Compare methods

	Multi-Level Perspective on Transitions	Technological Innovation Systems
Field	Science Technology Studies	Science Technology Studies
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	2002	2008
Originator	Frank W. Geels (building on Arie Rip and René Kemp)	Anna Bergek, Staffan Jacobsson, Bo Carlsson and colleagues
Type	Conceptual framework and analytic method for sociotechnical change	Systems-of-innovation framework and scheme of analysis
Seminal source	Geels, F. W. (2002). Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: a multi-level perspective and a case-study. Research Policy, 31(8-9), 1257-1274.	Bergek, A., Jacobsson, S., Carlsson, B., Lindmark, S., & Rickne, A. (2008). Analyzing the functional dynamics of technological innovation systems: a scheme of analysis. Research Policy, 37(3), 407-429.
Aliases	MLP, Multi-level perspective framework, Sociotechnical transitions analysis	TIS analysis, Technological innovation system approach, Functional dynamics scheme
Related	4	4
Summary	The Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) is a middle-range framework for analysing how large sociotechnical systems—energy, mobility, food, water—shift from one dominant configuration to another. It locates change in the interplay of three analytic levels: protected niches where radical novelties incubate, the incumbent sociotechnical regime that structures ordinary practice, and a slow-moving exogenous landscape. Transitions occur when landscape pressures destabilise the regime and open windows of opportunity for maturing niche innovations to break through.	Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) analysis studies the emergence, growth, and performance of a specific technology by treating it as a system of actors, networks, and institutions that interact to generate, diffuse, and use that technology. Building on the systems-of-innovation tradition, the influential scheme of Bergek and colleagues combines a structural account of the system's components with a functional analysis of the key processes—or functions—that an innovation system must perform, then compares achieved with desired functionality to diagnose inducement and blocking mechanisms and derive policy.