Geography of Sustainability Transitions
Webinars
The GeoST thematic group hosts an ongoing webinar series that brings together leading scholars from geography and sustainability transitions research. These webinars serve as a dynamic platform for critical dialogue on how spatial perspectives can deepen our understanding of socio-technical change, fostering interdisciplinary exchange and advancing the integration of geographical thinking into transition studies. Open to researchers, practitioners, and students alike, the series aims to cultivate a vibrant community around emerging GeoST themes.
Webinar Series IIII: The ‘global’ dimension of sustainability transitions
Feb/Mar/Apr 2026
This STRN GeoST thematic group webinar series aims to foster interaction between scholars working on Global Production Networks (GPNs) and Global Value Chains (GVCs) and those engaged in the (geography of) sustainability transitions research.
The webinar series covers the following topics: a) a general introduction and panel discussion on potential trading zones, b) a session on actors, value chains, and governance, c) a session on developmental outcomes and just transitions, and d) a session on geopolitical turbulences and transitions.
Our intentions with the webinar series are:
- first, to create a space for cross-fertilization, exchange and debate to advance understanding of sustainability transition processes and outcomes across space and scale
- second, to invite GPN/GVC scholars from which sustainability transition scholars could draw conceptual inspiration (and potentially also vice versa)
- third, to use the webinar series as one of several steps in developing a broader research agenda at the sustainability transitions and GPN/GVC interface
Upcoming
14 April 2026 │GVC/GPN lenses to understand Geopolitical Disruptions in Sustainability Transitions
1 pm CET
Presenters: Dr. Marie-Claire Brisbois (University College London), Dr. Linus Kalvelage (University of Cologne) and Ibrahim Abatcha Umar (Hong Kong Batist University)
Moderator: Prof. Dr. Huiwen Gong (University of Stavanger)
Past Webinars
24 March 2026 │Developmental Outcomes and Just Transitions
In this webinar, scholars talked about the development outcomes and just transitions related to GPN and GVC dynamics.
Felix Dorn (BOKU Vienna) presented on the “dark side” of Global Production Network (GPN) literature, emphasising its growing focus on distributional outcomes. Drawing on his recent article, “Development in global production networks? Wind energy and socio-ecological conflicts in La Guajira, Colombia” in the Journal of Economic Geography, he examined the controversies and frictions that arise when a wind-energy GPN is grounded in La Guajira. He attributed these tensions to underlying ontological differences and argued that a more nuanced understanding of territory—encompassing its material, ideological, and political dimensions—is essential for advancing just transitions.
Marta Lopez Cifuentes (BOKU Vienna) presented ongoing work on niche-level GPN formation through a relational coupling perspective, positioning it in contrast to strategic coupling in GPN and structural coupling in GIS. Focusing on the food sector, she identified three key dimensions shaping niche-level GPN dynamics: (1) cognitive and normative alignment among stakeholders; (2) the mobilisation of both economic and non-economic incentives; and (3) an emphasis on horizontal, rather than vertical, coordination.
Finally, Ulrich Hansen (Technical University of Denmark) shared research on green industrial catch-up experiences in three developing country contexts: wind energy in South Africa, and solar energy in Indonesia and Vietnam. While acknowledging China’s remarkable success in green catch-up, he argued that such trajectories are difficult to replicate elsewhere. He further stressed that industry-specific characteristics play a decisive role in shaping the emergence of green windows of opportunity, as well as in conditioning countries’ prospects for successful catch-up.
10 March 2026 │Incumbents, Power and Governance in Value Chains
This webinar is the second in a series exploring the intersections between sustainability transitions (ST) research and global value chain (GVC) perspectives.
Stefano Ponte (Copenhagen Business School) presented insights from his new book, “Value Struggles: Looking at Capitalism Through the Wine Glass,” by referring to the various ways in which value is captured and valuations take place within GVCs. He identified and discussed various sites of struggle, including place, nature and the planet. These sites of struggle could inspire ST research.
Oliver Bugge Hunt (University of Copenhagen) drew on arguments published in a recent EIST viewpoint to discuss how ST research could be informed by GVC research to improve our understanding of incumbents with regard to aspects such as firm heterogeneity and power and governance.
