Researchers’ roles in the (dis)empowerment of societal actors: a reflexive framework applied during a transition towards climate neutrality in the Swiss alps

Abstract Sustainability researchers increasingly guide and/or actively participate in transdisciplinary sustainability transition processes. Their concrete roles and activities create an empowering or disempowering context for the societal actors with whom they collaborate. Reflecting on these effects is essential, as in the end the societal actors are responsible for successfully implementing sustainability transitions in practice. This article proposes a reflexive framework for investigating how the roles and activities of researchers can serve to empower or disempower the societal actors involved. We illustrate an application of the framework in a transition management process towards climate neutrality in the Swiss Alps. We present several illustrative examples showing how ongoing reflection helps researchers adjust their activities to enhance empowering effects and minimize disempowering ones, ultimately enabling desirable progress towards sustainability transitions. A better understanding of (dis)empowering effects of researchers’ roles and activities can help to make the value of transition management more tangible. This is especially relevant for project partners, funding bodies, or home institutions that may have limited experience with this kind of transdisciplinary research and are uncertain about how to assess its added value.