Abstract
Purpose – The paper aims to complement the six pillars analysis with the multi-level perspective to make it more systematic and policy relevant.
Design/methodology/approach – Take the innovation system foresight as the exemplar; the paper asks if the other systemic approaches to innovation can function as the middle range theory and underpin critical future studies. To answer, the paper combines the six-pillar approach (SPA) with the multilevel perspective (MLP) and builds ‘‘transitional foresight’’. Then it takes the fourth pillar; transitional causal layered analysis and applies it to a case study: water stress in Iran. The paper concludes noting that in transitional foresight, the borderlines, the players and the orientations of the foresight are clearer than the six-pillar analysis.
Findings – The SPA and MLP-integrated framework make a powerful research instrument for transitional foresight.
Research limitations/implications – The paper applied the integrated framework to a case ‘‘water system in Iran’’. But the framework should be applied in different cases in different countries to test its applicability.
Practical implications – The suggested framework can be used as a heuristics for the students and researchers who want to engage with the emancipatory perspective of the six-pillar approach and need to have an academic methodology with rigor and granularity.
Originality/value – The six-pillar approach of Sohail Inayatullah and the multilevel perspective of Geels can combine to make a powerful heuristic for transitional foresight.
Keywords Innovation, Culture, Sustainable development, Environmental politics, Forecasting
Paper type Research paper