Geography
Place and Scale in Sustainability Transitions
Document Type
Book Chapter
Abstract
In today’s world of increasing spatial inequalities, geopolitical tensions and global shifts in value chains, having a solid grasp of the spatial and multi-scalar dynamics that condition transition dynamics is of ever more importance. Initial theories of sustainability transitions have been criticised for being insufficiently equipped to assess the benefits, conflicts and unevenness that are constituted by the territorial contexts in which transitions dynamics and pathways unfold. Questions how sustainability transitions emerge across places and scales were largely off the radar. Interest and engagement with geographical dimensions of sustainability transitions grew however quickly into a prominent sub-field, characterised by a fruitful trading zone populated by geographers, transition scholars and other social scientists seeking to better account for place specificity, multi-scalarity, and spatial unevenness. This chapter outlines the contours of the Geography of Sustainability Transitions (GeoST) wider theoretical research agenda and ongoing debates, framing these specifically around conceptualisations of place and scale. © Cambridge University Press & Assessment 2026.
Publication Title
Introduction to Sustainability Transitions Research
Publication Date
1-2026
First Page
389
Last Page
402
ISBN
9781009437325
DOI
10.1017/9781009437318.028
Keywords
geography, place and scale, sustainability transitions
Repository Citation
Coenen, Lars; Binz, Christian; Murphy, James T.; and Truffer, Bernhard, "Place and Scale in Sustainability Transitions" (2026). Geography. 1053.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_geography/1053
