Innovations and Techno-ecological Transition

Fabienne PICARD, Associate Professor, IRTES-RECITS, FCLab, University of Technology Belfort-Montbéliard, France.Corinne TANGUY, Associate Professor, CESAER (UMR INRA-Agrosup Dijon), Agrosup Dijon, France.

• Preface viiIntroduction  ixChapter 1. A Necessary Transition? 11.1. Socio-technical systems facing their limits  21.1.1. Meeting global demographic pressures  31.1.2. Limiting the depletion of natural resources  41.1.3. Restrain environmental degradation  51.2. An analytical framework under construction: the Transition Studies 71.2.1. The emergence of “Transition Studies”  71.2.2. The transition as a process of socio-technical systems transformation 81.2.3. A transition supported by a systemic vision of innovation 111.3. Eco-innovations: facilitators of the transition?  191.3.1. Innovation for the environment 191.3.2. New management and innovation practices 22Chapter 2. Energy Transitions 272.1. A socially structuring energy model  292.2. Fundamentals and characterization of the current energy system 312.2.1. Energy and the energy system 312.2.2. From primary energy to final energy 322.3. The limits of the current energy system  342.3.1. An evolution of the world’s energy consumption…  352.3.2. …which shrinks fossil energy reserves…  362.3.3. …and generates local and global environmental damage  382.4. Innovation in the energy transition 402.4.1. Improving the current system of energy production and adapting existing technologies to new constraints 412.4.2. Producing energy differently from non-carbon resources  432.4.3. Using energy differently: electromobility 472.4.4. Transition to a radically new energy system: the hydrogen economy  502.5. Barriers of the energy transition 552.5.1. Market failures  552.5.2. Systemic failures 56Chapter 3. Agro-ecological Transitions 593.1. The notion of agro-ecology 603.1.1. Towards an ecologically intensive agriculture…  603.1.2. … and a sustainable food regime  613.2. The implementation of the agro-ecological transition  613.2.1. Changing agricultural production systems  623.2.2. Eco-innovations in agribusiness companies: a recent and moderate development  633.2.3. Consumers committed to the environment  653.3. Obstacles and levers for the agro-ecological transition 693.3.1. Process of locking and unlocking 693.3.2. Obstacles to the development of new agricultural practices  713.3.3. Blockages on the side of the agri-food sector  773.4. The levers for agro-ecological transition: the role of public policies 79Conclusion 87Bibliography  91Index 115