition Studies
Towards a theory of regional diversification: combining insights from Evolutionary Economic Geography and Transition Studies. Regional Studies. This paper develops a theoretical framework of regional diversification by combining insights from Evolutionary Economic Geography and Transition Studies. It argues that a theory of regional diversification should not only build on the current understanding of related diversification but also account for …
The geography of sustainability transitions: Contours of an emerging theme
Environmental innovation and societal transitions: Introduction and overview
Path Creation as a Process of Resource Alignment and Anchoring: Industry Formation for On-Site Water Recycling in Beijing
Where and how new industrial paths emerge are much debated questions in economic geography, especially in light of the recent evolutionary turn. This article contributes to the ongoing debate on path creation with a new analytical framework that specifies the formation of generic resources in embryonic industries. It suggests that path creation processes are not only conditioned by preexisting regional capabilities and technological relatedness b…
Geographies of transition—From topical concerns to theoretical engagement: A comment on the transitions research agenda
Informal institutions matter: Professional culture and the development of biogas technology
A perspective on the future of sustainability transitions research
The journal Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions (EIST) recently celebrated its tenth anniversary. Its development represents a great success, contributing substantially to the consolidation and maturation of the research field of sustainability transitions. However, being content with past successes will not be sufficient for tackling emerging challenges. In this perspective paper, we take stock of recent dynamics in the field by an…
The impact of privatization on sustainability transitions: A comparative analysis of dynamic capabilities in three water utilities
Virtual user communities contributing to upscaling innovations in transitions: The case of electric vehicles
Users are increasingly acknowledged as important actors fostering those fundamental socio-technical innovations needed to achieve a sustainable society. In the literature, users have so far been portrayed mostly to play a role in early phases of technology formation. However, more recently users have become important players in the upscaling of various innovations. With the advent of new social media, users may interact effortlessly across large …
Society, Technology, and Region: Contributions from the Social Study of Technology to Economic Geography
Recent debates in economic geography have emphasized the need for a more explicit analysis of innovation processes at a sectoral or technological level. A great deal of attention has furthermore been devoted to connect the internal disciplinary debate with the wider discourse of the social sciences that deal with economic development in general and with the role of innovation in particular. In the present paper I argue that the field of the socia…
Moving innovation systems research to the next level: Towards an integrative agenda
The concept of innovation systems has been a guiding paradigm of innovation research and strongly influenced research and innovation policy since the early 1990s. In spite of this success, criticisms have been raised in recent years about whether it is still a suitable framework for addressing the innovation-related challenges of the future. In the present paper we claim that systemic explanations of innovation success have still a very important…
The Geography of Technology Legitimation: How Multiscalar Institutional Dynamics Matter for Path Creation in Emerging Industries
Research in economic geography has recently been challenged to adopt more institutional and multiscalar perspectives on industrial path development. This article contributes to this debate by integrating insights from (evolutionary) economic geography as well as transition and innovation studies into a conceptual framework of how path creation in emerging industries depends on the availability of both knowledge and legitimacy. Unlike the extant l…
Towards sustainable urban basic services in low-income countries: A Technological Innovation System analysis of sanitation value chains in Nairobi
Contouring ‘earth-space sustainability
The emergence of a global innovation system – A case study from the urban water sector
Shaping the directionality of sustainability transitions: The diverging development patterns of solar photovoltaics in two Chinese provinces
This paper investigates how actors across spatial levels shape the directions of transition. We examine two Chinese provinces, Inner Mongolia and Jiangsu, with contrasting directionalities of solar photovoltaic (PV) development. The former developed PV as part of the large-scale centralized power system, and the latter focused on PV development as a core element of an alternative distributed form of power generation. We argue that three aspects h…
User-led Innovation Processes: The Development of Professional Car Sharing by Environmentally Concerned Citizens
