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The UK's energy transition (to a sustainable, low-carbon development path) may turn out to be highly dependant on the engendering and embedding of new types of social practice as well as on the widespread uptake of new low-carbon technologies. We argue that social change and social movements may be of vital importance in the energy transition, because the energy transition implies significant systems change and systems level innovations and not just individual-level behaviour change. Therefore market segmentation models that focus on behaviour change at the individual-level are missing the systemic implications of an energy transition. Behaviour change will likely occur in the context of changing values, lifestyles, and cultural norms modulated through social contexts, including social movements. This paper conceptualizes and theorizes the likely dynamics of social change and social movements in the context of an energy transition, explores a new empirical case study of the UK´s transition movement and sets out elements of a research agenda designed to further explore these links. It does this by firstly presenting a case study, with new empirical evidence, of a civil society movement engaging in energy transitions, namely the Transition Towns movement. The Transition Towns movement provides an example of an emergent civil society movement with an agenda of instigating grassroots change directly rather than attempting to lobby or influence existing policy processes. The movement also presents its own formulations of what the end-point of an energy transition might be, emphasizing, for example, a localization of systems of production and consumption. Insights from the case study are then used to demonstrate how the current body of theory on 'sustainability transitions' can be extended to better include and address grassroots innovations, using insights from theories of social movements, and social practice theory. By extending current theory we conceptualize how social innovations link to macro-level systems change on the one hand and individual-level behaviour changes on the other hand. From this analysis we identify elements of an interdisciplinary research agenda for the empirical investigation of impacts of civil society movements for transition.

When the civil society makes 'transition' its label, it cannot be assumed that different civil society actors share compatible varieties of localist or radical transformationists discourses. This study has comparatively analyzed the discourses in four civil society sustainability transition proposals using a corpus-based methodology. We found that the proposals are similar as they identify the economy as an object and an entry point for transition, frame the economy as embedded in the socio–ecological system, ascribe agency to grassroots movements for transitions from the bottom–up. We also found crucial differences among the discourses regarding the role of the State, the degree of reform or radical innovation, the degree of imaginative character of the sustainability vision, the degree of opposition to capitalism. We suggest that insights on how the civil society employs notions of transition with respect to the themes of politics, emotions and place can help advance theorizations and practices of societal sustainability transitions led by the civil society.

The interest for traditional genetic resources, here comprised local pig breeds, has been increased in the last decades. Yet, at the time being, majority of local pig breeds still need to be supported with subsidies to ensure their conservation. However, the best strategy is if breeds could reach self-sustainability which is possible by an efficient marketing strategy of their products. The majority of studied breeds in project TREASURE are untapped, so the ambition is to develop an "umbrella" collective trademark that would gather together all breeds and that would create added values for their products. Major socio-economic aspects related to the implementation of the collective trademark include rights, responsibilities and expected added value for end-users. Based on the results obtained by an internal survey conducted in TREASURE, we have identified the main features of the collaborative trademark: 1) it should attract end-users such as farmers, breeders associations and meat processors; 2) it should be developed and promoted by an operational committee of end-users, under the coordination and supervision of TREASURE Consortium; 3) it should emphasize local pig genetic resources as the key common point, considering also production systems and nutrition; 4) it should explore possible collaboration or conflict with existing EU protected products (PDO, PGI, TSG) in order to optimally promote local products. An overview of intellectual property rights (IPR) in the context of pork value chains existing in the European Union is presented and prospects for TREASURE trademark analysed.

The transition of food-production and consumption systems to a sustainable, low carbon future presents a dauntingly complex issue, involving technical, political, social and theoretical aspects. Such a transition necessitates an exploration of new ways of production and consumption, new technologies and innovations and new regulatory and institutional infrastructures to co-ordinate the change. Appropriate sustainability assessment has the following advantages: the conceptualisation of complex system functioning; the identification of the need for multi-dimensional, strategic approaches; the development of appropriate policy responses; and the targeting and framing of action (assessment) for sustainability. The paper presents a number of key findings and directions for further research in the context of agri-food systems sustainability.

