Allan Dahl Andersen

Acceleration has multiple implicit meanings in the emerging literatures on sustainability transitions, systems transformation, and science and technology studies, among other disciplines. But how has acceleration been conceptualised in social sciences literatures analysing transitions towards sustainability? Are there potential synergies across these literatures that can advance our understanding of acceleration? In this paper we take stock of existing knowledge and propose a new conceptual understanding of this increasingly crucial phenomenon based on a systematic and critical literature review consisting of 171 published studies. In doing so, we both map the field and critically interrogate its contributions. The review harnesses insights from both the socio-technical system transitions and broader social science literatures to capture how the different disciplines research the acceleration of transitions towards sustainability. We classify different perspectives that envision acceleration as a phenomenon, a purpose, a process, and a multi-faceted concept. We conclude by presenting a novel conceptual typology of acceleration for sustainability transitions.

Introduction to Sustainability Transitions Research - March 2026

Although it is well-known that major technological change can impact multiple socio-technical systems and their patterns of interaction, the issue of multi-system dynamics in transitions has until recently not attracted much attention. For new sustainability transition phenomena such as decarbonization efforts across various systems or circular economy initiatives that involve entire value chains, it is vital to better understand the ways, in which multiple systems interact and shape each other’s transitions. The goal of this chapter is to provide overview and orientation for a rapidly emerging topic by taking stock of the current state of knowledge. We review contributions from three main conceptual frameworks in transition studies: the technological innovation systems approach, the multi-level perspective, and deep transitions. On that basis, we discuss similarities, differences, and open issues to identify a future research agenda for the emerging area of multi-system dynamics in transitions.

This study presents an interdisciplinary approach to analyze different transition pathways towards the sustainable development of a low-carbon society, focusing on Norway as a case. The study bridges a socio-technical perspective on sustainability transitions with techno-economic energy systems and regional-economic modelling analyses. Incorporating a socio-technical perspective in the scenario design allows us to envision pathways considering causal processes of technological and socio-institutional change, and potential transition bottlenecks. The resulting scenarios are used in the techno-economic energy system analysis to show cost-optimal energy system configurations, including varying levels of new renewable capacity needed, new conversion technologies, and fuel substitutions across all sectors leading to different decarbonization pathways for the Norwegian energy system by 2050. The regional-economy analysis addresses the impacts of these pathways on general economic growth and labor. The results show that higher levels of decarbonization are possible for Norway; however, potential bottlenecks can slow down the transition, while trade-offs in economic growth and development must be balanced out with decarbonization ambitions.