Table Of ContentTECHNOLOGIES IN DECLINE
The central questions of this book are how technologies decline, how societies deal
with technologies in decline, and how governance may be explicitly oriented towards
parting with ‘undesirable’ technology.
Surprisingly, these questions are fairly novel. Thus far, the dominant interest in his
torical, economic, sociological and political studies of technology has been to under
stand how novelty emerges, how innovation can open up new opportunities and how
such processes may be supported. This innovation bias reflects how in the last centuries
modern societies have embraced technology as a vehicle of progress. It is timely,
however, to broaden the social study of technology and society: next to considering the
rise of technologies, their fall should be addressed, too. Dealing with technologies in
decline is an important challenge or our times, as socio-technical systems are increas
ingly part of the problems of climate change, biodiversity loss, social inequalities and
geo-political tensions. This volume presents empirical studies of technologies in decline,
as well as conceptual clarifications and theoretical deepening. Technologies in Decline
presents an emerging research agenda for the study of technological decline,
emphasising the need for a plurality of perspectives.
Given that destabilisation and discontinuation are seen as a way to accelerate sus
tainability transitions, this book will be of interest to academics, students and policy
makers researching and working in the areas of sustainability science and policy, eco
nomic geography, innovation studies, and science and technology studies.
Zahar Koretsky is post-doctoral researcher in STS and transition studies at the
French Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE)
and Gustave Eiffel University in Paris. He works on sustainability transitions,
focusing on a critical take on it. His current research lies within sustainability
transitions in the extractive sector. Zahar has published on the history of various
declined technologies across the world and on the EU’s climate change mitigation.
Peter Stegmaier is assistant professor at the Department of Technology, Policy
and Society, section Science, Technology and Policy Studies (STePS) of the Uni
versity of Twente, the Netherlands. Peter has worked as researcher and lecturer at
the Universities of Dortmund, Hagen and Düsseldorf, carrying out at the latter two
the project ‘Law as a social practice—from everyday legal methods to a legal
methodology for everyday work’ (2000–2004); and as lecturer and researcher in
criminal and police sociology at the Ruhr University of Bochum, focusing espe
cially on public security institutions (2004–2006).
Bruno Turnheim is INRAE Research Scientist at the Interdisciplinary Laboratory
on Sciences, Innovations and Societies (LISIS, Université Gustave Eiffel, France) and
Honorary Research Fellow at the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research
(MIoIR, University of Manchester, UK). His research focuses on socio-technical
innovation and transition processes, particularly in relation to grand societal challenges.
Harro van Lente is full professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Faculty of
Arts and Social Science, Maastricht University. He is one of the founding fathers of the
Sociology of Expectations, which studies how representations of the future shape
current socio-technical developments. He has published more than 100 journal arti
cles, book chapters and edited volumes on technology dynamics, innovation policy
and knowledge production. He is recipient of the 2018 EASST Freeman Award with
the co-edited book (with Marianne Boenink and Ellen Moors), Emerging Technologies
for Diagnosing Alzheimer’s Disease: Innovating with Care.
TECHNOLOGIES IN
DECLINE
Socio-Technical Approaches to
Discontinuation and Destabilisation
Edited by Zahar Koretsky, Peter Stegmaier, Bruno
Turnheim and Harro van Lente
Cover image: L.E. Baskow www.lefteyeimages.com
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Zahar Koretsky, Peter Stegmaier, Bruno
Turnheim and Harro van Lente; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Zahar Koretsky, Peter Stegmaier, Bruno Turnheim and Harro van
Lente to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors
for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-032-10102-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-10098-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-21364-2 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003213642
Typeset in Bembo
by Taylor & Francis Books
CONTENTS
List of illustrations vii
Notes on contributors x
Preface xiv
Acknowledgements xvi
1 Introduction: The relevance of technologies in decline 1
Zahar Koretsky, Harro van Lente, Bruno Turnheim and Peter
Stegmaier
PART I
Conceptual explorations 13
2 Dynamics of technological decline as socio-material unravelling 15
Zahar Koretsky
3 Destabilisation, decline and phase-out in transitions research 43
