Glossary

The ability of a system to adjust its responses to changing conditions and to learn from experience. High adaptive capacity enables systems to navigate transitions more effectively.

An approach that treats interventions as experiments, systematically learning from outcomes and adjusting strategies accordingly. Adaptive management acknowledges uncertainty and builds in mechanisms for course correction.

A planning method that starts with defining a desirable future and then works backward to identify the steps and pathways needed to reach that future from the present.

The specific form of lock-in that perpetuates fossil fuel dependence through interconnected technological, institutional, and behavioral systems that co-evolved around carbon-intensive energy.

An event, condition, or intervention that triggers or accelerates transition dynamics. Catalysts can be external shocks or deliberate actions that destabilize existing regimes.

Concerns about how the benefits and burdens of transitions are distributed across different groups, regions, and generations.

The phenomenon where system-level properties arise from interactions between components that cannot be predicted from the properties of individual parts. Emergent properties are irreducible to lower-level explanations.

Application of justice frameworks specifically to energy systems, addressing how energy benefits and burdens are distributed, how energy decisions are made, and whose energy needs are recognized.

The systematic study of how complex systems—social, technical, ecological, and their hybrids—undergo fundamental transformation from one stable state to another. Exodology focuses on understanding and guiding ethical transitions.

A circular causal chain where outputs of a system become inputs that influence future behavior. Positive (reinforcing) loops amplify change; negative (balancing) loops resist change.

Communities that bear disproportionate burdens from environmental harms or are first to experience the impacts of system failures and transitions.

An individual or organization that pioneers new practices ahead of mainstream adoption. Frontrunners often operate in niches and can be key actors in initiating transitions.

Established actors who benefit from and have stakes in maintaining the current regime. Incumbents may resist transitions or may be enrolled as partners depending on their interests and strategies.

A framework ensuring that transitions to sustainable systems are fair and equitable, protecting workers and communities who may be negatively affected while distributing benefits widely.

The broader contextual factors that influence but are largely outside the control of regime actors. Landscape elements change slowly and create background conditions that can enable or constrain transitions.

A place in a system where a small intervention can produce large effects. Leverage points range from least effective (parameters) to most effective (paradigms).

The condition where systems resist change due to accumulated advantages, interdependencies, and increasing returns. Lock-in operates across technological, institutional, and behavioral dimensions simultaneously.

An analytical framework that explains transitions as emerging from interactions between three levels: niches (where innovations develop), regimes (the dominant system configuration), and landscapes (broader contextual factors). Transitions occur when niche innovations break through as regimes destabilize under landscape pressure.

A protected space where alternative configurations, practices, and technologies can develop shielded from mainstream market selection. Niches serve as incubators for innovations that may eventually challenge or replace regimes.

Novel technologies, practices, or organizational forms that develop in protected spaces and may eventually compete with or replace dominant regime configurations.

A model of nested adaptive cycles at multiple scales, showing how systems at different levels (local, regional, global) interact. Small-scale changes can cascade upward (revolt), while larger scales provide memory and stability (remember).

The phenomenon where past decisions and developments constrain future possibilities. Historical events can determine which paths remain open, even when those paths are not optimal.

A governance approach with multiple centers of decision-making at different scales that are formally independent but may function as a coherent system through mutual adjustment and learning.

Concerns about fairness in decision-making processes, including who participates, how decisions are made, and whether processes are transparent and inclusive.

Concerns about whether different groups, identities, and forms of knowledge are respected and valued in transition processes.

Governance that is aware of its own limitations, able to question its assumptions, and designed to learn and adapt. Reflexive governance acknowledges that governing complex systems requires ongoing adjustment.

The dominant, stable configuration of a sociotechnical system, characterized by aligned rules, practices, technologies, and actor networks that reproduce the system over time. Regimes provide stability but also create resistance to change.

Active efforts by incumbent actors to maintain existing system configurations and prevent or slow transitions that threaten their interests.

The transformation of a dominant system configuration to a fundamentally different one. Regime shifts involve changes in rules, technologies, actor networks, and practices.

The capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while retaining essentially the same function, structure, and identity. Resilience is not about returning to a previous state but about maintaining core functions.

The process of expanding successful niche innovations to broader adoption. Scaling can occur through replication (copying to new contexts), growth (expanding existing initiatives), or translation (adapting principles to different settings).

The practice of intentionally guiding transitions toward beneficial outcomes while maintaining ethical responsibility for consequences. Stewardship acknowledges the limits of control while accepting the obligation to act wisely.

An interconnected set of elements—technological, institutional, behavioral, and cultural—that function as an integrated whole. Systems exhibit emergent properties that cannot be understood by examining parts in isolation.

A critical point at which a system shifts to a qualitatively different state. Once crossed, thresholds are often difficult or impossible to reverse.

The capacity to create a fundamentally new system when the existing system is untenable. Unlike resilience (maintaining function), transformability involves deliberately changing to a different system configuration.

A fundamental transformation of a system from one stable configuration to another. Distinguished from incremental change by its depth, affecting multiple interconnected dimensions (technological, institutional, behavioral, cultural) simultaneously.

A small network of frontrunners from different sectors who develop shared visions and initiate transition experiments. Arenas operate outside normal policy processes to enable more radical innovation.

A practical project designed to test new technologies, practices, or social arrangements that could contribute to broader system transition. Experiments generate learning that informs scaling strategies.

A governance approach for navigating sustainability transitions that combines long-term vision with short-term experimentation. Key elements include transition arenas, backcasting, and protected niche experiments.