Emerging patterns for niche scaling-up processes in socio-technical transitions. Evidence from green shared transport in Amsterdam

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that human activities are primary responsible for accelerating climate change at a global scale. Within the societal sectors, transport is one of the main contributors to harmful emission in the atmosphere, and governmental bodies are struggling to provide alternative solutions to reduce the impact of transport sector on both natural and societal systems. The XXI century has witnessed the rapid growth of sharing practices in cities, which affected mobility as well. Among European cities, Amsterdam is taking a decisive step to drive a socio-technical transition by integrating sharing concepts with electric transport, one of the main alternatives to polluting vehicles. Green shared transport can contribute to mitigate both emissions and congestion issues, but the extent to which this innovation can be extended to a larger scale is not adequately addressed yet. The main question is therefore “What are the main explanatory factors of the scaling-up of the green shared transport niche in Amsterdam, in the context of societal transition?”. To answer this question, an extensive literature review was first conducted in order to identify the main theories dealing with transitions processes and niche markets, identified in Multi-Level Perspective, Strategic Niche Management and internal niche dynamics. These last two in particular provided a number of conditions to be assessed during the analysis, and a scoring criteria was established to determine the importance of those factors. Second, a methodological approach was developed in order to gather qualitative data from organisations operating in the green shared mobility domain in Amsterdam. The conditions identified within the theoretical approach were addressed to appraise the potential for the niche to scale-up. The main policy approaches aiming at promoting sustainable transport at local level were considered as well. After the coding process, the results were evaluated on the basis of stakeholders’ responses and according to the scoring criteria. Results show that in the specific Amsterdam case the main explanatory factors of the potential scaling-up process are infrastructure availability, technological development and policy regulations for companies at local level. Despite the implementation of charging points for e-vehicles and of low-emission zones to promote sustainable mobility, a clear policy approach regulating the activity of companies providing green shared concepts is still lacking. The entire research approach revealed also that focusing on the internal niche development to assess scaling-up processes undermines the influence of major macro-level factors which could enhance or limit the niche development.