How to build (in) a sustainable future? A multi-scalar perspective on the socio-technical transition toward a bio-based construction sector

Abstract

The anthropogenic climate crisis is one of the most pressing challenges of our time. To limit negative consequences, reductions in CO2 emissions must be rapid, and sustained, alongside large-scale adaptation and societal transformation. The construction sector is responsible for a significant share of these emissions and thus provides substantial opportunities for mitigation. Bio-based materials, such as cross-laminated timber and engineered bamboo, have the potential to transform buildings into carbon sinks. The socio-technical transition toward the widespread use of bio-based materials in the construction sector is still in its early stages and requires extensive societal changes, including the legitimacy of new construction materials. In this dissertation, I examine the ongoing transition from a multi-scalar perspective, considering relations and interactions across multiple geographical scales. I analyze and compare the sustainability transitions in China, India, Germany, and Italy on a national level. The focus is particularly on India because its construction sector is expected to grow the most in the future and thus has high mitigation potential. Simultaneously, India is an intriguing case since it has several regions at the forefront of experimentation with bio-based materials and first large-scale demonstration projects. I analyze one of these regions, the greater Chennai area, which has a long tradition of using bio-based materials. Despite the potential of bio-based materials to transform the construction sector, their adoption depends on phasing out mineralbased construction materials such as cement and steel, as well as the socio-technical systems in which they are embedded. These systems are often reluctant to change. In this dissertation, I take the contestation that often shapes ongoing socio-technical transitions as my starting point, adopting an economic geography of sustainability transitions perspective. I investigate how the future of the bio-based construction sector is envisioned across different countries and reveal various visions of contested directions a transition could take. To understand what constitutes a dominant vision, I conceptualize the legitimacy of visions as a key condition for them to be adopted and collectivized. Struggles over legitimacy emerge in transitions in-the-making, where transformative and incumbent configurations both compete. The contestation over institutional elements, leads to relations and interactions between emerging socio-technical configurations that shape the directionality of transitions. I explore this empirically for the field of sustainable construction materials and conceptualize interactions between emerging configurations. Based on a focused regional case study, I develop a framework that provides a multi-scalar perspective on the (de-)legitimation of biobased construction materials in Chennai. The results in this dissertation reveal that although bio-based materials demonstrate transformative potential across countries, incumbents have thus far successfully constrained this transition by resisting changes to building codes and other established rules of the game.