Dr. PEL Bonno

Bonno Pel has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the CEDD since May 2014. For the academic year 2019-2020 he is Collaborateur Scientifique of the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique F.R.S.-FNRS. Bonno is committed to critical and thorough sustainability research. Beyond partisanship and abstract social criticism, it should show the institutional complexity underlying today’s sustainability problems, disclose the range of possible solutions, and clarify the normative considerations at stake.

Bonno Pel has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the CEDD since May 2014. For the academic year 2019-2020 he is Collaborateur Scientifique of the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique F.R.S.-FNRS. Bonno is committed to critical and thorough sustainability research. Beyond partisanship and abstract social criticism, it should show the institutional complexity underlying today’s sustainability problems, disclose the range of possible solutions, and clarify the normative considerations at stake.

Bonno's research is focused on the governance and politics of societal transitions, e.g. long-term evolutionary processes of structural changes in lock-in systems of mobility, energy, food, and water management. Involving radical innovations in technologies, administrative routines, business models, infrastructures and social relations, transitions are institutionally complex and politically contested processes. Bonno has studied, lectured and published on a variety of such transformation processes: Traffic speed politics, the unconditional Basic Income, sheltered workplaces, delta management, driverless vehicles, festival legacies, electricity blackouts, circular economy, renewable energy prosumerism, and joined-up mobility policy. Alongside with this empirical fascination for the negotiation of societal change, Bonno has always aimed for theoretical and methodological advances: Interdisciplinary dialogue, reflection on implicit assumptions, and continuous consideration of how critical awareness can be translated into guidelines for observation and comparison. Bonno is implicated in various research communities: Next to the Sustainable Transitions Research Network (STRN), this involves international networks on social innovation (ISIRC), interpretive policy analysis (IPA), and institutional research (WINIR).

Bonno has a strongly interdisciplinary background. He graduated in environmental planning (MSc, 2004) and in political philosophy (with distinction) (MA, 2002) at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Both concluded with final theses addressing current automobility problems. Joining the department of public administration at the Erasmus University Rotterdam (NL) in 2006, he concluded his dissertation research in 2012. Embedded in the Governance of Complex Research Group (GOCS), this dissertation research focused on system innovation in-the-making in the Dutch traffic management field. Over the last 5 years at CEDD, Bonno has further deepened and expanded his theoretical outlook. Next to the constituent disciplines of the transitions research field (innovation sociology, reflexive governance, Science and Technology studies, and institutional theory), this involved work on amongst others social innovation, Social Economy, circular economy, and 'real utopias'. Just as transitions research, these strands provide exciting new moves in longstanding debates on societal transformation and steering.

Wittmayer, J.M., Avelino, F., Backhaus, J., Pel, B., Strasser, T. & Zuijderwijk, L. (2019), Narratives of change: how social innovation initiatives construct societal transformation, Futures, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2019.06.005

Eshuis, J., Pel, B. & Coca - Stefaniak, A. (2019), From ephemeral events to multiple legacies; an international comparison of festival demarcations and management challenges, Event Management [online]

Avelino, F., J.M. Wittmayer, B. Pel, P. Weaver, A. Dumitru, A. Haxeltine, R. Kemp, M.S. Jørgensen, T. Bauler, S. Ruijsink, T. O’Riordan (2019), Transformative Social Innovation and (Dis)Empowerment: Towards a Heuristic, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Vol. 145, August 2019, 195-206, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2017.05.002

Köhler, J., Geels, F, Kern, F, Onsongo, E, Wieczorek, AJ, Alkemade, F, Avelino, F, Bergek, A, Boons, F, Fuenfschilling, L, Hess, D, Holtz, G, Hyysalo, Sa, Jenkins, K, Kivimaa, P, Markard, J, Martiskainen, M, McMeekin, A, Mühlemeier, MS, Nykvist, B, Pel, B, Raven, R, Rohracher, H, Sanden, B, Schot, J, Sovacool, B, Turnheim, B, Van den Bergh, J, Welch, D and Wells, P (2019). An agenda for sustainability transitions research: state of the art and future directions. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2019.01.004

Pel, B. & Backhaus, J. (2018), Realizing the Basic Income: Competing Claims to Expertise in Transformative Social Innovation, Science & Technology Studies [online]

Pel, B., Achten, W.M. J., Khan, A.Z. & Bauler, T. (2018), Reconfiguring which systems? An interdisciplinary reflection on units of analysis in the Circular Economy transition, International Sustainability Transitions Conference, June 11th -14th 2018, Manchester (UK)

Wittmayer, J., Pel, B., Bauler, T. & Avelino, F. (2017), Editorial Synthesis: Methodological challenges in social innovation research, European Public and Social Innovation Review, 2(1), 1-16, http://pub.sinnergiak.org/index.php/esir/article/view/65

Pel, B., Dorland, J., Wittmayer, J. & Jørgensen, M.S. (2017), Detecting Social Innovation agency; Methodological reflections on units of analysis in dispersed transformation processes, European Public and Social Innovation Review, 2(1), 110-126, http://pub.sinnergiak.org/index.php/esir/article/view/45/26

Haxeltine, A., Pel, B., Wittmayer, J., Dumitru, A., Kemp, R. & Avelino, A. (2017), Building a middle-range theory of Transformative Social Innovation; theoretical pitfalls and methodological responses, European Public and Social Innovation Review, 2(1), 59-77

Pel, B. (2017), De autonome auto. Kritische kanttekeningen bij een ‘zelfrijdend’ innovatiediscours, Karakter (58), 5-7, http://www.tijdschriftkarakter.be/de-autonome-auto-kritische-kanttekeningen-bij-een-zelfrijdend-innovatiediscours/

