Kaufman et al 2021 Behaviour change and sustainability transitions.pdf

Transitions scholars have accepted the challenge of finding sustainable trajectories for societies and economies and have generated several tools and frameworks to guide action on the socio-technical changes necessary for meaningful system change. Most if not all of these require changes in behaviour by a diverse range of actors, including citizens, consumers, policy makers, business leaders, industry workers and researchers themselves. Simultaneously, there has a been a global expansion of behavioural public policy units in governments since 2010. However, perspectives on the links between behaviour and broader system change are relatively scarce and underdeveloped in sustainability transitions (ST) literature and behavioural public policy alike. Contributions to date in ST have tended to favour a particular perspective, i.e. social practice theory. We argue that ST literature can benefit from broadening its conceptual and methodological underpinnings regarding behaviour with a view to incorporate more pluralistic understandings and approaches to behaviour change. This paper critically and systematically reviews current contributions on behaviour in the transitions literature. We identify four distinct perspectives, each drawing on different conceptualisations, causality, methods and disciplinary foundations: reflective, automatic, strategic and everyday behaviour. We illustrate and argue for the need for a more dynamic and integrative approach to behaviour in the field taking into account the diversity of phases, scales and contexts through which sustainability transitions unfold.