This paper investigates the directionality of European innovation in precision fermentation-derived food ingredients. We adapt the technological innovation systems framework to include non-human materialities and capture reflexive governance processes, while conceptualising directionality as an emergent system property shaped by structural and functional characteristics. This analytical approach is applied to European precision fermentation in a qualitative case study combining interviews and secondary data. Our findings reveal an innovation system structure characterised by active startups driving early-stage technological development, increasing involvement from established food and biotechnology firms, EU regulations that discourage some types of experimentation, as well as technological and biological factors that incentivise large-scale production. We also identify functional dynamics that drive a focus on scalability, efficiency, and productivity, persistent demand-side uncertainties, and normative contestation making actors deemphasise cultural and regulatory novelty. This suggests an emerging directionality towards the assimilation of precision fermentation within established food supply chains and market structures, which highlights market consolidation and public engagement as policy considerations.

Sweden has an abundance of wild bilberries which are collected and distributed by domestic firms. A large part of the collected berries are exported to other countries where compounds such as anthocyanins are extracted and supplied to producers of dietary supplements and cosmetics, rather than refined domestically. This paper aims to identify historical dynamics explaining the lack of a bio-extraction industry in Sweden and discuss potential future pathways using a multi-scalar technological innovation systems framework. Drawing on 21 expert interviews and desktop research, the analysis shows that dynamics at the global level propelled a cycle of innovation that in the 1980s and 1990s established an international bilberry bio-extraction industry. When this industry entered a period of rapid growth in the early 2000s, the increased demand for bilberries was met by the Swedish bilberry industry, which in turn became dependent on international value chains for bilberry extract products. Although this multi-scalar interdependence has historically hindered Swedish efforts to increased value added from the vast domestic bilberry resource, recent developments may create opportunities associated with bio-refining processes that combine bio-extraction with food production. These findings testify to the merits of multi-scalar TIS approaches, bring empirical insight to Swedish stakeholders, and add to the literature on technological innovation and industrial path creation by showing how multi-scalar interactions can give rise to path dependency as well as by highlighting that technological relatedness may serve as both facilitator and obstructor in the emergence of new industries.

Sustainability challenges call for a shift towards plant-based proteins. This paper aims to analyze the development of plant-based meat alternatives in Sweden with a focus on legitimation processes. We divide legitimation into cognitive, normative, pragmatic and regulative varieties, and argue that configurations of legitimacy shape the directionality of innovation. We integrate this conceptualization into an analytical framework based on the technological innovation systems approach and analyze data from 41 interviews and multiple secondary sources. The analysis shows that the development of plant-based meat alternatives has been driven by a supportive configuration of strong normative legitimacy for low climate impact, increasing cognitive legitimacy based on associations with meat-based diets, increasing pragmatic legitimacy ensuring profitability for producers and convenience for consumers, and low regulative legitimacy due to weak policy support. This has shaped directionality towards the development of highly refined products that mimic meat, rather than towards simpler plant-based products, which may bring sustainability benefits but require more substantial behavioral change. Our findings suggest that policymakers can influence all four kinds of legitimacy, but have an especially important role in actively targeting regulative legitimacy. Other stakeholders can shape cognitive, normative, and pragmatic legitimacy to propel plant-based meat alternatives in desired direction.

CONTEXTDriven by strategic objectives such as regional development, increased domestic value added, improved labour conditions and reduced environmental impacts, a range of actors are pursuing innovation related to the Swedish wild berry value chain.OBJECTIVEOur objective is to analyse the structure, functions and directionality of the Swedish wild berry innovation system and draw implications for ongoing efforts to develop the value chain.METHODSOur study is based on 18 semi-structured interviews, participant observations and a range of secondary sources. We use an analytical framework based on the agricultural innovation systems approach and pay specific attention to reflexivity, directionality and non-human materiality.RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONThe Swedish wild berry innovation system is fragmented as incumbent berry companies are absent from efforts to develop and reconfigure the value chain. The fragmentation is a result of the partly conflicting objectives among actors in the innovation system. There is a need for broader governance networks to navigate trade-offs and enable the commercialisation of new solutions. Successful innovation likely hinges on institutional change, particularly when it comes to efforts to improve labour conditions for migrant workers.SIGNIFICANCEOur study contributes empirically to research on non-timber forest product value chains and offers insights for actors pursuing innovation related to Swedish wild berries. We contribute to theoretical development in the agricultural innovation systems literature by incorporating attention reflexivity, directionality and non-human materiality.

Recent geopolitical and economic crises underline the need for a European transition towards a more sustainable food system. Scholars and policymakers have called for a re-territorialization of food production to strike a better balance between local, regional and global value chains. This paper explores the role of re-territorialization through an analysis of the emergence, development and current transformation of the Swedish wild berry value chain. The analysis combines the multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions with a socio-techno-ecological system approach and draws on interviews, informal conversations, participant observations and a range of secondary sources. The resulting case narrative shows how processes of de-territorialization may result in regimes that fail to address sustainability potential and problems. It also highlights that processes of re-territorialization challenge established regimes by promoting niches that represent different, albeit complementary, value chain configurations. Apart from a rich empirical narrative that brings useful knowledge to stakeholders to the Swedish wild berry value chain, the paper contributes to the theoretical understanding re-territorialization, shows how the ecological dimension can be accounted for with the multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions and presents a number of general policy implications.

A shared concern over climate change, biodiversity loss and other environmental problems is at the heart of sustainability transitions research. As we strive to understand and promote shifts to radically different modes of production and consumption, the broad social and environmental values captured by the notion of “sustainability” guide our investigations and explicitly serve as normative goals for the research effort (Van Den Bergh, Truffer, and Kallis 2011). But at the same time, the transitions literature is dominated by an analytical perspective that focuses on society and technology, while the natural environment is strikingly absent from theoretical frameworks and analytical approaches. Key concepts such as niches and regimes, production and consumption systems, and innovation systems have a rich socio-technical texture (Rip and Kemp 1998; Geels 2002; Bergek et al. 2008; Hekkert et al. 2007), but fail to capture how ecosystems enter into transition processes. In essence, transitions are conceived as socio-technical phenomena, while nature is treated as a contextual background.

Based on an exploratory case study of a community food waste initiative in Gothenburg, Sweden, this article presents a novel analytical approach to studying the role of learning within sustainability transition niches. The article's theoretical perspective draws from pragmatist educational philosophy, practice theory, and sustainability transition studies. Proceeding from this theoretical perspective, a two-stage empirical analysis is conducted using dramaturgical analysis and practical epistemology analysis, methods from sociology and the educational sciences. Building on this analysis, the article introduces the concept of educative practices, through which it is argued that a role of learning at the niche level within sustainability transitions is to interrupt the reproduction of norms and attitudes within socio-technical systems. The article thus offers original analytical and conceptual tools for investigating sustainability transitions in relation to learning.