The Multi-level Perspective on Sustainability Transitions

This chapter explores the multi-level perspective (MLP), a key framework in sustainability transitions research. It highlights how the MLP bridges social science dichotomies (e.g. stability-change, agency-structure) by integrating insights from evolutionary economics, innovation sociology, and institutional theory. The chapter outlines the MLP’s three levels - niche innovations, socio-technical systems, and landscape developments - and their interactions across four transition phases: experimentation, stabilisation, diffusion, and institutionalisation. An empirical case study of Germany’s electricity transition (1986-2022) illustrates these dynamics. The chapter also examines developments such as four transition pathways (substitution, transformation, reconfiguration, de-alignment/re-alignment) and evolving actor roles. It concludes by identifying seven key research topics: niche-regime interaction, regime destabilisation and phase-out, diffusion and acceleration, multi-system interaction, whole-system reconfiguration, incumbent reorientation, and trade-offs between transition speed and depth.