Transition management is a governance approach that aims to facilitate and accelerate sustainability transitions through a participatory process of visioning, learning and experimenting.
In its application, transition management seeks to bring together multiple viewpoints and multiple approaches in a 'transition arena'. Participants are invited to structure their shared problems with the current system and develop shared visions and goals which are then tested for practicality through the use of experimentation, learning and reflexivity. The model is often discussed in reference to
sustainable development and the possible use of the model as a method for change.
Key principles to transition management as a form of governance:
* seeks to widen participation by taking a multi-actor approach in order to encompass societal values and beliefs
* takes a long-term perspective (between 1-3 generations) creating a basket of visions in which short-term objectives can be identified
* focused on learning at the niche level, experiments are used to identify how successful a particular pathway could be and uses the concept of "Learn by doing, doing by learning"
* a systems thinking approach which identifies that problems will span multiple domains, levels and actors.
History
There have been numerous societal transitions in the past, studied examples include the transition from
horse-drawn carriage
A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping an ...
to motorised cars and the change from physical
telegraphy
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
to the electric
telephone
A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into el ...
. There are a number of theories that muse over how transition management evolved into being. One school of thought identifies the sociological aspect of transition as deeply rooted within