Recent academic and policy debate on innovation indicates that there has been some shift from a more traditional systems approach to ecologies and ecosystems. The latter are concepts transferred from the world of biology to the social world in order to explain the evolutionary nature of interrelations between different individuals, their innovative activities, and their environment. We evaluate the concept of knowledge ecology and the theory of innovation ecosystem on two fundamental grounds; firstly, on the grounds of theoretical plausibility and conceptual consistency; secondly, on empirical grounds of the case of public <sup/>private interrelations of biotech innovation in Cambridge. The argument is that the concept of knowledge ecology and the theory of innovation ecosystems can lead to problems of reductionism and functionalism. This is due to their development in abstraction from more grounded analysis of historical processes of the social division of labour. Knowledge and innovation need to be looked at in the context of historically founded processes of socioeconomic development.

Why do corporations develop technologies which can be associated with the generation of various environmental risks and how are the technologies that they develop governed by factors within and around firms? The authors examine the factors that have motivated and guided technological innovation, based on an examination of multinational companies developing genetically modified (GM) crops for the European market. The analysis is based on an inherently interdisciplinary approach to the study of innovation, which incorporates factors that are governed endogenously through the processes within companies (that is, strategic decisionmaking) and exogenously through interactions between firms and their external constituents (that is, government policies and regulations, and stakeholder and public perspectives and engagements). It is found that the introduction of GM technologies in Europe has been shaped significantly by public perception and societal reactions. It is also found that the aspects of industry strategies which contributed most to the course of European public opposition to GM crops were: (a) the choice of first-generation GM products; (b) interactions between pesticide-product and biotechnology-product strategies in different companies, and industry's efforts to present their sector and its products as contributing to sustainable development; (c) cultural and world-view differences between companies; and (d) company responses to European biotechnology policies and risk regulation. It is demonstrated that actions which seem rational to individual actors (corporations, governments, public interest groups) can have counterintuitive, and often counterproductive, outcomes in the longer term and when considered from the perspective of interactions within broader governance processes.

This paper examines how actors in the UK electricity sector are attempting to deliver investment in low carbon generation. Low carbon technologies, because of their relative immaturity, capital intensity and low operational costs, do not readily fit with existing electricity markets and investment templates which were designed for fossil fuel based energy. We analyse key electricity market and infrastructure policies in the UK and highlight how these are aimed at making low carbon technologies ‘investable’ by reducing uncertainty, managing investment risks and repositioning actors within the electricity socio-technical ‘regime’. We argue that our study can inform contemporary debates on the politics and governance of sustainability transitions by empirically investigating the agency of incumbent regime actors in the face of uncertainty and by offering critical insights on the role of markets and finance in shaping socio-technical change.

This paper analyses the role played by intermediaries in consolidating the position of “emerging” resource-based cluster in exports markets. Through a purpose-built typology and detailed case study involving survey and interviews, the argument is made that intermediaries act not only to facilitate the diffusion of knowledge, but that in “emerging clusters”, their scope of activities, extending into coordinating joint actions and new investment initiatives, places them at the centre of the network of organisations. The growing influence of intermediaries in emerging clusters has implications for the governance of the cluster, especially in aspects such as inclusion of smaller producers in the process of capability building.

The ability of innovation—both technical and social—to stretch and redefine ‘limits to growth’ was recognised at Stockholm in 1972, and has been a key feature in debates through to Rio+20 in 2012. Compared with previous major moments of global reflection about human and planetary futures—Stockholm, Rio in 1992, Johannesburg in 2002—we now have a better understanding of how innovation interacts with social, technological, and ecological systems to contribute to transitions at multiple levels. What can this improved understanding offer in terms of governance approaches that might enhance the interaction between local initiatives and global sustainability objectives post-Rio+20? The global political agenda over the last two decades has largely focused on creating economic and regulatory incentives to drive more sustainable industrial development patterns within and between nation-states—resulting most notably in the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. At the other end of the spectrum, ‘Local Agenda 21’, launched at the first Rio summit, envisaged a community-led response to sustainable development challenges locally. This paper discusses the successes and challenges of globally linked local action through a number of illustrative examples, reflecting on how these have contributed to Rio 1992’s original objectives. In doing so, we will draw upon innovation studies and development studies to highlight three key issues in a hybrid politics of innovation for sustainability that links global and local: first, the direction in which innovation and development proceed; second, the distribution of the costs, benefits, and risks associated with such changes; third, the diversity of approaches and forms of innovation that contribute to global transitions to sustainability. Drawing on this analysis, we will also reflect on Rio+20, including the extent to which hybrid innovation politics is already emerging, whether this was reflected in the formal Rio+20 outcomes, and what this suggests for the future of international sustainable development summits.