Djamila Lesch (Eawag) emphasised the role of non-firm actors, such as the World Bank, in disseminating institutional rationalities worldwide. She also discussed the infrastructure sector’s potential as a boundary object between different communities.
The presentations were followed by a lively discussion about trading zones between these different epistemic communities. For instance, we explored how GVC research could benefit from the extensive body of work on innovation in ST research and how GVC insights could enrich the focus on emergent industries in ST research.
Related literature
Hunt, O. B., Marslev, K., Steen, M., Hansen, T. & Hansen, U. E. (2026) Incorporating insights from global production network and value chain research into the sustainability transitions field, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions
Lesch, D., Miörner, J.. & Binz, C. (2023) The Role of Global Actors in Sustainability Transitions – Tracing the Emergence of a Novel Infrastructure Paradigm in the Sanitation Sector, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions
Ponte, S. (2025) Value Struggles: Looking at Capitalism through the Wine Glass, Bloomsbury Publishing
24 February 2026 │Setting the scene
The first webinar in this series brought together Dr. Neil Coe (University of Sydney), Prof. Dr. Roberta Rabellotti (University of Pavia),Dr. Lea Fuenfschilling (Lund University), and Dr. Christian Binz (Eawag), to explore cross-fertilisation between GPN/GVC research and the sustainability transitions field.
The panel discussed how extended GPN approaches can incorporate green industries and decarbonisation processes, the role of global regimes and innovation systems, and key conceptual distinctions (e.g. structural vs. strategic couplings). The discussion also addressed green windows of opportunity for latecomer countries and the potential for leveraging them.
The interactive exchange further examined “engaged pluralism,” ontological and empirical challenges of cross-field integration, developmental outcomes and just transitions, and shifts in the state-capital nexus in an era increasingly shaped by geopolitical competition.
Related literature
Binz, C. & Truffer, B. (2017) Global Innovation Systems—A conceptual framework for innovation dynamics in transnational contexts, Research Policy
Coe M., N., Sinclair L., Gibson C. & Warren, A. (2025) Resourcing GPNs: multi-scalar state derisking of energy transition minerals at a time of polycrisis, Journal of Economic Geography
Fuenfschilling, L. & Binz, C. (2018) Global socio-technical regimes, Research Policy
Lema R., Rabellotti R. & Ambrogi J. (2025) Seizing windows of opportunity in green global value chains: the role of industrial policies in middle-income countries, Journal of International Business Policy
Archive
Webinar Series III: Nature-Society Interactions
27 March 2025 │Setting the scene: understanding nature and society interactions and the implications for the geography of sustainability transitions
Watch here
10 April 2025 │The natural environment and regional industrial development
Watch here
24 April 2025 │Governance of land use and bioeconomies
Watch here
22 May 2025 │What insights can we gain from a political ecology perspective?
Watch here
Webinar Series II: Spatial Inequalities and Global Linkages in Transition Processes
28 April 2021 │Just energy transitions: a spatial perspective
Watch here
05 May 2021 │Geographies of green industrial path development
Watch here
12 May 2021 │Unpacking transnational linkages, global-local encounters and relations in sustainable energy transition (solar PV) in East Africa
Watch here
19 May 2021│ Geographical perspectives on grassroots innovations: diffusion and place-making
Watch here
26 May 2021 │Roundtable: A geographical perspective on mission-oriented innovation policies
Watch here
Webinar Series I: Foundations of a Geographical Lens on Sustainability Transitions
04 Nov 2020 │Webinar Introduction + Developing a multi-scalar perspective on sustainability transitions
Watch here
11 Nov 2020 │Towards an institutional conceptualization of regional transition dynamics
Watch here
25 Nov 2020 │Reframing urban and place-based transitions: a GeoST perspective
Watch here
02 Dec 2020 │Roundtable discussion: what is next for GeoST
Watch here
News
Call for workshop convenors: Ju-ST global workshop series 2026
The STRN thematic group on Equity and Justice in Transitions (Ju-ST) is convening a global workshop series to better understand diverse conceptualizations of justice and how these can be embedded in sustainability transitions thought and […]