Catalysing Pathway Creation for Transition Governance

Abstract

Transition management is one of the key governance methodologies for catalysing vision building, experimentation and pathway construction for sustainability transitions. Its adoption in new country contexts may, however, require redesign. Finnish energy and climate policy already features wide experimentation, visioning and long-term roadmaps. Yet transition arenas could help connect these existing instruments, particularly if redesigned for a mid-range timescale. We improved the path creation toolsets and procedures to create more detailed pathways and analyses of pathway step interrelations. Our path creation system uses magnetic elements that could be easily moved around a large metallic board, a set of procedures and a digitalized counterpart of the board for out-of-the-workshop commentary and reporting. The system was used to create eight mid-range transition pathways and was reported to have facilitated and anchored well the discussions by participants with cross-sectoral backgrounds. Overall, the redesigned system underscores the potential that codesign for sustainability transitions holds, for instance, in developing transition governance instruments further.