Like many other European cities, Malmö has set ambitious goals to become Sweden’s first carbon-neutral city by 2030. This objective is aligned with several public entities such as the Öresund Region, the Swedish Energy Agency, the European Union, and the UN within the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Urban Development. However, statistics show that this goal is very difficult, if not, impossible to reach, as the city has achieved 32% of renewable energy by the end of 2020. Furthermore, the region of Skåne is currently facing problems regarding electricity shortage due to the lack of production in the region and network capacity in the national grid. This study identifies at least two major causes to explain why the energy transition in the city of Malmö does not see the light at the end of the tunnel. First, there is a dominant political narrative in Sweden that favors centralized and intensive capital solutions that may result in the lock-in of alternatives that aim for a more decentralized energy system. Second, the high trust in technological innovation to solve societal challenges has reduced Social Innovation (SI) as a tool that only complements technological advances (e.g., offshore wind turbines and smart grids). Therefore, this mainstream eliminates the capacity of Social Innovation in the Energy Sector (SIE) as an opportunity to contest dominant structures and make transformative changes at the institutional level within the energy system. Within this context, regime actors such as Large-scale Energy Companies (LECs) have an important role in impeding but possibly also enabling SIE and facilitating the sustainable and just energy transition in Sweden. Drawing on the Transformative Social Innovation-framework, this thesis analyzes three SIE-initiatives developed by E.ON Group in collaboration with other actors. An embedded-case study approach and mixed methods (mapping, document review, semi-structured interviews, and thematic and discourse analysis) were the basis of this research to understand the transformative potential of each initiative. The results of the study conclude that LECs participate actively in the development of SIE. It shows that projects like SWITCH/CoordiNET change internal social relations but not institutional relations, while others such as Sege Park and Smart Cities Accelerator+ have big potential of transformative change and may replace and alter dominant informal and formal institutions. It also demonstrates how E.ON and the City of Malmö are challenging the dominant political narrative in Sweden. Building on the latter empirical findings, this thesis suggests recommendations for city actors (public sector, businesses, organizations, and individuals) to create alliances and reach the goal of producing 100% renewable energy while aiming for a more sustainable and just energy system in the city of Malmö.

The human social system is facing complex social issues and (new) initiatives coming from different social actors are born to try to tackle these complex social issues. Social innovation is the field where these initiatives function, so it is also a complex field to identify and frame. Thus a new theory, the Transformative Social Innovation Theory (TSI), was developed in order to frame and bring more clarification on the social innovation field to contribute to societal transition and transformation. The five TSI tools were developed from the TSI theory and they are training tools. All the TSI tools aim to (dis)empower the social innovation initiatives, actors and networks in the process of transformative social innovation. Transformative Social Innovation is the process of changes in social relations involving challenging, altering and/or replacing dominant institutions and structures which are considered to be the roots of systemic errors. This study sought to explore the Transformative Social Innovation tools from the perspective of the Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD). In this regard, the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) was adopted as it provides a principle-based and scientifically-proved definition of sustainability as well as a systems thinking approach regarding the complexity of global sustainability challenges. This research project tried to identify the potential contributions of the TSI tools to sustainability and the entry points of the tools where relevant SSD features could complement them so that they can contribute to strategically move the society towards sustainability. A qualitative research approach was selected. The methodology included four research methods, namely document content analysis, interviews, the FSSD analysis and prototyping. The results of this research indicated three main contributions of the TSI tools that could help to strategically move the society towards sustainability. Five entry points where the tools could be complemented with SSD features and a set of add-ins from SSD that could complement the current TSI tools were identified. The add-ins were sent to the TSI theory authors for the expert consultation.

