Policy-as-practice
Exploring the ‘hidden sides’ of policy-making in sustainability transitions
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24218229 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sabine de Graaff (0009-0006-0089-2522), Silje Marie Svartefoss (0000-0001-5072-1293), Håkon Endresen Normann (0000-0002-1390-0521), Taran Thune, Iris Wanzenböck (0000-0002-1727-5567) |
| Year | 2027 |
| Volume | 62 |
| Pages | 101199 |
| Publication date | 2027-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2210-4224 • E-ISSN: 2210-4232 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.eist.2026.101199 |
| OpenAlex | W7216495843 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 78 |
While research on the politics of transitions has examined power dynamics, coalitions, and value contestations, the ‘hidden’ sides of operational governance, such as micro-political dynamics, strategies and tensions within decision-making spaces, remained largely underexplored. Considering the increased attention to politics in the governance of sustainability transitions, we argue for a better understanding of the complex, often messy policy processes behind the scenes. Drawing on insights from political science and policy studies, we propose a ‘policy-as-practice’ perspective for transition studies to explore how actors shape and negotiate the content of policies, and the often concealed arenas in which they operate. We discuss the roles of state and non-state actors, interest groups, policy advisors and experts, and how their day-to-day practices shape policy outcomes. Furthermore, we discuss hidden processes such as nondecisions, policy inaction and watering down of policy initiatives as research topics that highlight how a policy-as-practice perspective can provide valuable insights. These aspects of policymaking are difficult to observe from the study of policy documents, decisions or instruments, and require studying policy processes up-close and immersively. We also outline important ontological and methodological implications of our micro-political perspective for the field of transition policy studies.
Environmental governance · Practice theory · sustainability transitions · Policy Transfer and Learning · Public Policy and Administration Research · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
Keeping sustainable innovation on a leash? Exploring incumbents’ institutional strategies
The politics of sustainability transitions
Strategy-as-Practice
The co-evolution of policy mixes and socio-technical systems
Policy mixes for sustainability transitions
Policy mixes for sustainability transitions
Action Research
The roles of the state in the governance of socio-technical systems’ transformation
Innovation policy for system-wide transformation
Towards a theory of transformative social innovation
Creative destruction or mere niche support? Innovation policy mixes for sustainability transitions
The governance of sustainable socio-technical transitions
The role of policy entrepreneurs in defining directions of innovation policy
Transition management as a model for managing processes of co-evolution towards sustainable development
Building momentum for a ‘policy turn’ in sustainability transitions
Agency, directionality, location and the geographic situatedness of knowledge making
How norms, needs, and power in science obstruct transformations towards sustainability
Six modes of co-production for sustainability
Stability and climate policy? Harnessing insights on path dependence, policy feedback, and transition pathways
Governing for sustainable energy system change
Theories of power and social change. Power contestations and their implications for research on social change and innovation
Putting practice into policy
The politics of co-production
Action, research and participation
Conflicting roles of researchers in sustainability transitions
Who are the green transition experts? Towards a new research agenda on climate change knowledge
Entrepreneurial ecosystems and public policy in action
Backlash to Climate Policy
Policy and practice
The transformative capacity of local administrations in sustainability transitions
Street‐level bureaucrats and policy entrepreneurship
Civil servant tactics for realizing transition tasks understanding the microdynamics of transformative government
Inaction and public policy
Designing long-term policy
The communication of policy meanings
On the Rhetoric and Politics of Ethnographic Methodology
State capacities for decarbonization
Who ‘CoPed’ out in Kyoto? An assessment of the third conference of the parties to the framework convention on climate change
Socio-technical transitions and policy change – Advocacy coalitions in Swiss energy policy
Reactions to policy action
Special advisers and the transmission of ideas from the policy primeval soup
The role of politics in sustainable transitions
Engaging with the politics of sustainability transitions
Legitimizing transformative government
Behind the scenes
Ideas behind transformative innovation policy
Tipping the scales of the blue transition
Passing the baton
Harnessing theories of the policy process for analysing the politics of sustainability transitions
Who learns what in sustainability transitions
The study of institutional entrepreneurship and its implications for transition studies
Toward an Anthropology of Public Policy
Policy Paradigms, Social Learning, and the State
Exploring the governance and politics of transformations towards sustainability
An agenda for sustainability transitions research
Beyond the ABC
Smart Specialization in Australia
Cold climate in Copenhagen
The Politics of Social-ecological Resilience and Sustainable Socio-technical Transitions
Up, Down, round and round
Post-decisional logics of inaction
Decisions and Nondecisions
Toward a Theory of Social Practices
Regime Resistance against Low-Carbon Transitions
Winner-Take-All Politics
| Highly cited | No |
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