The micro level is referred to as the analytical level in which 'socio-technical niches' develop.
Sustainability transition perspectives justify policies tailored to technological innovation systems and socio-technical niches and regimes.
We now witness a more stark contestation between this dominant regime and a proliferation of socio-technical niches.
As a rule of thumb, socio-technical regimes only change incrementally and contain defence mechanisms to fend off attempts to replace them with alternatives, typically radical innovations developed at the micro level in 'socio-technical niches'.
Empirically, the paper finds that the activities of the Carbon Trust consist of a variety of well targeted ways to stimulate the development of socio-technical niches as well as to change regime practices directly.
A meta-analysis of the testimonies considers drivers and barriers for sustainable material innovation on the level of technological niches, socio-technical regimes and socio-technical landscapes, referring to the multi-level perspective used in transition literature.
In a manner consistent with the concept of technological niches in the socio-technical transitions literature, the interagency status of these policy niches has shielded them from the regime level selective pressures that would likely have existed in a more unified institutional structure, and empowered new policy ideas to move from the niche to regime levels.
Using three analytical lenses proposed by the multi-level socio-technical theory (niches, regimes, and landscapes), we examine RE adoption in these states.
A multi-level model is introduced in which technological development is understood as the interaction of developments at the level of technological regimes, niches and the broader context of the socio-technical landscape.
Breakthroughs of radical innovations consequently depend on interactive systemic processes within and between the macro, meso and micro levels (i.e. between landscape events, the socio-technical regime and niches).