Users play an essential role in the early development and diffusion phases of an innovation. Citizen groups may directly influence user-relevant characteristics of a new technology. They may actively engage in the social construction of quality characteristics, the perception of costs and the development of specific use forms and product images. By this they create ‘technological niches’ where essential learning processes for the further developm…
Innovation challenges of utilities in informal settlements: Combining a capabilities and regime perspective
Towards transformative leapfrogging
Latecomer countries are increasingly confronted with the simultaneous challenge of achieving industry competitiveness and sustainability transitions. We revisit the long-standing debate on how latecomers may break free from the trajectories of the developed countries and leapfrog into more sustainable directions. Connecting insights from the fields of catching-up, socio-technical transitions, and economic geography, we propose a heuristic typolog…
Overcoming the harmony fallacy: How values shape the course of innovation systems
Exploring the Economic Geographies of Sustainability Transitions: Commentary and Agenda
This commentary provides a short review of the history and current state of transition studies, and explores how a deepened exchange with economic geographers could be fostered at the geography of sustainability transitions interface along three fronts. First, we argue that a combined transitions–economic geography perspective allows elucidating how the coevolution of technologies, institutions, and actor networks creates multiscalar and spatiall…
Beating the Casino: Conceptualizing an Anchoring-based Third Route to Regional Development
pegging of external resources (De
Challenges for Technological Innovation Systems research
Outsider Initiatives in the Reconstruction of the Car: The Case of Lightweight Vehicle Milieus in Switzerland
This article analyzes the relevance of a specific form of social networks, so-called innovative milieus, for the development of radical innovations. Two Swiss initiatives which developed highly energy-efficient means of individual transport in the past ten years are analyzed in terms of the resources they could mobilize and the risks they run. To assess the milieu's potential for radical innovation, we examine the construction of a lightweight sa…
Ökostrom”: Transdisziplinarität auf der Werkbank
“Grüner Strom”, auch Ökostrom genannt, wird bereits heute auf dem Elektrizitätsmarkt verkauft. Präzise Kriterien, die eine ökologische Stromproduktion definieren, fehlen jedoch in den meisten Fällen. Was im Fall der Solar- und der Windenergie noch relativ leicht ermittelbar erscheint, ist bei der Wasserkraftnutzung schwierig. Diese aus globaler Sicht wünschenswerte Nutzung einer regenerativen Energiequelle bedeutet häufig einen massiven Eingriff …
Green Electricity from Alpine Hydropower Plants
Hydropower is a renewable source of energy of which ecological benefits include very low average greenhouse gas emissions. As a result of dams, however, more than 20% of all freshwater fish species are now considered threatened or endangered. Such negative ecological impacts are a focus of broad public concern in Alpine regions where hydropower production is most intense. The liberalization of electricity markets now provides an economic rational…
Water Pricing – An Instrument for Sustainability
User-led Innovation Processes: The Development of Professional Car Sharing by Environmentally Concerned Citizens
Users play an essential role in the early development and diffusion phases of an innovation. Citizen groups may directly influence user-relevant characteristics of a new technology. They may actively engage in the social construction of quality characteristics, the perception of costs and the development of specific use forms and product images. By this they create ‘technological niches’ where essential learning processes for the further developm…
Knowledge Integration in Transdisciplinary Research Projects – The Importance of Reflexive Interface Management Wissensintegration in transdisziplinären Projekten – Flexibles Rollenverständnis als Sch…
The improved integration of disparate knowledge stocks is one of the key promises of transdisciplinary research. This present paper illustrates the multifaceted characteristics of knowledge integration by analysing the experience gained through a major transdisciplinary research project on green certification procedures for hydropower plants. These lessons learned allow a better understanding of the challenge to manage the diversity of interfaces…
Technological innovation systems and the multi-level perspective: Towards an integrated framework
Multi-regime dynamics in the analysis of sectoral transformation potentials: Evidence from German utility sectors
Society, Technology, and Region: Contributions from the Social Study of Technology to Economic Geography
Recent debates in economic geography have emphasized the need for a more explicit analysis of innovation processes at a sectoral or technological level. A great deal of attention has furthermore been devoted to connect the internal disciplinary debate with the wider discourse of the social sciences that deal with economic development in general and with the role of innovation in particular. In the present paper I argue that the field of the socia…
