The multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions: responses to seven criticisms

Author(s)
Geels, F.W.
Publication language
English
Pages
14pp
Date published
01 Jun 2011
Publisher
Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions
Type
Articles
Keywords
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), System-wide performance

The multi-level perspective (MLP) has emerged as a fruitful middle-range framework for analysing socio-technical transitions to sustainability. The MLP also received constructive criticisms. This paper summarises seven criticisms, formulates responses to them, and translates these into suggestions for future research. The criticisms relate to: (1) lack of agency, (2) operationalization of regimes, (3) bias towards bottom-up change models, (4) epistemology and explanatory style, (5) methodology, (6) socio-technical landscape as residual category, and (7) flat ontologies versus hierarchical levels.