Success factors and strategies for sustainability transitions of small-scale communities - Evidence from a cross-case analysis

Initiatives pursuing sustainability transitions of small-scale communities offer rich learning opportunities on: to what extent they are making progress toward sustainability; what success depends on; and how success can be replicated in other communities. Yet, there is little empirical research addressing these questions. This article presents a cross-case analysis of sustainability transition initiatives in four small U.K. communities that tentatively identifies factors influencing transition outcomes as well as strategies to improve transition effectiveness. Our findings suggest a wide range of factors to be important including socio-demographics, community governance, community capacity, organization and management, resources, and mobilization. The article demonstrates how empirical studies of this nature can successively build a broad knowledge base to support effective community transition practices.