Strategic decision making in infrastructure sectors: Participatory foresight and strategic planning for sustainable sanitation
Infrastructure sectors in general, and urban water management in particular, have developed over the past couple of decades within the confines of a rather narrow and stable socio-technical regime. Nowadays, these infrastructures are increasingly confronted with uncertain context conditions, a broadened spectrum of technological alternatives and an increasing heterogeneity of value positions. As a consequence, the longterm sustainability of these…
Alpine Waters
Most of the world’s mountains are rich in water and, as such, play a pivotal role in the global water cycle. They provide water for diverse human uses and ecosystems. Growing water demands as well as climate change will lead to ever-increasing pressure on mountain waters. Overcoming water-use conflicts and maintaining the ecological functioning of mountain waters presents a highly challenging task and is indispensable for sustainable development.…
Market Formation in Technological Innovation Systems—Diffusion of Photovoltaic Applications in Germany
The technological innovation systems (TIS) literature has focused strongly on actors, networks and institutions in early development phases of specific technologies. Structures and processes concerned with setting up and developing end-user markets have gained much less attention. Especially in maturing innovation systems, such market-related structures play a decisive role for the long-term success of innovations. The present paper proposes a co…
Environmental innovation and societal transitions: Introduction and overview
Toward a spatial perspective on sustainability transitions
Conceptualizing leapfrogging with spatially coupled innovation systems: The case of onsite wastewater treatment in China
The Local Sources of Market Formation: Explaining Regional Growth Differentials in German Photovoltaic Markets
Sustainable transitions in the energy sector have gained only insufficient attention in economic geography so far. Conversely, transition scholars do not pay sufficient attention to the spatial dimension of these dynamics. This paper introduces a conceptual framework for analysing the spatial characteristics of market formation processes in emerging technological innovation systems, thus proposing a shared field of research for economic geographe…
Places and Spaces of Sustainability Transitions: Geographical Contributions to an Emerging Research and Policy Field
In recent years, governments across the globe have developed plans for a Green New Deal to curb a combined economic and ecological crisis. Broad societal and industrial transformations should lead ...
Sustainability transitions: An emerging field of research and its prospects
Technological innovation systems in multi-scalar space
The technological innovation system (TIS) concept has established a strong tradition in analyzing emerging environmental industries. Despite the growing evidence of globalization of innovation activities, TIS literature has so far mostly focused on nationally bound systems. The present paper proposes an analytical framework for assessing the international dimension of TISs by adopting a relational view on actors and networks. Social network analy…
Environmental Innovation and Sustainability Transitions in Regional Studies
Truffer B. and Coenen L. Environmental innovation and sustainability transitions in regional studies, Regional Studies. Sustainable development and environmental innovations have received increasing attention in regional studies and the related literature. In how far sustainability concerns might also lead to fundamental transformations in technologies, industries and lifestyles (so-called sustainability transitions) has, however, found much less…
A capability perspective on performance deficiencies in utility firms
Informal institutions matter: Professional culture and the development of biogas technology
Why space matters in technological innovation systems—Mapping global knowledge dynamics of membrane bioreactor technology
The structuration of socio-technical regimes—Conceptual foundations from institutional theory
Best Practice in Transdisciplinary Research – Swiss td-award Winners 2013
Transdisciplinary research plays an increasing role in topics of societal relevance and impact. The td-net of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences awards innovative transdisciplinary research every other year. The last td-award was given in 2013. This special focus of GAIA features the six prize-winning projects, presenting short summaries of their work. Explaining its selection in the following introduction, the Jury of the td-net honours th…
Economics (43 works) · Business (35 works) · Sociology (35 works) · Computer Science (34 works) · Political science (31 works) · Engineering (25 works) · Geography (21 works) · Sustainability (20 works) · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance (20 works) · Economic geography (17 works)