Jacob Hasselbalch

We use a case of competition between incumbent dairy company Arla and the oat milk innovator Oatly to give examples of four ideal typical varieties of niche construction.

The theory lets us connect changes in organizational fields and populations to changes in the environment. Niche constructors intervene directly in the environment to improve selection pressures, thereby also strategically changing field-population dynamics.

We contrast the Niche Construction Perspective with the cultural and demographic schools of organizational sociology.

Niche Construction Theory endogenizes the environment to organizational analysis, offering new ways of understanding selection pressures, interaction, and variation.


How Niche Construction Shapes Organizational Fields and Populations Niche Construction Theory (NCT), a recent offshoot of evolutionary biology, emphasizes how agents modify their surroundings and create organizational variation in an environment. Here we discuss how N...

New article out with @lenseabrooke.bsky.social, Kevin L. Young and Søren Lund Frandsen in @degruyterbrill.bsky.social Journal of Organizational Sociology. We adapt niche construction theory to study interactions between organizations and environments.

www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

We contrast the Niche Construction Perspective with the cultural and demographic schools of organizational sociology.

Niche Construction Theory endogenizes the environment to organizational analysis, offering new ways of understanding selection pressures, interaction, and variation.

I have a new review paper out in @environmentalpol.bsky.social! ✨

What would it actually take for states to pursue green transformations? I identify 5 capacities — planning, disciplinary, strategic, legitimation and adaptive — and their respective policy elements, capabilities and institutions

Green growth versus degrowth is a false choice The growth split in the climate movement only benefits the far right

New op-ed out in @prospectmagazine.co.uk with @jhasselbalch.bsky.social: "Green growth versus degrowth is a false choice: The growth split in the climate movement only benefits the far right"

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/econom...

check our network and submit a paper for Bordeaux 2026!

Our core message: the environmental state is not a monolith. Its differentiated apparatuses (from central banks to energy planners) hold untapped potential for Paris-aligned, state-led #decarbonization.

3️⃣ The “lame duck” critique sees bureaucracies as inert or status-quo forces. But in practice, capable and well-coordinated agencies often drive decarbonization through planning, innovation, and risk-taking.

2️⃣ The “overburdening” critique claims states are too overwhelmed by crises to govern effectively. Yet many states have quietly expanded their economic and bureaucratic capacities — especially through green industrial and investment policies.

Quick summary of the three critiques and our responses:

1️⃣ The “glass ceiling” critique says states can’t transform capitalist systems. We argue that while deep systemic change is tough, sequencing and targeting decarbonization first is both realistic and necessary.

Tagging the rest of the authorship team on the 'decarbonization state' article: Daniel Hausknost, @alinabrad.bsky.social, Gabriel Eyselein, @mathiaskrams.bsky.social, Danyal Maneka, @melaniepichler.bsky.social and @etienneschneider.bsky.social

Structural limitations of the decarbonization state - Nature Climate Change The implementation gap between national climate targets and actual policies has been seen as a main barrier for decarbonization. Here researchers show it is rooted in the structural limitation of stat...

Might be a useful companion piece to @ulrichbrand.bsky.social and co-authors recent, excellent article in Nature Climate Change: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... I think we largely agree, but we see more scope for bureaucratic agency to overcome the structural limitations of the #environmentalstate.

What Can the Environmental State Actually Do? Three Critiques and Their Limits Abstract. Three critiques of the environmental state shape the discussion of its possibilities and limits. First, states are deemed structurally unable to mitigate climate change due to the “glass cei...

With Caroline Ahler Christesen and @jhasselbalch.bsky.social, we asked: what can the environmental state actually do?
The answer is out now with @gepjournal.bsky.social 👇

If you ever wondered about this, check our paper and let us know what you think: direct.mit.edu/glep/article...

On the ground: the microfoundations of green industrial policy Governments across the world are expanding public investments to support green industries and infrastructures under the banner of green growth and decarbonisation. Much of the political economy sch...