This paper explores the relationship between ‘postpolitics' and processes of rescaling enacted through planning reform. It centres empirically on the policy shift which has occurred in planning since the inception of the Planning Act 2008—the new framework which will oversee the development of new nuclear power and other large-scale infrastructural developments in the UK. This act has radically altered the ways in which publics can engage with government policy. Using interview data gathered from participants in recent nuclear power consultations, as well as participants in the old inquiry-based system of the 1980s, it is argued that processes of rescaling through the Planning Act have diminished the ‘political opportunities' available for certain nongovernmental actors to intervene in the policy process. This has contributed to the postpoliticisation of the planning framework in certain arenas, which raises significant questions concerning public engagement and democratic accountability within the wider context of the modernisation of planning. The potential consequences of these developments are discussed.

How should we characterise the relations between environmental scarcity, conflict, and migration? Most academic and policy analyses conclude that scarcities of environmental resources can have significant impacts upon conflict and migration, and claim or imply that within the context of accelerating global environmental changes these impacts are likely to become more significant still. Many analyses admittedly recognise that these impacts are often indirect rather than direct and that there exist multiple ‘drivers’ of conflict and migration, of which environmental stresses are but one. We argue that even these qualifications do not go far enough, however: they still overstate the current and likely future significance of environmental changes and stresses in contributing to conflict and migration and underemphasise a far more important causal pathway—from conflict and migration to environmental vulnerabilities. These arguments are advanced via a comparative analysis of water–migration–conflict linkages in Cyprus and Israel and the West Bank and Gaza

The authors assess empirically the impact on firm performance of a state-subsidised training-loan scheme for small businesses (the Small Firms Training Loan Scheme). To achieve this assessment, a longitudinal sample of firms that received loans from the leading lender under the scheme, Barclays Bank, and a control sample of otherwise similar nonparticipants with Barclays accounts were studied. The authors present and apply a panel-data methodology for estimating the impact of the scheme on firm growth, which is able to take into account nonrandom selection onto the scheme. The main empirical findings are that participants are both more likely to survive and to grow faster than nonparticipants.

The role of entrepreneurship and small businesses in economic development has received particular attention in the postcommunist countries. Transition studies have recently emphasised the role that institutions play in orienting the entrepreneurial spirit toward capital formation, investment, export expansion, and generation of new jobs, and fair competition which will lead to sustainable economic growth. The author discusses the business-support infrastructure in Albania and the operational issues it faces. Interview data have been collected from various actors involved in the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the country. The combination of the interview content with background information on each of the organisations has highlighted various issues such as the need for greater exposure of enterprises to business opportunities through the promotion of role-model businesses, the need to respond to the specific needs of enterprises in terms of skills and knowledge, and the need for a wider access through a better sectoral and regional coverage.

The launch of the Small Business Service in the United Kingdom stimulated a review of small business policy and support in the United Kingdom. The Service inherited a substantial number of policies and initiatives which have been criticised for their poorly stated aims and overall lack of coherence. The authors examine justifications for small business policy in Britain and the role of research in small business policymaking. They suggest that research has had relatively little impact, and some reasons why this has been the case. They also suggest ways of setting a small business research agenda-raising standards and ensuring the independence of research. Attention is given to the evaluation of small business policy and initiatives. It is argued that currently this is not sufficiently independent or rigorous, and the authors suggest remedies. Both quantitative and qualitative evaluation approaches are examined in order to redefine good practice. The overall aim is to suggest how the Small Business Service can be better supported by research and evaluation, enabling it to function more successfully than its predecessors.

