Mission-Oriented Transition Assessment as a reflective approach to mission governance

The recent mission-oriented discourse in innovation policy increasingly recognizes the need for participatory, anticipatory, reflexive, and tentative governance modes to address the wickedness associated with societal challenges. In this paper, we introduce the Mission-Oriented Transition Assessment (MOTA) approach as a novel way to collectively anticipate and reflect upon current and future mission-oriented transition dynamics, and we subsequently demonstrate this approach in the context of the Dutch mission ‘Circular infrastructure by 2050’. Using socio-technical scenarios, we apply MOTA to support stakeholders, particularly policymakers, in governing missions. Stakeholders reflect on their role in transitions to collectively find ways to overcome transition barriers and address tensions between the current and future socio-technical systems. Results indicate various ways in which MOTA contributes to stakeholders' awareness and preparedness, as well as the social robustness and alignment of action perspectives in the transition towards a circular infrastructure sector. As such, MOTA helps reveal valuable strategic and actionable insights to better understand and address societal challenges and mission barriers. • This paper introduces Mission-Oriented Transition Assessment (MOTA). • MOTA aims to promote the effectiveness and desirability of missions. • MOTA is an approach to collectively anticipate mission-oriented transition dynamics. • Scenarios are used as a central tool to stimulate deliberative anticipation. • We demonstrate MOTA in the context of circular infrastructure in the Netherlands.