Strategic Niche Management: past, present, and future

Strategic Niche Management is one of four foundational frameworks of the field of sustainability transitions. Since its inception in the mid 1990s, the framework has evolved and expanded. Originally inspired by quasi-evolutionary theorising of technological change, SNM has incorporated and contributed to a range of contemporary debates in sustainability transitions, including the politics of transitions, institutional dynamics, and the geography of transitions. This chapter traces and summarises the key debates in the SNM literature and provides an overview of key challenges and ambiguities in applying SNM in practice. The chapter ends with four recommendations for future research related to behaviour, discontinuation, just transitions, and methodological considerations.