Cipolla, C., Afonso, R., Pel, B., Bartholo, R., Silva, E. & Proença, D. (2017), Co-produced game-changing in transformative social innovation: reconnecting the ‘broken city’ of Rio de Janeiro, Ecology & Society 22(3):3. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09362-220303

Pel, B., Bauler, T., Avelino, F., Backhaus, J., Ruijsink, S., Rach, S., Jørgensen, M. S., Kunze, I., Voss, G., Dumitru, A., Lema Blanco, I., Afonso, R., Cipolla, C., Longhurst, N., Dorland, J. Elle, M., Balázs, B., Horváth, J., Matolay, R., Wittmayer, J., Valderrama Pineda, A., Serpa, B., Rösing Agostini, M., Lajarthe, F., Garrido, S., Picabea, F., Moreira, J., Trentini, F., Bidinost, A., Weaver, P., Heimann, R., Skropke, C., Hoffmeister, K.L., Tawakol, D., Olivotto, V., Tsatsou, A., Zahed, Y., Moet, R., Zuijderwijk, L., Renema, J. and Kemp, R. (2017) The Critical Turning Points database; concept, methodology and dataset of an international Transformative Social Innovation comparison, (TRANSIT Working Paper # 10), TRANSIT: EU SSH.2013.3.3.2-1 Grant agreement no: 613169., http://www.transitsocialinnovation.eu/resource-hub/the-critical-turning-points-database-concept-methodology-and-dataset-of-an-international-transformative-social-innovation-comparison-transit-working-paper-10-july-12th-2017

Pel, B. & Bauler, T. (2017), A Transitions-theoretical perspective on the Social Economy; exploring capture dialectics in Flemish ‘insertion’ practices, Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 88(2), 279-298,

Bauler, T., Pel, B. & Backhaus, J. (2017), Institutionalization processes in transformative social innovation; capture dynamics in the social solidarity economy and basic income initiatives, in Cohen, M. Szejnwald Brown, H. & Vergragt, P. (eds.) (2017), Social Change and the Coming of Post-Consumer Society, pp. 78-94

Pel, B. (2016), Interactive Metal Fatigue; A Conceptual Contribution to Social Critique in Mobilities Research, Mobilities 11(5), 662-680

Pel, B., Avelino, F.R. & Jhagroe, S.S., (2016), Critical Approaches to Transition theory, in Brauch, H.G., Oswald Spring, U. Grin, J. & Scheffran, J. (2016), Handbook on Sustainability Transitions and Sustainable Peace, Springer Verlag, 451-463

Avelino, F., Grin, J., Pel, B. & Jhagroe, S. (2016), The Politics of Sustainability Transitions, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 18:5, 557-567

Pel, B., Wallenborn, G. & Bauler, T. (2016), Emergent transformation games: exploring social innovation agency and activation through the case of the Belgian Electricity blackout threat. Ecology and Society 21 (2): 17. URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol21/iss2/art17/

Pel, B. (2016), Trojan horses in Transitions; a dialectical perspective on innovation ‘capture’, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 18:5, 673-691

Pel, B., Verkerk, J., van Buuren, M.W. & Edelenbos, J. (2014), Intersections in delta development; analyzing actors for complexity-sensitive spatial design, Governance, Complexity & Networks, 2014(2), 79-97

Pel, B., Timmer, J., Kool, L. & van Est, R. (2014), Verkenning van politiek-bestuurlijke kwesties en innovatiedynamiek van de zelfsturende auto, in Timmer J., & Kool, L. (red.) (2014), Tem de robotauto - De zelfsturende auto voor publieke doelen, Den Haag: Rathenau Instituut  [In Dutch]

Rozema, J. & Pel, B. (2014), Confronting Momentum: Mapping the Social Appraisals of an ‘Inevitable’ Motorway Capacity Expansion, Environment & Planning A, 46(8), 2000-2015

Pel, B. (2014), Intersections in System Innovation; a Nested-case Methodology to study Co-evolving Innovation Journeys, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management 26 (3), 307-320

Dammers, E., Bregt, A.K.,  Edelenbos, J., Meyer, V.M., & Pel, B. (2014), Urban deltas as complex adaptive systems: implications for planning and design, Built Environment 40 (2), 156-168

Pel, B. (2012). System Innovation as Synchronization: innovation attempts in the Dutch traffic management field, PhD thesis Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam

Pel, B. (2012). Reflection on transition management:: mobility policy between integration and differentiation, In Y. Shiftan, H. Geerlings, & D. Stead (Eds.), Transition towards Sustainable Mobility:: the Role of Instruments, Individuals and Institutions, Vol. 1. Concepts and Challenges (1 ed., pp. 53-69). Ashgate: Aldershot.

Pel, B., Teisman, G., & Boons, F. (2012). Transition by translation: The Dutch travel information innovation cascade, In F. Geels, R. Kemp, G. Dudley, & G. Lyons (Eds.), Automobility in transition?: A socio-Technical Analysis of Sustainable Transport, pp. 250-267, London: Routledge.

Pel, B. & Boons, F.A. (2010), Transition through Subsystem Innovation? The case of traffic management, Technological Forecasting & Social Change 77 (8), 1249–1259

• Pel, B. (2009). The complexity of self-organization:: boundary judgments in traffic management In G. Teisman, Van Buuren, & L. Gerrits (Eds.), Managing Complex Governance Systems (pp. 116-133). New York (USA): Routledge.

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