4. Experimentation: Putting Plans into Action

What does transition mechanism mean?

Transition reflects the process or the way change is experienced and directed. Mechanism signals machinery or tools, which work together to realise a goal or intended outcome. Mechanism enables us to fold in (human) intention, because the notion of a tool make things easier to achieve. Tools enable us to get the same output (work) with reduced force and are often reusable and their actions replicable. Metaphorically, we are playing with these points when we talk about transition mechanisms.

Transition mechanism: a process, institutional structure, and/or social network of diverse local actors created and adopted to cope with change, alter the course of change, or foster an intentional transformation during times of flux and uncertainty and to address external conditions and global trends.

Recrafting: Adopting resources and repurposing them to realise new [sustainability, justice, inclusion] goals; these could include practices that tinker, iteratively (re)design, or reignite local/Indigenous knowledge or practices. Recrafting often involves reinforcing or slightly modifying power structures. In the EmpowerUs project, recrafting was typically associated with procedural changes in governance. For example, rethinking and carving out more active roles for water-owners in the governance of marine waters in Åland, Finland.

Substituting: Replacing (unsustainable, unjust, exclusionary) practices and/or institutions with new modes and models. Substituting involves questioning and challenging current practices with the proposal of alternatives or replacements, but depth and scope may remain limited. Substituting can challenge existing power structures but often works within existing systems. In the EmpowerUs project, substituting mass tourism with more environmental-friendly and community- oriented tourism emerged as a strategy.

Disrupting: Counteracting and dismantling hegemonic models through protest, resistance, rebellion, and/or reconfiguration; disrupting is differentiated from substituting on the dimensions of scope and depth. Disrupting actively and intentionally challenges dominant power structures. In the EmpowerUs project, substituting and recrafting practices also transpired as having a ‘disruptive’ potential. The long-term outcomes of the many local initiatives remain to be seen — and will depend on how other external factors come together in support or adversity. Gaining collective momentum is important, if incremental changes with disruptive potential are to add up to ‘a new normal’.

If you are interested in learning about how the six TCLs* adopted alternative economic practices to cultivate local benefits and advance dual social and ecological sustainability goals, check out the paper, "Centering coastal communities’ diverse economic practices in the blue economy" by Antonova et al. 2025.

Experimentation on changing practices can be achieved through piloting*: trying a proposed solution before wider implementation. Within the EmpowerUs project, 6 Transition Coastal Labs* developed and implemented pilots. Deliverable 2.2 on Scaling and Replicating the Pilots provides a context of each TCL* and includes an overview of the conceptualisation, planning, and implementation of the six pilots within EmpowerUs.

Reflection interviews can also be used at this stage of the transition to allow researchers and local practitioners to reflect on current challenges and opportunities that occur during this period of experimentation. The two reflection guides on the Pilot Launches and Final Reflections include instructions and questions for the reflection interviews that were used in the EmpowerUs project during the pilot-phase.

Working with the method of Nature-based Solutions* in combination with social innovation can also support coastal transition processes, as evidenced in the Deliverable 4.3 report on TCL experiences.

With the overarching vision to ‘re-direct the blue economy* to support a thriving coastal community or society’, the TCLs* worked on specific challenges identified in a series of workshops and meetings in these localities. While there were a diverse and varied set of solutions, they can be grouped within three different broader strategies to enact change. This document further explains the overarching vision and the three groups that are presented below.

Widen the users of the sea constituency

This strategy is grounded in the theme of nature connectedness and (re)establishing a constituency of users of the sea who recognise their role in ocean health and their own dependencies on oceans and coastal areas. Many of the labs captured in this cluster have emphasised socioecological connections in their pilots and include public processes to reach groups that have not historically participated in coastal and marine planning or blue economy sectors. In some cases, the intention to make the community ‘more attractive’ to live in the coastal community has roots in nature connectedness and deliberately linking the coastal environment to place-making and community vitality.

Examples from the TCLs

Burgas, Bulgaria: Bulgarian Biodiversity Foundation looked to raise the visibility of the 3 intercoastal lakes and build cycling and walking trails to enable locals and tourists to experience the natural and cultural heritage offerings of these landscapes and ecosystems (See Burgas TCL Poster; read Handbook Chapter 4, Section 4.5).

Åland, Finland: Åland’s Fisheries Agency informed water owners in Åland to raise their awareness of their interdependence and influence on sustainable fisheries (See Åland TCL Poster; read Handbook Chapter 4, Section 4.3).

(Re)claim blue economy benefits & wealth locally

This cluster encapsulates the intentions in several pilots and TCLs to increase the financial and socioeconomic benefits and wealth generation from blue economy activities. Strategies and related activities in the TCLs focus on civic engagement as well as questioning and critiquing current practices and status.

Examples from the TCLs

Connemara, Ireland: Údarás worked to further strengthen local entrepreneurship in the social enterprise sector, developing a guidance document on the social economy and a field visit to locally-owned renewable energy projects in Scotland (See Connemara and Aran Islands TCL Poster; read Handbook Chapter 4, Section 4.2).

Cap de Creus, Spain: The NaturCap app (endorsed by the UN Ocean Decade Cultural Heritage Framework Programme) that uses marine cultural and natural integrated heritage to connect communities, promote ocean literacy, and support the creation of equitable marine protected areas across the Mediterranean (See Cap de Creus TCL Poster; read Handbook Chapter 4, Section 4.6).

Identify (infra)structures that promote local vitality

This strategy intends to alter (social, political, economic) structures and encourage infrastructure development to benefit coastal communities. This strategy related to community viability and adaptations that were rooted in heritage to achieve continuity. This strategy relates to TCL pilots that address migration and retention, connectivity (access and mobility dimensions), and those seeking to build viable and vital inhabited coastal communities.

Examples from the TCLs

Træna, Norway: The “Hooked on Træna” pilot (insert link to hooked on Trana strategy) is a co-created strategy to strengthen local expertise and promote collaboration between stakeholders through targeted activities, with the goal for retention and attraction of people to live in Træna (See Træna TCL Poster; read Handbook Chapter 4, Section 4.4).

Eastern Limassol, Cyprus: This pilot begins a master planning process (insert Cape Dolos Strategic Community Development Plan) to enable locals to better access the sea and cultivate an aesthetic, recreative, and wellbeing value for the sea and the coastal environment. One of the potential interventions identified in the Development Plan, is matured by the end of the Pilot at a stage which is ready to be submitted for licensing by the local authority. In the case of the Cypriot TCL, this development project is a Nature Path (See Eastern Limassol TCL Poster; read Handbook Chapter 4, Section 4.1).

D2.2 Scale-up and Replication of the Pilots and Chapter 2 of the Handbook on TCLs as Co-creation both provide further information about the pilot examples.

Table 2: Overarching vision for transition.

As experimentation is now well underway and everyone is heavily engaged in ‘doing’ and learning, it is time to re-visit the principles of justice* and inclusion*. You may identify need for some final adjustments:

• How have the values of justice and inclusion been enacted in the intervention or pilots?
• Were resources used in a way that benefits an inclusive group of local actors?
• Did the initiative yield expected or unexpected results for the target groups? How so and why?

Before moving onto assessment and reflection in stepping stone 5 it is good to stop and consider where you will designate as an end point. Are you at a good place or do you need to tie up a few things in the initial piloting and experimentation before moving on?