ABSTRACT

The case for considering the co-evolution of social and technological systems in sustainable development is well made in the literature on Science and Technology Studies and Science, Technology and Society (collectively abbreviated as STS; for reviews see Rip & Kemp (1998) or Russell & Williams (2002)). A variety of studies have shown how social practices and technological artefacts shape and are shaped by one another (e.g. Geels, 2002; Latour, 1996; Raven, 2006; Shove, 2003). The ways these apparently seamless ‘socio-technical’ developments unfold suggest sustainability governance must bring its ‘technology-fix’ and ‘behavioural-change’ tendencies into better correspondence (Brand, 2005).