How do visions of the future shape sociotechnical transitions?
Résumé
While the literature on Sustainability Transitions highlights the role of visions, expectations or scenarios in managing transitions, historical transition studies rarely mention specifically how they may have played. If some authors stress the role of scenarios at the niche level, to align innovative actors behind a common longterm vision, they don’t analyse visions carried by the regime actors. When building a new future vision, actors should always consider the already existing ones, as the regime visions, even though they are mostly implicit, actually frame the possibilities for transformative change. We aim at providing some insights on the way innovative actors can design future visions as strategic interventions in a transition process. In this paper, we argue that when building visions or scenarios, innovative actors need to consider the strategic context in which they are discussed at the three levels of niches, regime and landscape.