Unsustainabilities: A study on SUVs and space tourism and a research agenda for transition studies

Markard, Jochen, Wells, Peter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4376-7178, Yap, Xiao-Shan and van Lente, Harro 2023. Unsustainabilities: A study on SUVs and space tourism and a research agenda for transition studies. Energy Research and Social Science 106 , 103302. 10.1016/j.erss.2023.103302

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Abstract

While transitions research has pursued a successful research agenda around how to improve established socio-technical systems in terms of sustainability, it has missed out, among other things, on innovations that make, or keep, societies less sustainable. In our paper, we explore two innovations in different stages of development: Sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and space tourism. SUVs entrench an existing socio-technical system and reproduce problematic practices, while space tourism might create a whole new, unsustainable system. We make three contributions. First, we introduce ‘unsustainabilities’ as a new term for technologies, institutions and practices that make, or keep, societies less sustainable. With this we direct attention to developments and structures that undermine ongoing sustainability transitions. Second, we distinguish unsustainabilities associated with socio-technical configurations, socio-technical systems, and meta-structures (spanning multiple systems). Third, we argue that precautionary policies will be needed in early stages of innovation, when there is still room to avoid unsustainable transitions.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	2214-6296
Funders:	None
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	20 October 2023
Date of Acceptance:	27 September 2023
Last Modified:	20 Oct 2023 14:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/163214

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