Social Innovation and Sustainable Consumption Research and Action for Societal Transformation Routledge-SCORAI Studies in Sustainable Consumption Series

This book showcases strategic policies for and processes of societal transformation, which are required to address the challenge of sustainability. Based on the latest thinking at the interface of social innovation, sustainable consumption and the transformation of society, the book provides:

• in-depth discussions at the nexus of sustainable consumption, social innovation and social transformation, highlighting their significance to sustainability-related policy and practice;
• detailed case studies of social innovation in energy, food, housing and policy which illustrate emerging practice and promising policy, business and civil society interventions; and
• critical reflections and commentaries on the contribution of social innovation to societal transformation.

Bringing together aspiring scholars and leading thinkers on this topic, this book leads to compelling new insights for an international audience into the potential of social innovation for sustainable consumption and the transformation of society. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of sustainable consumption, sustainable development, (social) innovation studies and environmental sociology.

Chapter 1 – Introduction: the Nexus of Social Innovation, Sustainable Consumption and Societal Transformation, Julia Backhaus, Audley Genus, and Julia Wittmayer Chapter 2 – Conceptualising the Role of Social Innovation in Sustainability Transformations, Alex Haxeltine, Flor Avelino, Julia Wittmayer, Iris Kunze, Noel Longhurst, Adina Dumitru, and Tim O’ Riordan Chapter 3 – The Idea(l) of a ‘Sustainable Sharing Economy’: Four Social Science Perspectives on Transformative Change, Julia Backhaus, Harro van Lente, and René Kemp Chapter 4 – Societal Transformation, Social Innovations and Sustainable Consumption in an Era of Metamorphosis, Michael Jonas Chapter 5 – Local Authorities and their Development of New Governance Approaches: Distilling Lessons from a Social Innovation Project, Marcelline Bonneau and François Jégou Chapter 6 – Hitting a Policy wall: the Transformative Potential and Limitations of Community Pick-Up Point Schemes, Keighley MacFarland and Julia Wittmayer Chapter 7 – Community Energy as a site for Social Innovation , Iain Soutar Chapter 8 – Community Agriculture and the Narrative Construction of Change, Emese Gulyás and Bálint Balázs Chapter 9 – Towards Sustainable Practices: a Practice-theoretical Case Study of a Cohousing Project, Michaela Leitner and Beate Littig Chapter 10 – The Search for Social Innovations that are within Ecological Limits as well as more Just, Edina Vadovics and Simon Milton Chapter 11 – North-American Perspectives of Societal Transformation, Philip J. Vergragt Chapter 12 – Commentary from a Japanese Perspective: Tapping into Traditions for Transitions and Societal Transformations, Satoru Mizuguchi Chapter 13 - Conclusions: How Social Innovations Become Transformative and Help Increase Sustainability, Edina Vadovics and Sylvia Lorek