Working Document Series: Italian Case Study

The Working Document entitled "Tipping dynamics, psychosocial patterns, and lock-in mechanisms in Sulcis coal and carbon-intensive region, Italy” produced by Fulvio Biddau and Mauro Sarrica, is now published!

The Italian case study aims to understand how place-based meanings, memories, and identities have weakened the disruptive effect of destabilizing events or deliberate interventions, legitimating coal and carbon-intensive industry and delegitimating a sustainable transformation. With this rationale, a mixed-method approach was used consisting of narrative interviews with key stakeholders (N=26), newspaper articles published between 2011 and 2021 (N=965) and two workshops with stakeholders.

In particular, the paper explores how social-psychological factors can intervene in tipping dynamics, actively reinforcing lock-in and path dependency ultimately undermining decarbonization policies and a just transition.

Read the full document here!