Exploring the possibilities for deliberately cultivating more effective ecologies of intermediation

Sustainability transition studies acknowledge the importance of ecologies of intermediation for the acceleration of sustainability transitions and their governance. Although some pioneering studies have already focused on analyzing these ecologies, further research is needed to understand the challenges of deliberately establishing ecologies in terms of processes and activities. To advance in this direction, this paper identifies three challenges based in empirical analysis of an initiative called “El Día Después”. Through the case study, we analyze the challenges of: (a) enabling collaboration within the ecology and managing competition, (b) the dynamic context in which intermediation activities take place and (c) the composition of intermediaries in an ecology as the transition evolves. These challenges - and their relational positions between intermediaries, actors, networks and institutions - suggests a level of systemic intermediation additional to concepts in the literature currently. An additional role for intermediation is thus identified, namely, ecology intermediation.