ABSTRACT
Lowering carbon emissions worldwide is key for a safe, sustainable future on the planet, but it is not happening quickly enough. More attention has been paid to supporting new clean technologies than to abandoning established but unsustainable technologies. Existing cases of decline need to be studied empirically towards a theory of the dynamics of decline, since not enough is known about their mechanisms at the moment, and there are many unsupported assumptions about how they work. Clearly, technological decline is not a self-evident reversal of innovation processes, but brings along many empirical, theoretical and practical questions about particular society and technology dynamics and trajectories. In the chapter I take stock of prior literature, identify a framework of key concepts useful to study decline, try out this framework empirically, and draw from it the outlines of a middle range theory of the dynamics of decline to systematise key processes and mechanisms involved in phase-outs. The key proposition of such theorisation is to view technology as a socio-material configuration. Its dissociation, or unravelling, is the mechanism towards decline. Decline is not irreversible and the elements can be re-associated by actors, and this can lead to re-emergence.
