Inertia and resistance to change in multi-actor innovation processes – Evidence from two cases in the Netherlands

• Published in: Environmental innovation and societal transitions 2024-09, Vol.52, p.100880, Article 100880
• Main Authors: Goldschmeding, Florian, Vasseur, Véronique, Kemp, René
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Incumbency; Inertia; Multi-actor process; Practical Epistemology Analysis; Resistance
• ISSN: 2210-4224
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2024.100880

•Used Practical Epistemology Analysis and Transactional Learning Theory in two Dutch water cases.•Three-year embedded action research yields a worm-eye view on resistance and inertia.•Insights on learning moments reveal diverse dynamics of incumbency at the micro-level.•Co-creation stalled when citizen concerns were not resolved, or commitment waned.•Incumbency resides not only with regime-actors, but also governments and citizens. Existing transitions literature often highlights successful experiments for changing practices through multi-actor processes but overlooks the challenges of adjusting incumbent practices and engaging actors in reflexive learning. The current article addresses this gap through two qualitative case studies of water-related co-creation processes in the Netherlands. Each case met inertia and resistance from various actors in different forms. We examine the difficulties encountered using data from semi-structured interviews and observations of micro-level interactions from embedded action research. We find that using transactional learning perspective combined with Practical Epistemology Analysis is useful for obtaining a worm-eye view of dynamics of incumbency on the actor-level, in contrast to the eagle-eye view commonly adopted in transitions studies. Our main contribution is the identification of specific barriers to change and demonstrating how a worm-eye perspective offers detailed insights into micro-level interactions that hinder sustainability transitions.