Dr.ir. B. Elzen (boelie)

Biography

I have a degree in electrical engineering (1979) and a Ph.D in technology studies (1988). Since 1979 I have had several research and teaching posts at STePS and its predecessors, with intervals at various universities in the Netherlands and abroad. Up until 1990, I worked mainly in the domain of technolgy studies, studying the interaction between technological and societal developments for various empirical domains, thus contributing to the generic approach of social shaping of technology. From the early 1990s until the mid-2000s, I have focused my research on the mobility/transport and energy domains, seeking to make STS insights of relevance to policy. Since the mid-2000s, my research focus has been on the domain of agriculture. Next to doing scientific research, I have acted as a consultant and carried out studies for various parties in the Netherlands and abroad. The general objective in my current work is to create bridges between academic research and sustainability transitions in practice. Over the years I experienced that it became increasingly difficult to pay sufficient attention to the practical side when only working in an academic environment. For that reason, I established my own company by the name of Alnus that advices, teaches and does research on sustainability transitions, mainly in the domain of agriculture. I combine the work for my company with an affiliation as an associate researcher at the STePS group.

Research Interest

My general research interest is in understanding so-called transition processes and to explore ways to induce and stimulate transitions towards sustainability, also called transition policy or governance of transitions. Within this general field I have co-developed the ‘socio-technical scenario’ (STSc) method as a tool in transition policy. This STSc method is rooted in a specific analytical model to analyse transtions (the so-called ‘Multi Level Perspective’) and allows the exploration of possible transition paths for specific domains. When turning to the agricultural sector in the mid-2000s, two initial projects focused on (1) inducing system innovations using a method called “Reflexive Monitoring in Action” (Van Mierlo et al., 2010) and (2) how to ‘anchor’ the results of learning processes in niches such that they have an impact in an existing system and may form the germs for a transition (Elzen et al., 2012). In this work it appeared that innovation towards sustainability in the agro sector is very different from the fields I worked on earlier. Agriculture largely has an SME-like character with large numbers of farmers trying to develop new farming practices. Seeking to stimulate these innovative processes, I was involved of the development of a so-called “Learning and Experimentation Strategy” (Elzen and Spoelstra 2012) that builds on Strategic Niche Management and Transition Management but is better tuned to the SME-like characteristics of the agro sector. My most recent work seeks to contribute to making the livestock sector more sustainable. For this I am involved in developing a tool by the name of “Portfolio of Promises” (which is part of the “Learning and Experimentation Strategy”) and have been involved in the method of “Reflexive Interactive Design” (RIO). The objective of RIO is to design, in an interactive innovation process with stakeholders, new sustainable animal production systems and stimulate their uptake in practice, using the concept of anchoring .