2023/10/14 by Jochen Markard, Peter Wells, Xiao-Shan Yap +1 · 1 voice · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Adventure Sports and Sensation Seeking #Conferences and Exhibitions Management #Space exploration and regulation
paper · doi:10.1016/j.erss.2023.103302
openalex publication_date 2023/10/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
While transitions research has pursued a successful research agenda around how to improve established socio-technical systems in terms of sustainability, it has missed out, among other things, on innovations that make, or keep, societies less sustainable. In our paper, we explore two innovations in different stages of development: Sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and space tourism. SUVs entrench an existing socio-technical system and reproduce problematic practices, while space tourism might create a whole new, unsustainable system. We make three contributions. First, we introduce ‘unsustainabilities’ as a new term for technologies, institutions and practices that make, or keep, societies less sustainable. With this we direct attention to developments and structures that undermine ongoing sustainability transitions. Second, we distinguish unsustainabilities associated with socio-technical configurations, socio-technical systems, and meta-structures (spanning multiple systems). Third, we argue that precautionary policies will be needed in early stages of innovation, when there is still room to avoid unsustainable transitions.