Prof. Dr. Bernhard Gill, MA Anna Wolff
Sommer 2015
Transition theories
Tuesday 10-12 Uhr
Konradstrasse 6, room 308
How did transitions of economic systems and their specific infrastructures evolve in the past and how could they be initiated
presently? How did the large transitions from hunter-gatherer to agricultural, and later on from agricultural to industrial economies
take place? How have transport, agriculture and energy systems evolved or have been deliberately changed during the last two
hundred years? During the course, these questions are approached from different theoretical and interdisciplinary perspectives:
Transitions theory as introduced by the Dutch school (Geels, Rotmans et al.), evolutionary economics, discourse theory, ecological
resilience theory, history of technology and economic history. The guiding question will be a practical one: What can be learned
from history for the ongoing or projected socio-ecological transitions like “Energiewende”?
Schedule
Downloads: schedule for print
14.04.
Introduction
21.04.
Physical and social change: the larger historical perspective (AW)
Slides 1
*Sieferle, Rolf-Peter (2011): "Cultural evolution and social metabolism", Geografiska Annaler: Series B,
Human Geography 93 (4): 315–324.
Text 1a
schedule of "prefered discussion partners" (to be opened with the password of the course)
Nolan, P. & Lenski, G. (2011) Human Societies. An Introduction to Macrosociology. Cap. 1 + 3, Colorado.
28.04.
Power and discourse (AW)
Text 1b
Slides 2
*Boltanski, Luc & Chiapello, Eve (2005): “The new Spirit of Capitalism”. International Journal of Politics, Text 2a
Culture, and Society 18, 161-188.
Text 2b
Sewell, William (1992): “A Theory of Structure: Duality, Agency, and Transformation”. American Journal
of Sociology 98.1, 1-29.
05.05.
Evolutionary Economics (BG)
Slides 3
*Dosi, Giovanni, and Richard R. Nelson. "An introduction to evolutionary theories in economics." Journal Text 3a
of evolutionary economics 4.3 (1994): 153-172.
Text 3b
Andersen, Esben Sloth. Evolutionary Economics : Post-Schumpeterian Contributions. Routledge, 2013.
Chap. 1: Approaching evolutionary economics.
12.05.
Case studies (BG)
Slides 4
*Fuenfschilling, Lea, and Bernhard Truffer. "The structuration of socio-technical regimes—Conceptual
foundations from institutional theory." Research Policy 43.4 (2014): 772-791.
Text 4a
Geels, Frank W., and René Kemp. "Dynamics in socio-technical systems: Typology of change processes and
contrasting case studies." Technology in society 29.4 (2007): 441-455.
19.05.
Structural change: Industrialisation (BG)
Text 4b
Slides 5
*Bourdieu, Pierre (2013): Algerian Scetches, Polity Press, Chap.1: Colonization, culture and society, pp. 39- Text 5a
82
Text 5b
Weber, Eugen (1976). Peasants into Frenchmen: the modernization of rural France, 1870-1914. Stanford
University Press. Chap. 8: The working of the land, pp. 115-129.
26.05.(Pfingsten)
02.06.
Transitions in consumption (AW)
Slides 6
*Schrage, Dominik (2012): “The Availability of Things. A Short Genealogy of Consumption”. Krisis 1, 519.
Text 6a
Chai, Andreas & Moneta, Alessio (2010):”Retrospectives. Engel Curves”. Journal of Economic
Perspectives, 24.1, 225-240.
09.06.
Cultural change: From frugality to affluence and back again? (AW)
Slides 7
*Podkalicka, A., & Potts, J. (2013). Towards a general theory of thrift. International Journal of Cultural
Studies, DOI: 10.1177/1367877913496198 (pp.1-15).
Text 7a
Witkowski, T. H. (2010). A brief history of frugality discourses in the United States. Consumption, Markets
and Culture, 13(3), 235-258.
16.06.
Slides 8
*Geels, Frank W. (2010): “Ontologies, socio-technical transitions (to sustainability), and the multi-level
perspective“. Research Policy 39, 495-510.
Text 8a
Slides 9
*Garud, Raghu, and Joel Gehman. "Metatheoretical perspectives on sustainability journeys: Evolutionary,
relational and durational." Research Policy 41.6 (2012): 980-995.
Text 9a
Slides 10
*Coenen, Lars, Paul Benneworth, and Bernhard Truffer. "Toward a spatial perspective on sustainability
transitions." Research Policy 41.6 (2012): 968-979.
Text 10a
Text 10b
Vulnerability and Resilience – adaptation through crisis and revolution (BG)
Slides 11
*Gallopín, Gilberto C. "Linkages between vulnerability, resilience, and adaptive capacity." Global
environmental change 16.3 (2006): 293-303.
Text 11a
Holling, C. S., & Sanderson. S. (1996). Dynamics of (dis) harmony in ecological and social systems.
Holling et al. (Eds.), Rights to Nature: Ecological. Economic, Cultural, and Political Principles of
Institutions for the Environment, 57-86.
14.07.
Text 9b
Sustainability transitions in geographic perspective (BG)
Murphy, J., and Smith, A. (2013) Understanding transition-periphery dynamics: renewable energy in the
Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Environment and Planning A, 45 (3). pp. 691-709.
07.07.
Text 8b
Research strategies for sustainability transitions (BG)
Markard, Jochen, Rob Raven, and Bernhard Truffer. "Sustainability transitions: An emerging field of
research and its prospects." Research Policy 41.6 (2012): 955-967.
30.06.
Text 7b
Transition theory (MLP) and critique (AW)
Shove, Elizabeth & Walker, Gordon (2010): “Governing transitions in the sustainability of everyday life”
Research Policy 39, 471-476.
23.06.
Text 6b
Text 11b
Summary, ideas for term papers, seminar critique
The slides and texts for the respective meeting can be downloaded via the links in the WWW (see above). Password will be
communicated in the course.
How to get certificates
9 ECTS (BA/MA seminar):
- not missing more than two meetings
- reading the main texts (marked with asterisks*) for each meeting
- writing a summary of one page to the main text for each meeting (minus two) - containing also a question for discussion (due via
email at 12.00 p.m. on Sunday before the respective meeting). (=Task 1)
- being two times a "preferred discussion partner" – this means that you have carefully red all the texts for the respective meeting
(not only the texts with the asterisks*) (=Task 2)
- writing a term paper to the usual conditions for Seminare. The deadline for the term paper is the 21th of september 2015. Term
papers are to be sent via email in pdf-format (please no paper version). Do not forget to include a scan of the declaration of
academic honesty with your signature! (=Task 3)
Environment and Society Programme:
- not missing more than two meetings
- reading the main texts (marked with asterisks*) for each meeting
- being two times a "preferred discussion partner" – this means that you have carefully red all the texts for the respective meeting
(not only the texts with the asterisks*) and that you are able to summarize – on request – the main arguments in these texts.
International Programme Students (e.g. Erasmus):
Depending on the requirements of your home university you can choose for passing 3, 6 or 9 ECTS by fulfilling tasks 1, 1+2 or
1+2+3 in the above "menu".
Our consultation hours / email:
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Gill, Tuesday, 0-1 p.m., room 201 at Konradstrasse 6, or after the course meeting
Bernhard.Gill(at)soziologie.uni-muenchen.de
Anna.Wolff(at)soziologie.uni-muenchen.de
Please send all communications always to both instructors!