The development of governance capacities for transformative change
PhD research by Jasper van Dijk shows how actors in Dutch energy regions develop governance capacities through social learning, helping society address complex challenges in regional energy transitions.
PhD researcher Jasper van Dijk from the department Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences defended his thesis on 24 February 2026. Within the Technology, Innovation and Society (TIS) group he examined how actors in the region develop the abilities needed to navigate and support transformative change of the Dutch energy system. Society is facing intertwined crises related to climate change, biodiversity loss, and growing inequality. These challenges expose the limits of systems historically built around continuous economic growth. Addressing such complex societal challenges requires fundamental changes in how societies organize energy, mobility, food, and other essential systems.
New demands
Many organizations find that traditional governance approaches do not fit the complex, uncertain and contested nature of system transformations. Collectives and companies developing novel economic models and practices often encounter barriers created by existing regulations and policies that protect vested interests. Municipalities face resistance to renewable energy projects and struggle to balance long-term sustainability goals with local concerns. Van Dijk鈥檚 research shows that such dilemmas go far beyond technology and are shaped by social and political processes that influence how actors coordinate, learn and work together.
Emerging capacities
His work demonstrates that the regional scale has become an important arena where these challenges come together. Dutch energy regions form fluid spaces in which actors from different levels explore how to organize collaboration despite uncertainty. Van Dijk describes governance capacities as the collective abilities that help actors create and adjust the conditions for transformative change. These capacities do not emerge overnight but develop through repeated interactions in which actors negotiate what the challenges mean, and what their roles, responsibilities, and shared goals should be..
Learning together
The research shows that social learning plays a central role in how capacities develop. Through interviews, observations and document analysis, Van Dijk traced how new shared understanding of emerging challenges and potential solutions develops in Dutch energy regions. He found that learning is relational, driven by ongoing sensemaking and by individuals who help interpret emerging challenges. When learning shifts from fragmented discussions to more guided processes, it enables new forms of collaboration and adjustments in governance arrangements.
Interacting forces
Van Dijk reveals how hierarchical traditions and emerging collaborative structures exist side by side, creating inherent tensions that slow down progress. At the same time, collective agency may emerge through the formation of shared intentions of actors to engage in collaborative action. These dynamics shape how regions experiment with alternative practices, respond to emerging challenges and gradually develop more effective approaches to the energy transition.
Jasper van Dijk defended his thesis on February 24, 2026.
Title of the thesis:
Supervisors: Anna Wieczorek, Josette Gevers, (Tilburg University)