The role of the quality infrastructure within socio-technical transformations: A European perspective

The role of quality infrastructure, i.e., regulation, standardization, metrology, conformity assessment, and accreditation, is analyzed in the general context of socio-technical transformations. Six policy intervention points structure their potential contributions. First, insights from the literature and anecdotal evidence reveal that regulation plays an essential role in niche stimulation, yet standardization is becoming more important for niche acceleration. However, regulation is essential for destabilizing the whole regime but also for addressing possible repercussions. Within the coordination of multi-regime interactions, the consistency of regulations and the interfaces to the other elements of quality infrastructure has to be assured. To tilt the whole landscape, the regulatory framework conditions have to be altered, allowing changes in the directionality of socio-technical systems. Finally, international standards can leverage nationally focused changes of regulations towards the global level. Policy recommendations and limitations conclude the paper.