Divided by Narrative: Sustainability Transitions and Frugal Innovation

by Samir Amin & Oishika Basak

Perhaps the greatest question of the Anthropocene is how to reconcile against the looming threats of changing climates (Fielding et al., 2023). Regardless of research that indicates unavoidable and devastating futures for societies across the world, collective and radical systems change are limited in their global application (Aklin & Mildenberger, 2020). Instead of our leaders spearheading collective action between multiple actors, across paradigms, and at various levels, we instead fall back to the comfortable, quick, techno-fixes. We look for edits and improvements to our existing systems, finding new innovative ways to reduce our resource reliance. Enter sustainability transitions. Ecological protection meets new economic prosperity, meets revamped social justice. In the last ten years, increasing urgencies in this interdisciplinary field have led to the emergence of many new strategies for the problems of our modern world (Swilling, 2019). The circular economy holds great promise in reducing our resource dependence, renewable energies have the potential to change the way we power our lives, and the remoulding of social practice will lead us to save the polar bears, one bamboo toothbrush at a time. We have become excellent at identifying the misdeeds of the not-so-distant past; extractive industries, fossil fuels, over-consumption, fast fashion, the ultra-rich and their private jets, tax evaders, etc. But is it possible that our solutions to these issues; self-driving Tesla’s, eco-mode washing machines and self-flushing airport toilets, may end up in the same time capsule, dismissed by generations to come as empty gesture?

To some, the techno-fixes and modernist branding of sustainability echo the same faddism of boomer-era capitalism (Beasy, 2020). They are inherently polished, such that the businessman and trendy teen will both jump on board. Perhaps this is the intention, and a strong argument could be made for the marketing of sustainability being essential for its rapid uptake. Perhaps the big picture approach of sustainability transitions (Kohler et al 2019) is necessary in fostering transdisciplinary and multidimensional thinking, however, this ‘bigger, better, bolder’ framing may also be causing us to miss the nuances of contextual, socio-economic and geographic differences. A counter argument could be made that the (Swilling, 2019). That there are many solutions, and all should be trialled and tested, until we find the right blend of developmental teabag that will limit the rate of our impending doom. But this argument is inherently ambiguous and does little to acknowledge the strategies that we know work. The real question to be asked is; who does this bigger picture narrative of sustainability transitions really serve?

At this point it should be noted that critiques against techno-fixes for sustainability transitions are nothing new and in fact plentiful. People-centric energy transitions, community-first approaches, democratic decision-making, citizen participation, etc, are concepts all brought to the debate, and position themselves as counter to the ‘quick-techno’ fix approach (Swilling, 2019). Many within sustainability transitions are working to understand the narratives of change that are impactful across communities and sectors, exemplified through the lens of geographies of transition (Kohler et al., 2019). More often than not, however, participative sustainability is targeted at scale (Sauermann et al., 2020); how to make everyone understand the importance of sustainable practices, enough so to bring about a frictionless shift to a new economic model. Here, again we must consider narrative. Can this gearing really be considered collective? Or does it strike of a historical hypocrisy of inspiring change in marginalised communities, for the greater good?

If we can make the claim that the bigger picture narrative of sustainability transitions is inherently geared towards wealthier societies, then is there a concept that instead brands sustainability for poorer societies? Yes. Frugal innovation.

Continue reading this opinion piece on our website to find out what frugal innovation means and how it is related to sustainability transitions.