Abstract

The use of sustainable innovations, such as car-sharing and electric vehicles, has grown considerably in the past years. Most commentators ascribe this growth to the efforts of companies such as Tesla and SnappCar or government intervention. However, the role of end-users in sustainability transitions has received considerably less attention. This thesis focuses on the users of car-sharing and the electric car. The aim of the thesis is to obtain more insight in the characteristics of users as well as in their active role in the upscaling of innovations in sustainability transitions. These innovations are systemic: they entail changes in technologies, use patterns, markets, infrastructures and institutions. A questionnaire was used to gain insights in motivations for car-sharing. Car sharing is mostly driven by environmental and financial motivations, while other forms of sharing are driven by different sets of motivations. From a user perspective, one can thus not speak of one sharing economy. Differences in motivations for sharing economy participation equally exist between socio-demographic groups. For example, people on lower incomes have higher financial motivations, older people have more social motivations and women are more environmentally driven. Subsequently, the diffusion of two forms of car-sharing in the Netherlands was mapped. These concerned business-to-consumer car-sharing, in which a company owns cars that are located in neighbourhoods, and peer-to-peer car-sharing, in which users rent out their own cars via an online platform. A spatially heterogenous conception of the Multi-Level Perspective on transitions was developed, emphasizing geographical differences in regime, niche and landscape levels. The diffusion of car-sharing was linked to socio-demographic and built environment characteristics of neighbourhoods. Business-to-consumer car-sharing is limited to urban areas, with specific groups of users. Peer-to-peer car-sharing appears in all kinds of neighbourhoods. One explanation is its complementarity to the existing regime: underutilized capacity of cars that are already there is put to use. The active role of users in diffusion is studied by means of an analysis of an internet forum of mainly Tesla users. Their contribution to different dimensions of upscaling in sustainability transitions is assessed: the built-up of an innovation system, the geographical diffusion of the electric vehicle, and the removal of institutional barriers to growth. The users deliver a unique contribution to these dimensions. They share knowledge and practical solutions for the daily use of electric vehicles. They lobby for chargers, and mingled in international discussions about standardization. In spite of these contributions, the forum is relatively chaotic and subjective. Still, users are shown to be important actors in upscaling transitions. Finally, the role of users in the growth of electric vehicles is considered from an assemblage perspective. This approach goes back to the philosophies of Deleuze and Delanda and describes a world of interconnected assemblages that are instable. It challenges current conceptualizations of the socio-technical regime as stable and homogenous. The Tesla internet forum is a combination of very different users: environmentalists, car hobbyists and gadget freaks. Exactly the temporary alliances between those different groups contribute to the further diffusion of the electric vehicle.

Abstract

Cities play a prominent role in our economic development as more than 80 % of the gross world product (GWP) comes from cities. Only 600 urban areas with just 20 % of the world population generate 60 % of the GWP. Rapid urbanization, climate change, inadequate maintenance of water and wastewater infrastructures and poor solid waste management may lead to flooding, water scarcity, water pollution, adverse health effects and rehabilitation costs that may overwhelm the resilience of cities. These megatrends pose urgent challenges in cities as the cost of inaction is high. We present an overview about population growth, urbanization, water, waste, climate change, water governance and transitions. Against this background, we discuss the categorization of cities based on our baseline assessments, i.e. our City Blueprint research on 45 municipalities and regions predominantly in Europe. With this bias towards Europe in mind, the challenges can be discussed globally by clustering cities into distinct categories of sustainability and by providing additional data and information from global regions. We distinguish five categories of sustainability: (1) cities lacking basic water services, (2) wasteful cities, (3) water-efficient cities, (4) resource-efficient and adaptive cities and (5) water-wise cities. Many cities in Western Europe belong to categories 3 and 4. Some cities in Eastern Europe and the few cities we have assessed in Latin America, Asia and Africa can be categorized as cities lacking basic water services. Lack of water infrastructures or obsolete infrastructures, solid waste management and climate adaptation are priorities. It is concluded that cities require a long-term framing of their sectoral challenges into a proactive and coherent Urban Agenda to maximize the co-benefits of adaptation and to minimize the cost. Furthermore, regional platforms of cities are needed to enhance city-to-city learning and to improve governance capacities necessary to accelerate effective and efficient transitions towards water-wise cities. These learning alliances are needed as the time window to solve the global water governance crisis is narrow and rapidly closing. The water sector can play an important role but needs to reframe and refocus radically. Document type: Article

Abstract

Cycling-based mobility services or 'Cycling as a Service' (CaaS) have recently expanded in number and scale in the Netherlands. In contrast to the contexts of most other CaaS studies to date, cycling has a high modal share and strong institutions in the Dutch context. However, these supportive features have not translated into straightforward success for CaaS providers. Instead, responses to CaaS providers have varied widely, from tolerance to opposition. In this study we employ a combined business model and transition perspective to investigate this variation and its implications for CaaS in Dutch urban mobility systems. We present value propositions derived from business models, and integrate these into Hoogma's fit-and-stretch strategy framework for emerging niches. This enables a comparison between technology design and value propositions, and an analysis of the CaaS niche's transitions potential. Our findings clarify the strategies used by niche actors to enter and operate within established cycling regimes.