Abstract
Within the transitions study literature, strategic niche management is proposed as a practical approach to developing and upscaling sustainability niche development. It posits that key actors within governments have important roles to play in creating protected spaces to allow for niches to establish and position themselves to challenge the existing regime. However, the provision of protected space or the involvement of governments does not guarantee a niche will be successful. Sustainability transitions researchers are now asking why some niche projects are more successful than others, both in their establishment and influences on the broader regime. This chapter explores the sustainable housing niche through three cases from Australia where proactive policy levers have been used to try and accelerate: (a) uptake of residential solar photovoltaics (successful), (b) sustainable housing ceiling insulation retrofit (unsuccessful), and (c) sustainable high-density development (limited success). The focus of the chapter is on assessing why there were different outcomes, including influencing the broader regime and societal change, and what the lessons for government involvement in strategic niche management are. The case studies show that when strategic niche management actions align with socio-technical landscape dynamics, then public sector actors have a greater chance at stimulating regime transformation. Inversely, when the public sector fails to align its actions with landscape forces, outcomes of niche experiments are compromised. Within this, context windows of opportunity are critical to improving the likelihood of success for niches and to ensure they can influence the broader regimes. There are opportunities for government actors to improve the likelihood of successful strategic niche management outcomes if they better integrate these learnings into their development and/or support of niches.
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Notes
- 1.
Australia is governed by three levels of government: federal, state, and local. The federal government is responsible for matters which affect the whole country such as defense, trade, foreign affairs, immigration, national public works, higher education, elements of healthcare, taxation, and welfare. Each state (or territory) then has its own government with their own constitutions and structure of legislature, executive, and judiciary. The state governments are responsible for matters not controlled by the Commonwealth under Section 51 of the Constitution such as state-based education, health (e.g., public hospitals), public transport, main roads, public housing, and law and order. The local government (or council) is responsible for providing services in a local area such as maintenance of local roads, rubbish collection and disposal, child care services, libraries, and town planning and local building regulations. Constitutional responsibility for local governments sits within the state and territory governments.
- 2.
All references to dollars in this chapter are for Australian dollars.
- 3.
Where the different tenure types are located next to each other throughout the building with no discernible difference in unit design or finish quality
- 4.
See also http://nightingalehousing.org/ for further information about these developments.
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Acknowledgment
The discussion about the Nicholson development is informed by research conducted by the author and David Higgins (Moore and Higgins 2016) which was undertaken for a project funded by Places Victoria. The author also acknowledges the wider project team involved in evaluating the Nicholson development including Ian Ridley, Jin Woo, Karishma Kashyap, Megan Nethercote, and Ralph Horne.
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Moore, T. (2018). Strategic Niche Management and the Challenge of Successful Outcomes. In: Moore, T., de Haan, F., Horne, R., Gleeson, B. (eds) Urban Sustainability Transitions . Theory and Practice of Urban Sustainability Transitions. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4792-3_7
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