In theory we pursue a sustainable development, but in reality we do not. An economy based on continuous growth, which evidently is not sustainable, is however the priority model almost everywhere. If we really aim at implementing sustainability, then we must radically change our economic model. Sufficiency - which calls for individuals mainly from so-called "developed countries" not to consume more than is really needed - may offer a useful alternative. We can still find some - last - examples of indigenous peoples living in a sufficient manner, all of them nowadays in those "developing countries". We could learn at least from them that it is possible to live differently, i.e., in harmony with ourselves and our environment. This would pave the way for their - and for our all - protection, as well as the manner in which we understand at present development politics. ; Theoretisch verfolgen wir eine nachhaltige Entwicklung, in Wahrheit tun wir es nicht. Das fast überall priorisier-te Wirtschaftsmodell basiert auf ständigem Wachstum, was sicherlich nicht nachhaltig ist. Wenn wir wirklich beabsichtigen, Nachhaltigkeit zu implementieren, müssen wir unser Wirtschaftsmodell radikal ändern. Suffizienz - was für Individuen hauptsächlich aus so genannten entwickelten Länder bedeutet, nicht mehr als notwendig zu konsumieren - könnte eine nützliche Alternative sein. Wir können noch - letzte - Beispiele von indigenen Völkern finden, alle in so genannten Entwicklungsländern, die suffizient leben. Wie könnten von ihnen lernen, dass es möglich wäre, in Harmonie mit uns und mit unserer Umwelt zu leben. Dies würde den Weg zu ihrem - und zu unserem allen - Schutz ändern, so wie die Art, wie wir Entwicklungspolitik aktuell verstehen.

Woody biomass energy makes up a large share of renewable energy consumption in the EU, and the largest share in countries like Denmark. However, little is known about how the public perceive it. This paper presents the results of a questionnaire-based survey of the public in Denmark focusing on attitudes toward woody biomass for energy. The main findings are that, while more people favor than oppose it, a large proportion are undecided about the use of woody biomass. The survey also revealed a lack of knowledge about this energy source. A Best-Worst Scaling methodology revealed that Danes prioritize environmental sustainability concerns – namely biodiversity loss, the hindering of the development of other renewable energy sources and the climate change mitigation potential of woody biomass – over societal and/or economic ones when it comes to the promotion of woody biomass. Finally, it was found that concern about climate change, belief in the mitigation potential of woody biomass, and being younger explained the formation of positive attitudes toward woody biomass. Policy makers aiming to take public concerns into account in discussions about Denmark's energy future should focus more on minimizing the negative environmental impacts associated with woody biomass rather than on its economic benefits.

This paper explores how 'place' is conceptualised and mobilized in health policy and considers the implications of this. Using the on-going spatial reorganizing of the English NHS as an exemplar, we draw upon relational geographies of place for illumination. We focus on the introduction of 'Sustainability and Transformation Plans' (STPs): positioned to support improvements in care and relieve financial pressures within the health and social care system. STP implementation requires collaboration between organizations within 44 bounded territories that must reach 'local' consensus about service redesign under conditions of unprecedented financial constraint. Emphasising the continued influence of previous reorganizations, we argue that such spatialized practices elude neat containment within coherent territorial geographies. Rather than a technical process financially and spatially 'fixing' health and care systems, STPs exemplify post-politics-closing down the political dimensions of policy-making by associating 'place' with 'local' empowerment to undertake highly resource-constrained management of health systems, distancing responsibility from national political processes. Relational understandings of place thus provide value in understanding health policies and systems, and help to identify where and how STPs might experience difficulties.

This paper explores how 'place' is conceptualised and mobilized in health policy and considers the implications of this. Using the on-going spatial reorganizing of the English NHS as an exemplar, we draw upon relational geographies of place for illumination. We focus on the introduction of 'Sustainability and Transformation Plans' (STPs): positioned to support improvements in care and relieve financial pressures within the health and social care system. STP implementation requires collaboration between organizations within 44 bounded territories that must reach 'local' consensus about service redesign under conditions of unprecedented financial constraint. Emphasising the continued influence of previous reorganizations, we argue that such spatialized practices elude neat containment within coherent territorial geographies. Rather than a technical process financially and spatially 'fixing' health and care systems, STPs exemplify post-politics-closing down the political dimensions of policy-making by associating 'place' with 'local' empowerment to undertake highly resource-constrained management of health systems, distancing responsibility from national political processes. Relational understandings of place thus provide value in understanding health policies and systems, and help to identify where and how STPs might experience difficulties.