Bernhard Truffer

Bernhard Truffer is a full professor of the geography of transitions at the geography department and the Copernicus institute of sustainable development at Utrecht University and he is the head of the environmental social science department at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology in Switzerland. His research deals with sustainability transitions in sectors like as energy, water and transport with a particular focus on the geography of industrial transformation processes. His projects dealt with developments in Europe, the US and Australia but increasingly also in China, South Africa, or Kenia.

“Innovation has to increasingly embrace diverse value concerns held by a broad range of societal actors. The understanding of directionality should therefore go beyond market success or regional competitiveness. In particular, concerns about sustainability, diversity and social justice will become integral part of the generation, scaling and mainstreaming of new technologies, products and services. This also often implies a shift in focus form single innovation processes to the transformation of entire socio-technical systems.”