Simon Baumgartinger-Seiringer, Maximilian Benenr (p), Michaela Trippl

Adam Pathy

It is well acknowledged that grand societal challenges such as the fight against climate change require innovation through the phasing-in of new technologies and practices. Far less attention has thus far been given to the role of exnovation through the phasing out of old, unsustainable technologies, practices and entire industries. Pressures for exnovation originate from various spatial scales and emanate from causes such as the consequences of climate change, shifting consumer preferences, or political frameworks and measures such as the European Green Deal, carbon pricing, or CO2 taxation. The article argues that dominant conceptual approaches and empirical studies in the fields of regional development and sustainability transitions are overly focused on grasping innovation activities and neglect the significance of exnovation, that is, the proactive and often politically intended and enforced destabilisation of unsustainable structures. The article zooms in on complex multiscalar innovation-exnovation dynamics in emission-intensive and polluting regions and explores the ways in which these dynamics are shaped by contested processes involving different forms of agency.