Transition Management

One of the major barriers to achieving sustainability lies in dominant socioeconomic and sociotechnical structures, often referred to as regimes. Laws and regulations, prevailing technologies, physical infrastructure, social norms, and cultural practices shape individual behavior and collective decision-making. These structural elements must evolve in response to changing conditions such as climate change and demographic shifts, including population aging—particularly acute in Japan. Yet such structures tend to be highly resistant to change, even in the face of clear necessity, as dominant regimes frequently work to preserve existing arrangements and the status quo.

Achieving a sustainable future therefore requires the development of methodologies capable of accelerating sustainability transitions.

Transition management represents one policy-oriented approach to fostering such change. It seeks to induce transformation at the structural level by focusing on frontrunners—actors who are already articulating visions of, and experimenting with, more sustainable futures. By supporting, coordinating, and scaling up these emerging practices, transition management aims to trigger broader sociotechnical transitions and to accelerate their diffusion.

Since around 2010, I have examined sustainability transitions and the practice of transition management in Japan through a combination of case study research and action-oriented research projects.

Publications (in English)

Masahiro Matsuura (2022) "Disasters as Enablers of Negotiation for Sustainability Transition: A Case from Odaka, Fukushima" Sustainability, 14(5), p. 3101.

Project sites

• Urawa-Misono neighborhood (Saitama)
• Kanazawa (Ishikawa Prefecture) on promoting bicycle transportation
• Odaka neighborhood, Minami-Soma (Fukushima)
• Kamikatsu township (Tokushima)