Rethinking User Agency in Sustainability Transitions: Analysing the roles of informal settlement dwellers in a splintered sanitation regime

The exploration of alternative forms of sanitation provision and access in Global South cities beyond the reliance on large scale sewer systems has grown considerably in the past years. These innovative activities are complemented with debates to whether more diverse “transition pathways” should be envisioned for these cities. This thesis analyses the roles and agency of users in innovation and transition processes taking the case of sanitation in Nairobi, Kenya. The thesis is based on qualitative primary data collected in a period of six months in Nairobi between 2016 and 2018. Using analytical approaches from “sustainability transitions” field of study, this thesis aims to: (i) characterize the socio-technical regimes in Global South cities, and to establish how users are constituted into, and stabilize, these regimes; (ii) analyse how informal settlement dwellers shape the process of embedding innovations through their daily activities; and (iii) analyse the transformation potential of informal settlement dwellers for a transition towards a more sustainable sanitation sector. The mapping of socio-technical regimes required an extension of the original concept in order to make it applicable to Global South cities, where service provision and access conditions are highly heterogeneous. We specified two analytical levels: “service” and “sectoral” regimes. Adopting this distinction enabled the characterizing of Nairobi as a “splintered regime”. A key characteristic of splintered regimes is the proactive role of users: in mending the splinters in order to gain access, and by being service providers in organized grassroots groups. The splintered regime is compared with “monolithic”, “polycentric”, and “fragmented” sectoral regimes which represent more diverse “transition pathways”. The active user roles in Nairobi’s splintered regime called for an extension to the analysis of practices in order to understand the processes of embedding innovations. I describe how the mending of splinters occurs. It entails complex daily activities across time and in space, which I conceptualize as “Oscillating Domestic Spaces”. The concept which is specified based on insights from practice theory and the socio-technical regime reflects the need for people to develop a multiplicity of alternative options and partial solutions to be able to manage access under difficult and uncertain context conditions for practices. I further elaborate how the oscillations influence the embedding of a container-based toilet in Nairobi’s informal settlements: often resulting in failure when innovators fail to pay attention to context conditions. Subsequently, the value of paying attention to oscillations in domestic spaces is demonstrated when I use the Oscillating Domestic Space concept to analyse livelihoods reconstruction in a settlement upgrading initiative – where relocations disrupted these “spaces”. The disruptions resulted in multitude of negative feedbacks on the physical integrity of the upgrading initiative and as well on the legitimation of the entire process by the beneficiaries. Eventually, I conduct an analysis on the transformative potential by informal settlement dwellers for a transition from a splintered to a polycentric regime. The technological innovation system and grassroots innovation concepts are applied in the analysis. The study finds that community members, in their organization into grassroots groups, have resources and capabilities which “professional” actors lack, which can be leveraged. However, these grassroots can also hinder further transitions when they defend their local monopolies against new (and potentially complementary) actors. I discuss new actor arrangements that build on the strengths of the grassroots but can evade potential lock-in that hampers longer-term sustainability transitions. To conclude the thesis, I reflect on the key findings for a broadened view of what it takes to apply transition approaches in heterogeneous contexts. I also discuss practical implications for Nairobi’s sanitation sector and I eventually highlight inroads for future transition studies.