Exploring the Economic Geographies of Sustainability Transitions: Commentary and Agenda

Abstract

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 spatially uneven opportunity spaces for transformative change. Second, it provides a deeper process-based understanding of structural change trajectories, emphasizing the social construction of material and institutional elements and their alignment into socio-technical configurations that work in addressing wicked sustainability problems. Third, it creates novel inroads for conceptualizing-and critically questioning-normative, policy-related concerns around how to achieve more just, resilient, and environmentally sustainable futures. The article concludes with epistemological and strategic considerations on how to further advance geography of transitions perspectives.