Im heutigen globalisierten Ernährungssystem sind Produktion und Konsum von Lebensmitteln weitgehend entkoppelt, was negative Auswirkungen auf Landwirt*innen und Verbraucher*innen haben kann. Alternative Ernährungsnetzwerke (AFNs) haben das Potenzial, diese Verbindung wiederherzustellen. Es fehlt jedoch an Forschung zu den Wiederverbindungsprozessen in AFNs. Die übergeordnete Forschungsfrage dieser Dissertation ist daher, ob und wie AFNs Produktion und Konsum von Lebensmitteln wieder verbinden. Zur Beantwortung wurden (a) Motivationen für die AFN-Teilnahme erforscht, (b) transformative Prozesse in AFNs untersucht, (c) die relevantesten Interaktionen zwischen Konsument*innen und Produzent*innen für die wirtschaftliche Stabilität von solidarischen Landwirtschaftsbetrieben identifiziert und (d) Faktoren für das Vertrauen in solidarische Landwirtschaft ermittelt. Ein Mixed-Method-Ansatz wurde gewählt, um die Forschungsziele zu erreichen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass AFNs zu sechs Arten von Wiederverbindung beitragen: 1. Wiederverbindung von Produzent*innen und Konsument*innen 2. Wiederverbindung von Konsument*innen und Konsument*innen 3. Wiederverbindung von Konsument*innen und Lebensmitteln/ deren Produktion 4. Wiederverbindung von AFNs mit anderen (ernährungsbezogenen) Initiativen 5. Wiederverbindung von AFN-Produzent*inen und -Konsument*innen mit der Ernährungswirtschaft 6. Wiederverbindung von AFN-Produzent*innen und -Konsument*innen mit der Ernährungspolitik Wiederverbindungsprozesse in AFNs fördern das Empowerment von Produzent*innen und Konsument*innen und bieten lokale Lösungen für Probleme des Ernährungssystems. Eine stärkere Vernetzung und Verbreitung von AFNs wäre positiv für einen über die AFN-Nische hinausgehenden Einfluss auf das Ernährungssystem. Als Teil einer gesellschaftlichen Bewegung können AFNs zu einem wertebasierten Ernährungssystem beitragen und im Kleinen ein Beispiel für einen nachhaltigeren Umgang mit Lebensmitteln bieten. / In today’s global food system, food production and consumption are mostly disconnected which has negative implications for producers and consumers. Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) can potentially re-establish links between production and consumption. For a comprehensive understanding of AFNs, more research is needed on how exactly they contribute to reconnection processes. The overarching research objective of this dissertation is, therefore, if and how AFNs reconnect production and consumption. To answer this research question, this dissertation (a) explores what motivates consumers to participate in AFNs, (b) investigates which drivers of transformation occur in AFNs, (c) assesses which consumer-producer-interactions are most relevant for the economic stability of community-supported agriculture farms, and (d) examines which factors determine members’ trust in community-supported agriculture and its farmers. A mixed-method approach is applied to answer these research objectives taking both a producer and consumer perspective into account. The results show that AFNs contribute to six different types of reconnection, namely: 1. Reconnection of producers and consumers 2. Reconnection of consumers and consumers 3. Reconnection of consumers and food (production) 4. Reconnection of AFN with other (food) initiatives 5. Reconnection of AFN participants with the food economy 6. Reconnection of AFN participants with food politics By providing these different types of reconnection, AFNs foster empowerment of producers and consumers and offer spaces to create local-level solutions to existing problems of the dominant food system. For a stronger impact beyond the individual AFN initiative, networking and replication are recommended. As a part of a broader societal movement, AFNs could contribute to creating a value-based food system and be small scale examples of a more sustainable way of food production and consumption.

Ausgehend von der Feststellung, dass einerseits Innovationsprozesse in ländlichen Räumen wenig erforscht sind und andererseits das Wissen um die Innovationsfähigkeit ländlicher Akteure dringend erforderlich ist, um eine nachhaltige Transformation zu erreichen, beschäftigt sich diese Dissertation mit der Frage, wie soziale Innovationsprozesse in ländlichen Räumen funktionieren und gefördert werden können. Es wurden drei Studien erstellt, die sich der Beantwortung dieser Frage aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven nähern. Beginnend mit dem Thema der nachhaltigen Zertifizierung von Ölpalmen-Kleinbauern in Indonesien, der Frage der Erhaltung und Schaffung ländlicher Infrastruktur in Deutschland und dem Thema der Energiewende und ihrer Förderung. Im Mittelpunkt aller Studien steht die Untersuchung kollektiven Handelns von mitgliederbasierten Organisationen, die als Sozialunternehmen im ländlichen Raum gegründet und betrieben werden. Zusammenfassend lässt sich feststellen, dass die Rolle von mitgliedschaftsbasierten Organisationen in ländlichen Gebieten die Untersuchung von sozialen Innovationsprozessen ermöglicht. Es konnten wichtige Merkmale und Prozesse sozialer Innovationsprozesse identifiziert werden, die nicht nur für die Förderung von mitgliederbasierten Organisationen, sondern auch für die Untersuchung nachhaltiger Transformationspfade vielversprechend sind. Die Dissertation schließt mit einer kritischen Diskussion über die Grenzen der Doktorarbeit, dem Bezug zu aktuellen wissenschaftlichen Debatten, einigen Governance Empfehlungen und einer Positionierung der Forscherin in ihrem Forschungsfeld. / Based on the observation that, on the one hand, innovation processes in rural areas have been little researched and, on the other hand, knowledge about the capacity for change of rural actors urgently needs to be taken into account to achieve sustainable transformation, this dissertation deals with the question of how social innovation processes in rural areas function and can be promoted. Three studies were conducted that approach the answer to this question from different perspectives. Starting with the issue of sustainable certification of oil palm smallholders in Indonesia, the issue of maintaining and establishing rural infrastructure in Germany, and the topic of the renewable energy transition and its promotion. At the heart of all studies is an examination of collective action by membership-based organizations established and operated as social enterprises in rural areas. In conclusion, the role of membership-based organisations in rural areas enables the study of social innovation processes. Important characteristics and processes of social innovation governance could be identified, which are promising not only for promoting membership-based organisations but also for studying sustainable transformation pathways. The thesis concludes with a critical discussion about the limitations of the doctoral thesis, the reference to current scientific debates, some governance recommendations, and the researcher's positioning in his research field.