Page - 152 - in Critical Issues in Science, Technology and Society Studies - Conference Proceedings of the 17th STS Conference Graz 2018

The increased involvement of incumbent regime actors in the car sharing market is an indication that the market has viability and potential for growth. Although niche technologies are conceptually distinct from the regime, this is not to say they are exogenous in the way that the landscape is. Although regime actors are prone to behave in ways that promote stable trajectories, this is not to say that they are static. The rules and practices within the regime reinforce stable trajectories whereby regime actors pursue gradual as opposed to radical innovation and change. Car sharing may represent a gradual change, but only if the incumbent actors are active in its provision. The material and skills elements of car sharing highlight that success often hinges on the ability to replicate, to the extent possible, the practice of owning and driving a private vehicle, while eliminating its negative aspects. Vehicle operation, parking, transport and storage of cargo, use of the digital interface and planning of activities all represent hurdles and opportunities with respect to initiating and reproducing the practice of car sharing. Policy makers in particular are in the position to support car sharing. The concerted efforts from various levels of government in Norway to promote battery electric vehicles provide important lessons on how to successfully promote a niche technology/practice such that it becomes more mainstream part of the regime. The tendency of service providers and public officials to frame car sharing using the language of sustainability is not the most effective means of attracting new users. It may, however, be a good method for maintaining existing users. Marketing and promotion must reflect the prominent meanings associated with car sharing. Although the utilitarian aspects of cost and convenience are always important, matters of lifestyle, freedom and self-image would also provide good material with which to frame effective discourses on car sharing. Analysing the micro-phenomena that take place on the user side provides rich information that can be used to inform promotion strategies as well as policy formulation. If we are to truly consider car sharing to be a meaningful innovation that can lead to a more carbon neutral and sustainable form of mobility, users must adopt it. Whereas as invention is the first instance of an improved product or process, an innovation is the attempt to carry it out into practice (Fagerberg, 2005, p. 5). Users have diverse needs, desires, capabilities and worldviews, and as car sharing expands, the set of offerings must reflect this diversity such that a greater extent of the market can be reached. References Andrew, J.P., Sirkin, H.L., Butman, J., 2007. Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Fagerberg, J. (2004). Chapter 1: Innovation: a guide to the literature, pp1-26. In Fagerberg, J., Mowery, D. C. & Nelson, R. R. (Eds), The Oxford Handbook of Innovation. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Geels, F. W. (2002). Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: a multi- level perspective and a case-study. Research Policy, 31, 1257-1274. doi: 10.1016 S0048-7333(02)00062-8 Geels, F. W. (2005). Processes and patterns in transitions and system innovations: Refining the co- evolutionary multi-level perspective. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 72, 681-696. doi: 10.1016/j.techfore.2004.08.014 152