Bruno Turnheim
4 Conceptual aspects of discontinuation governance: An exploration 78
Peter Stegmaier
PART II
Empirical explorations 117
5 Discourses around decline: Comparing the debates on coal
phase-out in the UK, Germany and Finland 119
Jochen Markard, Karoliina Isoaho and Linda Widdel
vi Contents
6 Mapping the territorial adaptation of technological trajectories:
The phase-out of the internal combustion engine 145
Daniel Weiss and Philipp Scherer
7 The role of alternative technologies in the enactment of
(dis)continuities 167
Frédéric Goulet
8 Caring for decline: The case of 16mm film artworks of
Tacita Dean 185
Dirk van de Leemput and Harro van Lente
PART III
Governance explorations 201
9 Implementing exnovation?: Ambitions and governance
complexity in the case of the Brussels Low
Emission Zone 203
Ela Callorda Fossati, Bonno Pel, Solène Sureau, Tom Bauler and
Wouter Achten
10 Phase-out as a policy approach to address sustainability
challenges: A systematic review 225
Adrian Rinscheid, Gregory Trencher and Daniel Rosenbloom
11 The end of the world’s leaded petrol era: Reflections on the
final four decades of a century-long campaign 249
Peter Newman
12 Conclusions and continuations: Horizons for studying
technologies in decline 261
Zahar Koretsky, Peter Stegmaier, Bruno Turnheim and Harro van
Lente
Index 273
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
1.1 Varieties of technological decline 6
2.1 Sketching a relationship between relative geographic and
temporal intensity performance of configuration, with decline
in the bottom right quadrant 26
2.2 Sketching decline as a relationship between relative
geographic and temporal intensity of performance of
configuration and types of unravelling 30
2.3 Six ideal-type pathways of unravelling overlaid on the axes of
geography-temporality (shape of the arrows are for illustration
only and will differ per case) 31
5.1 Focal TIS, context systems, actor groups and struggles over
decline 123
5.2 Electricity generation by source (2000–2020) 124
5.3 Discourse activity over time per country 130
5.4 Storylines and responses for each country 133
5.5 Main groups of actors for each country 134
5.6 Main actor groups and whether they were in favor of or
against coal phase-out 135
5.7 Most frequent storylines and actor groups for each country 136
6.1 Analytical framework with three ICE-TIS territories and
context circumstances 150
6.2 Dominant technological trajectories of the USA ICE-TIS.
The circular nodes represent the patents, and the arrows
depict forward citations from the cited to the citing node 154
viii Illustrations
6.3 Dominant technological trajectories across three territories of
the ICE-TIS. The circular nodes represent the patents, and
the arrows depict forward citations from the cited to the citing
node 155
10.1 Number of relevant publications on phase-out in the context
of climate, environment or sustainability identified on Scopus
(1972–2021) 229
10.2 Overview of most prominent (top five) targets discussed in
three periods (1976–2021) 231
10.3 (a) Allocation of papers to the ten most frequent subject areas.
Shares relate to the number of papers classified as relevant
(n = 868). The sum of shares is higher than 100% because
multiple subject areas were assigned to some papers. The
dataset covers 26 subject areas in total. (b) Academic journals
most prominently publishing work on phase-out. The figure
includes all journals with at least 1% of the total relevant
output across all surveyed works 233
10.4 Prevalence of subject areas in scholarly work on phase-out
over time and in descending order in terms of their volume 234
10.5 Sustainability challenges discussed in scholarly work on
phase-out: percentage of publications highlighting challenges
over time 235
10.6 Shares of policy instruments discussed in the context of
phase-out referring to three sustainability challenges 236
10.7 Functions and motivations ascribed to phase-outs in the
context of three environmental sustainability challenges 241
Tables
1.1 Overview of the contributions 9
2.1 Units of analysis and units of observation in the conceptual
framework 21
3.1 Types of power harnessed by incumbent actors for resistive
purposes 48
3.2 Contrasting features of socio-technical stabilisation and
destabilisation 56
3.3 Motives for destabilisation governance 59
3.4 Types of destabilisation governance interventions 61
5.1 Key characteristics of electricity supply systems, coal,
phase-out and related TIS 126
5.2 Overview of data sources 128
5.3 Overview of storylines and number of codes 129
Illustrations ix
5.4 Summary of phase-out decisions, discourse characteristics and
TIS features 138
6.1 IPC codes for internal combustion engines 152
6.2 Evolution of the dominant technological trajectory of the
USA ICE-TIS 157
6.3 Overview of the contributions 158
10.1 Search string used to identify relevant literature 227
10.2 Examined properties, guiding research questions, and
examples 228
Box
9.1 Characteristics of the brussels low emission zone 206
