Webinar: Towards a Theory of Collective action for Sustainability Transitions

Collective action for sustainability transitions

On Wednesday January 27th, the Future of Citizen-based Initiatives (FOCI) hub will organize an online meeting for members of the hub and others who are interested. Special guest is Thomas Bauwens, post-doctoral researcher and lecturer at the Utrecht University’s Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development.

In the webinar, dr. Bauwens will give a lecture, titled 'Towards a Theory of Collective action for Sustainability Transitions: an Institutional Logics Perspective'.

About the webinar 

While collective action is pervasive in sustainability transition processes, given the collective dimension of any good generating collective environmental and/or social benefits, it has received limited attention in the sustainability transitions literature so far. This presentation seeks to address that research gap by proposing a conceptual model of collective action for sustainability transitions. This model, rooted in the institutional logics approach, first shows that sustainability transitions initiatives face collective-action problems as they scale, in particular for the mobilisation of additional resources. Second, it demonstrates that, as these initiatives seek to address these problems, they may introduce tensions between institutional logics in their organisational model. The webinar explores the resolving mechanisms that can be applied to address these institutional tensions. The model is supported by a substantial body of evidence from the sustainability transitions literature on collective sharing economy and sustainable energy initiatives. 

More information 

The online meeting will be held on Wednesday January 27th at 16:00-17:00. We will close the official programme at 17:00, but the digital conference room will stay open for another 30 minutes afterwards, for people to catch up in an informal setting (as an alternative to the drinks we would have served otherwise). FOCI members can log into this meeting using this Link. 

Not a hub member, but interested in joining the webinar? You can sign up for the meeting by sending an email to: foci-hub@uu.nl.   

If you are interested in presenting your research in such a FOCI webinar yourself, please do not hesitate to email: foci-hub@uu.nl.