Gene

Agency (philosophy)

Epistemology

Perspective (graphical)

Sociotechnical system

Philosophy

Sociology

Dynamics (music)

Artificial intelligence

Heuristic

Chemistry

Ecology

Pedagogy

Transition (genetics)

Narrative

Social science

Computer science

Linguistics

Biochemistry

Knowledge management

Sustainability

System dynamics

Structure and agency

Discourse analysis

Biology

Sustainability Science

Understanding the dynamics of stability and change is key to accelerate sustainability transitions. This paper aims to advance and inspire sustainability transition research on this matter by collecting insights from interpretative environmental discourse literature. We develop a heuristic that identifies and describes core discursive elements and dynamics in a socio-technical system. In doing so, we show how the interplay of meta-, institutionalized, and alternative discourses, dominant, marginal, and radical narratives, as well as weak and strong discursive agency influence the socio-technical configuration. The heuristic suggests three discursive lock-ins reinforcing the stabilization of socio-technical systems: unchallenged values and assumptions, incumbents’ discursive agency, and narrative co-optation. Furthermore, it explores three pathways of discursive change: disruptive, dynamic and cross-sectoral. Overall, this paper puts forward a discursive perspective on sustainability transitions. It offers additional analytical approaches and concepts for discursive transition studies, elaborated insights on the dynamics within and between the analytical dimensions of a socio-technical system, as well as a theoretical baseline for analyzing discursive lock-in mechanisms and pathways of discursive change.

Discursive dynamics and lock-ins in socio-technical systems: an overview and a way forward