Towards multi-scalar transition management? Insights from four transition arenas in Norway’s port sector

• Discusses the place of scale in (applied) transition management. • Presents experiences from four transition arenas (three local, one national). • Discusses disparities in output between local and national transition arenas. • Identifies three factors which negatively impacted output in the national arena. • Provides suggestions for developing multi-scalar transition management. Transition management has been applied at organisational, local, regional, and national scales. However, transition management methodology only treats scale in passing. Drawing upon experiences from four transition arenas in Norway’s port sector – three local, one national – the article describes how arena outputs differed between local and national arenas. Outputs from the national arena were significantly less specific than in the local arenas. The article provides three partial, interlinked explanations for this disparity: arena composition, arena sequencing, and process facilitation. Proceeding from the challenges experienced in the national arena, the article provides suggestions towards a model of transition management which explicitly links local and national transition arenas. This linkage serves to ground otherwise abstract discussions in local contexts while expanding the type and range of actions that can result from a national-level transition arena, thus enhancing transition management’s ability to influence multi-scalar transition dynamics.