The TRANSIT approach: Topics and questions for Critical Turning Points

The Critical Turning Points have been constructed through structured interviews with members of social innovation initiatives. 

Each Critical Turning Point addresses dynamics and patterns in TSI processes, co-production and interactions with other actors, experiences and reflections on empowerment and resources in TSI processes and situated accounts of the politics of TSI. 

This scope were addressed through the following list of topics and questions:

1. Contents. What did this CTP consist of, and when (at what date or in which specific period) did it happen? In what way did it constitute a CTP?

2. Co-production. What particular events/people/developments/circumstances/ conditions/spatial environment made the CTP happen?

3. Related events. What earlier events (coming from within or from outside) were crucial to the CTP to happen and when (at what date or in which period) did they occur? Which important later events were evoked by the CTP and when (at what date or in which period) did they occur?

4. Contestation. To what extent did the CTP involve contestation? What was the contestation about, and who were involved in it? How (if at all) was the contestation overcome?

5. Anticipation. Was the CTP, as identified now, also understood as CTP at the time when it occurred? Or is it an understanding that developed later? Had it (and the events/people/etc. that evoked it) been foreseen or anticipated?

6. Learning. What are the change ambitions of your initiative, and how did the CTP make a positive or negative contribution towards achieving those? If you were to draw a lesson about this CTP, what would this be? How does the CTP relate to the current challenges of your initiative?

The 'Synthesis Report: meta- analysis of Critical Turning Points in TSI' and 'The critical turning points database : concept, methodology and dataset of an international Transformative Social Innovation comparison' provides a detailed overview of the approach and results of the meta-analysis of TSI propositions through the Critical Turning Points database.