Governance, Innovation & Change
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Scaling has many forms, where replication, deepening, and systemic embedding each describe a different way a successful initiative extends its impact.
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Scaling refers to processes through which successful sustainability initiatives extend their impact beyond the original context. In smart grid transitions, scaling is relevant for pilot projects, regulatory experiments, and community energy initiatives that demonstrate viability in one context but need to reach broader uptake to contribute to systemic change. Replication is one specific scaling process — the transfer of a model or approach to a new location or population — but it is not the only one.
Lam et al. (2020) synthesise six amplification frameworks from the sustainability transitions literature and identify a set of amplification processes through which initiatives increase their impact.1) The table below consolidates these into a cross-framework overview:
Table 1. Amplification processes across six sustainability transition frameworks.
Source: Lam et al. (2020), Fig. 1. Asterisked processes not used in analysis as they do not focus specifically on increasing impact.
| Framework | Sustainability initiative type | Amplification processes |
|---|---|---|
| Strategies for social innovation (Moore et al., 2015) | Social innovations | Scaling out · Scaling up · Scaling deep · Cross-cutting* |
| Seeds of a good Anthropocene (Bennett et al., 2016) | Seeds | Scale up · Scale out · Scale deep |
| Scale dynamics (Hermans et al., 2016) | Grassroots innovations | Outscaling · Upscaling |
| Acceleration mechanisms (Gorissen et al., 2018) | Transition initiatives | Replicating · Partnering* · Upscaling · Instrumentalising* · Embedding |
| Transition management (Rotmans & Loorbach, 2008) | Transition experiments | Deepening · Broadening · Scaling up |
| Strategic niche management (Naber et al., 2017) | Transition experiments | Growing · Replication · Accumulation* · Transformation |
The three most consistent processes across frameworks are scaling out (reaching more people or places with the same model), scaling up (influencing policy and institutional frameworks), and scaling deep (changing cultural norms, values, and relationships). These imply different intervention logics and different timeframes.
Replication vs. scaling
Replication transfers a specific model or approach to a new context. Scaling is the broader category encompassing replication alongside deepening, upscaling toward policy change, and systemic embedding. A project can replicate without scaling if the copies remain isolated. Scaling requires that the cumulative impact of multiple initiatives changes the surrounding institutional or social environment.
Scaling vs. transition
Scaling describes how individual initiatives extend their reach. Transition describes the systemic reconfiguration of the regime as a whole. Scaling processes are one mechanism through which niche innovations contribute to transitions, but transition also depends on regime destabilisation and landscape pressure that no single initiative controls. See Transitions.
Content notes from source material: