Broadening project studies to address sustainability transitions: Conceptual suggestions and crossovers with socio-technical transitions research

• System-level sustainability transitions are challenging for project studies • Addressing topic requires further conceptual broadening of project studies • Essay makes crossovers with socio-technical transitions research • It discusses multiple roles of projects in transitions over time and at different levels • These include: incremental improvement, exploration, deployment, ambidextrous reorientation, and decommissioning Academic and socio-political interest in sustainability transitions, which are decades-long change processes in socio-technical systems, is rapidly increasing. To further engage with this topic, this essay suggests that project studies should continue its trend of conceptual broadening that has characterised the field in the past decade. Using the Multi-Level Perspective on socio-technical transitions as a meta-framework, this essay identifies and discusses the important roles of incremental improvement projects, exploratory projects, deployment projects, reorientation projects, and decommissioning projects in sustainability transitions. The essay also discusses crossovers with socio-technical transitions research and makes specific conceptual suggestions for broadening research on the different kinds of projects, programmes and portfolios.