The DOI matches its Crossref record; 37 of the 37 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
A grassroots sustainable energy niche? Reflections on community energy in the UK
Open accessAbstract
System-changing innovations for sustainability transitions are proposed to emerge in radical innovative niches. ‘Strategic Niche Management’ theory predicts that niche-level actors and networks will aggregate learning from local projects, disseminating best practice, and encouraging innovation diffusion. Grassroots innovations emerging from civil society are under-researched, and so we investigate the UK community energy sector to empirically test this model. Our analysis draws on qualitative case study research with local projects, and a study of how intermediary organisations support local projects. We examine the extent and nature of interactions and resource flows between projects and intermediary actors in order to evaluate the utility of niche theories in the civil society context. While networking and intermediary organisations can effectively spread some types of learning necessary for diffusion, this is not sufficient: tacit knowledge, trust and confidence are essential to these projects’ success, but are more difficult to abstract and translate to new settings. We discuss the implications of our findings for niche theory, for community energy and other grassroots practitioners aiming to build robust influential niches, and for policymakers.
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Cites
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Grassroots innovations for sustainable development: Towards a new research and policy agenda
Seyfang, G., & Smith, A. (2007) · Environmental Politics · doi:10.1080/09644010701419121 · Cited by 1,777
Self-citationWhat is protective space? Reconsidering niches in transitions to sustainability
Smith, A., & Raven, R. (2012) · Research Policy · doi:10.1016/j.respol.2011.12.012 · Cited by 1,712
Self-citationGrin, J., Rotmans, J. I., & Schot, J. (2010) · UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) · Cited by 1,276
Seyfang, G., & Haxeltine, A. (2012) · Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy · doi:10.1068/c10222 · Cited by 1,014
Self-citationCaution! Transitions Ahead: Politics, Practice, and Sustainable Transition Management
Shove, E., & Walker, G. (2007) · Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space · doi:10.1068/a39310 · Cited by 1,012
Community renewable energy: What should it mean?
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An agenda for sustainability transitions research: State of the art and future directions
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Self-citationGeels, F. W. (2019) · Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability · doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2019.06.009 · Cited by 949
Making the most of community energies: Three perspectives on grassroots innovation
Smith, A., Hargreaves, T., Hielscher, S., Martiskainen, M., & Seyfang, G. (2016) · Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space · doi:10.1177/0308518x15597908 · Cited by 398
Self-citationTypology of future clean energy communities: An exploratory structure, opportunities, and challenges
Gui, E. M., & MacGill, I. (2018) · Energy Research & Social Science · doi:10.1016/j.erss.2017.10.019 · Cited by 396
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Metadata
- Authors
- Seyfang, G., Hielscher, S., Hargreaves, T., Martiskainen, M., & Smith, A.
- Venue
- Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-12
- Volume
- 13
- Pages
- 21-44
- ISSN
- 2210-4224 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2117236107
- Cited by
- 503
- References
- 37
- FWCI
- 26.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
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- Seyfang, G., Hielscher, S., Hargreaves, T., Martiskainen, M., & Smith, A. (2014). A grassroots sustainable energy niche? Reflections on community energy in the UK. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2014.04.004
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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