Johan Schot: official profile
Official professional profile; self-description, not independent evaluation.
Schot: socio-technical transitions and the conditions of change
Johan Schot’s work asks how ways of meeting social needs change, and why similar directions of change recur across different socio-technical systems. Technology, institutions, markets, practices and infrastructure are considered together.
Three distinctions to keep
The multi-level perspective examines interactions between innovation niches, established regimes and wider landscape pressures. These are analytical levels, not management ranks. A regime includes established rules and practices; it is more than the organisations currently delivering a service.
Deep Transitions extends the question across systems and longer historical periods. A rule can organise one system; a meta-rule is shared across systems; a meta-regime is a shared rule-set. The proposed sustainable Second Deep Transition is an ambition and research proposition, not an assured historical outcome.
A successful experiment and a changed regime are different achievements. Asking which rules select, fund and retain an innovation can sharpen inquiry, but does not remove questions of power, legitimacy or contested purpose.
Selected sources and locators
A Guide to Deep Transitions
Project introduction and glossary; a reading starting point, not independent validation.
Typology of Sociotechnical Transition Pathways
Author publication page and abstract: four pathways differentiated by timing and nature of interactions.
Deep transitions: Emergence, acceleration, stabilization and directionality
Founding framework paper. Shared rules are distinguished from rule-sets; the proposed sustainable transition is not a predicted certainty.
The Multi-level Perspective on Sustainability Transitions
Open chapter: analytical levels, transition dynamics and current developments.
Deep Transitions
Open chapter: multi-system change, shared rules, criticisms and further research.
Three frames for innovation policy: R&D, systems of innovation and transformative change
Distinguishes R&D support, innovation systems and transformative change addressing social and environmental challenges. Publisher or author account; not a general intervention recipe.
Inspect the atlas statements
Johan Schot · Frank Geels · Laur Kanger · Multi-level perspective · Deep Transitions · Meta-rules
Inspect the source-located meta-rule distinction. Graph statements are candidates with evidence locators; no generic influence or priority claim is added.
Editorial application: why does a pilot stay exceptional?
This public-service exercise is an original editorial application, not a case studied by Schot or a claim that his framework is proven in this setting.
A fictional relational service helps residents, but depends on temporary funding and staff bypassing ordinary rules. Compare two explanations: the surrounding rules prevent the practice becoming ordinary; or the practice works only under unusually favourable conditions.
- Name one rule: a budget condition, eligibility criterion, measure, professional boundary or decision right. How is it enforced? Who can change it?
- Trace whether the same rule also shapes another service. A resemblance is a lead to test, not enough to establish a shared meta-rule.
- Ask who defines success, whose experience is missing and who may challenge the purpose. Improvement inside a team can shift burdens onto residents.
- Change one condition and observe whether the benefit survives without exceptional workarounds. Specify a result that would challenge your explanation.
Compare a possible response
Track the resident’s benefit alongside the effort and exceptions needed to produce it. Test a revised funding or decision rule across two settings before treating it as a general explanation. Retain disagreement about the desired outcome. A historical theory can guide questions; it cannot grant authority to impose the answers.
Examine purposes, authority and affected people · Test a systems claim
Previous SysCoI reading
Co-evolutionary and multi-level dynamics