Presentation by Andy Stirling to 2021 conference of the Transformations to Sustainability Programme 18th June 2021

1. Governance of Sociotechnical Transformations Project
TRANSFORMING IMAGINATIONS?
Multiple dimensionalities and temporalities in transformations to sustainability
– emerging ideas and evidence on sociotechnical imaginaries
of energy and urban change in Kenya, Germany and the UK
short presentation by Andy Stirling also for Joel Onyango, Rose Cairns & Phil Johnstone
presentation to 2021 conference of the
Transformations to Sustainability Programme
18th June 2021
- see background paper here

2. The ‘Governance of Sociotechnical Transitions’ Project
About exploring practical salience in struggles towards sustainability,
of complex ‘dimensionalities’ and ‘temporalities’ in associated social &
political transformations – viewed thro’ the sociotechnical imaginaries
that constitute them (and by means of which they are interrogated)
This presentation is about just one strand of this work – in UK & Kenya

3. Dimensionality: recognise ‘polythetic’ imaginaries & transformations
A ‘Q-method’ study of
urban transformations
in Nairobi, Kenya
imaginaries of transformation
are multiple, subjective and
partly in eyes of researchers
complex interplay of
imaginaries, with global, pan-
African and Chinese elements
no necessary one-to-one
mappings of imaginaries and
settings, including among
within narrow policy elites
Results still being analysed
Polythetic research can resolve more complex relations

4. Temporality: recognise diverse patterns in ‘embedded time’
Polythetic research allows complex processes to be resolved
German and UK ‘energy transitions’ are not ‘monotonic’ (as
conventionally imagined), but show nonmonotonic patterns
Elite UK policy imaginations of ‘energy transition’ are not
singular and nation-specific, but multiple and instrumental:
‘nuclear renaissance’ contrasts with ‘nuclear drumbeat’
In UK, a key driving factor is not energy at all, but military

5. grand
challenges
nudge
‘the’ transition
geoengineering
‘the’ anthropocene
planetary
management
‘the’ nexus
Complex temporalities & dimensionalities: why do they matter?
mainstream
global policy
and research
imaginations
of
‘sustainability
transitions’
- hubristic
- fear driven
- singular
- hierarchical
- superiorist
- calculative
- growth-focused
- controlling

6. - humility (not hubris) about what is known
- hope (not fear) about what is possible
- diversity (not singularity) in what counts
- mutualism (not hierarchy) in organising
- equality (not superiority) in driving values
- precaution (not calculation) against vulnerability
- flourishing (not growth) as guiding aims
- care (not control) as means to realisation
alternative
imaginations
of how
‘liberatory
transformations’
have always
been struggled for
Complex temporalities & dimensionalities: why do they matter?