Search from over 60,000 research works

Advanced Search

Flatpack democracy: power and politics at the boundaries of transition

[thumbnail of Open Access]
Preview
eet.1931.pdf - Published Version (1MB) | Preview
Available under license: Creative Commons Attribution
[thumbnail of Flatpack Democracy- power and politics at the boundaries of transition_November 2020_FINAL.pdf]
Restricted to Repository staff only
Add to AnyAdd to TwitterAdd to FacebookAdd to LinkedinAdd to PinterestAdd to Email

Burnett, A. and Nunes, R. J. orcid id iconORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0829-4130 (2021) Flatpack democracy: power and politics at the boundaries of transition. Environmental Policy and Governance, 31 (3). pp. 223-236. ISSN 1756-932X doi: 10.1002/eet.1931

Abstract/Summary

This paper seeks to critically assess how ‘radical’ sustainability approaches that challenge ‘mainstream’ development trajectories – and politics – are crafted and contested within local government. We assess how sustainability transitions scholars have thus far accounted for dimensions of power and politics within socio-political innovations and explore the extent to which these account for how an ‘independent’ group in Frome (Somerset, UK), Independents for Frome (IfF), took control of the town council in 2011 and consolidated a non-party political approach within its administrative functions, referred to as its ‘Flatpack Democracy’ model. The findings reveal the extent of adversarialism within political systems, namely how the capture of local political institutions by ‘protagonists’ affects questions of legitimacy, accountability, or the validation of sustainability agendas through informal institutional capital, such as the role of personal ties and friendships. These debates remain under-theorised where they concern what we term ‘liminal transition spaces’ of transformative power at distinct moments, or instantiations, of transition. That is, there remains a much-needed theoretical debate around the fragile and imperfect processes of democratisation within the everyday politics of transition management.

Altmetric Badge

Item Type Article
URI https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/95054
Item Type Article
Refereed Yes
Divisions Henley Business School > Real Estate and Planning
Publisher Wiley
Download/View statistics View download statistics for this item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

University Staff: Request a correction | Centaur Editors: Update this record

Search Google Scholar