Seminar 2: Reflections on Innovation Systems for Sustainability Transitions

In this seminar you will present and discuss your individual reflections on the previous seminars game. The paper should cover a brief explanation of your role in the game, and then use the reading assigned for this seminar to reflect on innovation systems for sustainability transitions. Aim for your reflection to be around 750 words.

Some questions to help your reflections are:

1. Which systems functions, discussed in Hekkert et al. (2007) were fulfilled (how?)? If there were functions that you did not identify, is that due to the game’s design, or some other reason?
2. What surprised you in the way the game unfolded? Were there critical moments in which the game could have developed differently?
3. How did you find your way into your role? Was it easy for you to adapt to the role, or did you have difficulties? Did you behave the way you did in the game because of the role you assumed? If yes, what made you behave inline with the role? If not, why did you not behave in line with the role?

It is not important that you answer all of them, or any for that matter. They are meant as guidance rather than expectations. If you have another aspect that you would like to reflect upon, please do. The important part is that you present some thought about innovation systems literature and your personal experience in the first seminar.

Important

If you could not attend the first seminar, please still try to include personal experience in combination to the assigned reading. Instead of drawing on the game, choose and briefly describe an experience where you were part of an innovation system. You can be liberal with the type of innovation. For example, a student union which aimed to change something at the university; working or interning at a company and wanting to introduce a new tool / process.

The goal is that you reflect on how the system influenced this process.

During the seminar you will first discuss your reflections in small groups of up to five people. Please make sure to read the reflections of others before hand. At the end we will discuss your reflections together.

Apart from the required reading you may find Wieczorek and Hekkert (2012) helpful for a deeper understanding of influencing innovation systems. While the entire book Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Meadows (2009) is a great read, for this reflection you may find chapter 4 Why Systems Surprise Us particularly helpful.

Hekkert, M. P., R. A. A. Suurs, S. O. Negro, S. Kuhlmann, and R. E. H. M. Smits. 2007. “Functions of Innovation Systems: A New Approach for Analysing Technological Change.” Technological Forecasting and Social Change 74 (4): 413–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2006.03.002.

Meadows, Donella H. 2009. Thinking in Systems: A Primer. London: Earthscan.

Wieczorek, Anna J., and Marko P. Hekkert. 2012. “Systemic Instruments for Systemic Innovation Problems: A Framework for Policy Makers and Innovation Scholars.” Science and Public Policy 39 (1): 74–87. https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scr008.