Beyond instrumentalism: Broadening the understanding of social innovation in socio-technical energy systems

Social innovation is an important dimension of current transformations in energy systems. It can refer to alternative business models, novel policy instruments, financing schemes, participatory governance approaches to energy questions, or new discourses. Its significance for energy systems is often considered in narrow instrumentalist terms, reducing it to a tool serving particular policy objectives. Grounding the concept in social science and humanities insights, this review essay proposes a broadened social innovation understanding. We propose 1) to open up the normative complexity of the concept; 2) to appreciate the multi-actor nature of social innovation; 3) to understand it as an analytical entry point for socio-material intertwinement; and, 4) to understand social innovation as premised on experimentalism-based intervention logics. The proposed social innovation understandings provide a broader imagination and strategizing of structural changes in energy systems.

Keywords

Prosumerism Social innovation Energy transition Renewable energy

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10451/45983

Citation

Julia M. Wittmayer, Tessa de Geus, Bonno Pel, Flor Avelino, Sabine Hielscher, Thomas Hoppe, Susan Mühlemeier, Agata Stasik, Sem Oxenaar, Karoline S. Rogge, Vivian Visser, Esther Marín-González, Merel Ooms, Saskia Buitelaar, Chris Foulds, Kristian Petrick, Salvador Klarwein, Seweryn Krupnik, Gerdien de Vries, Aleksandra Wagner, Anja Härtwig, Beyond instrumentalism: Broadening the understanding of social innovation in socio-technical energy systems, Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 70, 2020, 101689, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101689.