Reconfiguring what network? (Road) network synchronization in Dutch traffic management

Current sustainability challenges are increasingly acknowledged to reveal systemic flaws in societal systems such as energy, mobility and agriculture. Adequate solutions then require system innovations and societal transitions. The quest for system innovation is notoriously hard, however: In a polycentric society systemic problems tend to be elusive, and solution strategies are contested. So whereas the quest for system innovation is typically backed by substantive analyses of system pathologies, polycentric perspectives emphasize that the intrinsic properties of an innovation attempt are hardly decisive. Innovation attempts need to be relevant to the targeted actors in the first place. As ‘intrinsic’ transformative potential is not the sufficient criterion, the following question arises: Taking into account the ‘polycentric condition’ and the consequent lack of foundational systemic knowledge, how can innovation attempts be devised with a reasonable chance of achieving system-innovative change? How to move from the perceived need for a particular system transformation to its being endorsed and acted upon by others? This paper addresses the tension between the attempted innovation of systems on the one hand, and its relevance to diverse actors within these systems on the other. Based on multiple-case research after innovation attempts in the Dutch traffic management field (Pel, 2012), it is shown how the synchronization between translating actors is overriding, but the properties of an attempt do matter. The analysis highlights the emergence of transformative ‘boundary concepts’: The social sharing of space, the network-oriented handling of traffic flows, and the ‘information chain’ on traffic information. Each in their own ways these initiatives involved changes both in road networks and in the associated governance networks. Translation-dynamic analysis of these innovation journeys suggests that innovation attempts can be particularly effective when based on concepts with similarly ‘networked’ properties: Articulating innovative solutions to substantive problems, but also the governance interactions through which to shape and sustain those solutions in practice.