Great new work from Søren Lund Frandsen on the microfoundations of #industrialpolicy: "the effectiveness and direction of #greenindustrialpolicy cannot be understood by investment volumes alone but must be traced through its organisational microfoundations": www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Tag yourself. I'm a coalition based, green industrial policy ecosocialist, rooting for high integration democracy, green growth everywhere with surgical degrowth, defending international solidarity, a mostly optimistic we-have-the-technology-we-need approach and a dynamic understanding of history.

Who doesn't love a massive table?!

In our new Ecological Economics paper (with @mathiaslarsen.bsky.social), we map where green growth and degrowth diverge — and where they converge — across politics, world order, and technology.

Time to move past the binary and imagine a plurality of growth futures.

Reimagining growth futures: Overcoming the false binary between green growth and degrowth When imagining how a green transition can take place, the relationship between economic growth and environmental sustainability is commonly viewed in …

We’re stuck in a false choice between green growth and degrowth.

One promises to fix the planet by growing the economy, the other by shrinking it.

But when you look closer, neither is a coherent political project. And there’s more overlap than most debates admit.

Reimagining growth futures: Overcoming the false binary between green growth and degrowth When imagining how a green transition can take place, the relationship between economic growth and environmental sustainability is commonly viewed in …

New article out in Ecological Economics with @jhasselbalch.bsky.social: 'Reimagining growth futures: Overcoming the false binary between green growth and degrowth'

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The Electric Mirror BYD, Volkswagen, and the Political Economy of the EV Divide (with Asger Dam)

"BYD’s ascent thus forces a question that goes beyond industry: Can Europe still make things at scale in a world where power lies in the ability to integrate finance, technology, and policy faster than anyone else?"- @cornelban.bsky.social's new #geoeconomics substack (substack.com/home/post/p-...)

What happens when transformative innovation policy meets organizational realities? Organization theory can help address some key gaps of scholarship on transformative innovation policy while opening new directions for policymaking and research in this area.

Organizing transformative innovation: Advancing an organizational research agenda within Transformative Innovation Policy In a world increasingly shaped by geopolitical divides, technological disruption, and the climate crisis, Transformative Innovation Policy (TIP) is mo…

New article out! Outcome of a collaborative effort with Jane Bjørn Vedel, Susana Borrás, Alan Irwin and Vera Simoneit, funded by a local strategic initiative at Copenhagen Business School. #innovation #innovationpolicy #organization #grandchallenges

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

@mattkranke.bsky.social @cornelban.bsky.social @mathiaslarsen.bsky.social

Toward a post-growth industrial policy for Europe: navigating emerging tensions and long-term goals Amid mounting geopolitical, socio-economic, and ecological crises, industrial policy has returned to the forefront of policy debates. However, the EU’s industrial policy framework – centerd on Sing...

1/7
Our new article is out in Globalizations: Toward a post-growth industrial policy for Europe: navigating emerging tensions and long-term goals.

With @jasonhickel.bsky.social & @sebmang.bsky.social

@envleeds.bsky.social

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

4 NEW pieces, with @cornelban.bsky.social + @jhasselbalch.bsky.social on state planning, @rosiecollington.bsky.social on planet-critical sectors, @shayaksengupta.bsky.social + Abhinav Jindal on multilateralism, and @brusselermel.bsky.social + @chrismwhayes.bsky.social on derisking

(Links below)

Green Indicative Planning | Phenomenal World With derisking regimes falling short of meeting governments' pledges to reach net zero carbon emissions, what lessons can we learn from governance through indicative planning? Historically strong coor...

"The green state must rise from the ashes of the derisking state... plan for a future of resilience or resign ourselves to chaos and the perils of climate adaptation under authoritarianism." www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/ind.... @cornelban.bsky.social #decarbonization #planning #ClimateSky

Application deadline: April 15, 2025

The MPIfG is seeking a research group leader (tenure track) with a focus on the socioeconomic and political impacts of technological change to set up a new research group at the intersection of #economy, #society, and #technology.

📢Please share widely!

s.gwdg.de/SULoAf

Now out with New Political Economy: What's going on in the legal back-end of 'innovative' climate finance constructs? I provide some additional clues to why it's so hard to de-risk private climate finance by public means. Open access, too! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....