Over the last few years a fast growing literature developed around the notion of socio-technical transitions and the possibilities for governing 'system innovations' towards sustainability. Government policies are assumed to play an important role in such processes. However, an important critique has been not to see these transition processes as politically neutral, but to pay more attention to the politics of these processes. This paper makes a contribution towards this debate by analysing the underlying political processes and their institutional contexts which led to two quite different approaches aimed at promoting 'system innovations' in the UK and the Netherlands. The main question this paper answers is why the two governments engage with the same challenge in such different ways? Building on a discursive-institutionalist perspective based on the work of Hajer and Schmidt, the paper highlights the interplay of discourses, institutional contexts and interests in shaping policy initiatives to promote 'system innovations'. The paper concludes by suggesting a typology of possible relationships between these variables and expected policy outputs which helps to explain the two case studies and is believed to be applicable more widely.

Strategic niche management is a recently developed policy approach which advocates claim, is important in seeding radical transformations in sociotechnical regimes, and transitions to environmentally sustainable regimes in particular. This paper examines a critically important aspect of this approach: the relationship between radically novel sociotechnical practices in niches and the mainstream social – technical regimes they seek to influence. Although the literature notes the significance of this relationship, it does so in a paradoxical way. It is argued that niches are more likely to influence mainstream change when they show a degree of compatibility with the incumbent regime. Yet this compatibility criterion blunts the scope for niches to be radically innovative, thereby undermining the degree of regime transformation being sought. The case of organic food is used to explore this paradox empirically. The history of the organic niche, and its engagement and entanglement with the mainstream food regime, suggests a dialectical relationship between sociotechnical niches and regimes.

Since the Education Reform Act of 1988 there has been substantial change in the funding of schools in Britain. Individual schools now have their own budgets which are determined by formula, and they have substantial freedom to spend their budgets as they wish. They are also entitled to keep any savings which they make, and these are roiled forward to the next financial year. The funding formula for a school is designed by its local education authority, subject to constraints imposed by central government. More recently a class of self-governing, or grant-maintained, schools has developed with a parallel funding system which is also formula based. A new institution, the Funding Agency for Schools, has been created to oversee the financing of these schools. In this paper, which is based on interviews with officers in six local education authorities and on documentation from several others, the author assesses these recent changes in the education 'market'. It is concluded that the market is not working well due to the complexity of the funding arrangements, the institutional arrangements, the inappropriate incentives offered, and the change in the 'atmosphere' of the education market.

Policy network analysis (PNA) and the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) are relatively recent additions to the toolbox of policy analysis. The author explores the strengths and limitations of each through comparative application. The two frameworks are used to analyse policy change and stability in the UK industrial pollution sector over a period of more than twenty-five years. Innovations derived from policy-oriented learning generated in the 1970s were initially rejected before being implemented fourteen years later. The case study illustrates the limits of both theories. Change was not an open competition between advocates of different core policy beliefs. Nevertheless the ACF analysis of contrasting, broadly defined, beliefs can help explain some events beyond policy networks. Resource interdependencies in the policy network provide a good explanation for the stabilities exhibited in the case study. PNA can also explain why some actors were excluded from the policy process whereas others exercised decisionmaking and nondecisionmaking power. In combination, the more fundamental agency-oriented and structure-oriented emphases on beliefs and resources associated with the ACF and PNA, respectively, can enrich policy analysis

The recent controversy over genetically modified (GM) foods amply demonstrates the general difficulties encountered in the social appraisal of technological risk. Existing procedures for regulatory appraisal neglect many possible forms of impact and routinely exclude important cultural and social dimensions of risk. A narrow, expert, 'science-based' approach is now widely acknowledged to be insufficient. There is a need for new approaches that are more broadly based, transparent, pluralistic and ready to acknowledge uncertainty as well as being practically feasible and robust. The authors investigate the potential for a novel 'multicriteria mapping' (MCM) method as one such possible tool. Drawing on a variety of perspectives in the current UK debate, a range of agricultural strategies for the production of oilseed rape, including both GM and non-GM options were explored in this MCM pilot exercise. The results demonstrate the general feasibility and positive potential of this type of approach, with specific findings providing modest insights for policymaking in this difficult area.