Alternative view on niche development: situated learning on policy communities, power and agency

ABSTRACT

In this article, we analyse how situated learning influences niche development. Situated learning is tied to social action and context, perceiving knowledge and learning as socially constructed. In addition, a dialectic view of structure and agency is adopted. Policymaking is used as an example of a community. A qualitative case study of Finnish energy policy is presented. The regime in Finland is the electricity industry that supports bioenergy, while wind energy development is supported by active individuals and a few niche actors. The full-members of the policymaking community consist of the government and the regime actors. The niche actors did learn how the community functions and developed alternative strategies accordingly, but without success. A reason could be that the niche actors excluded the regime from their strategies. We conclude that situated learning is likely to enhance niche development, but compromises in niche development may be needed.

KEYWORDS:

• Situated learning
• social structures
• power
• agency
• niche development
• regime changes
• wind energy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Mari Ratinen is an economist and affiliated to the Department of Applied Physics at the School of Sciences in the Aalto University in Finland.

Peter Lund is a professor at the Department of Applied Physics at the School of Sciences in the Aalto University in Finland.