CHANGE AGENTS IN THE FIELD OF STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT: WHAT DOES IT INVOLVE AND WHAT POTENTIALS DOES IT HAVE FOR RESEARCH AND PRACTICE?

One of the challenges facing strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is finding ways to work in research and practice allowing critical interrogation and appropriate action to support sustainability. The point of departure for this article is the hypotheses that a certain kind of cooperative knowledge-production, called Mode 3, where SEA researchers interact with the societal milieu as change agents, provides a potential for SEA research and practice to further sustainability. Based on literature and three cases, this paper seeks to contribute to two questions: 'what does acting as a change agent within the field of SEA involve?' and 'what potentials does it have for research and practice?' The three cases illustrate how Mode 3 can support reflective SEA practice and practice-based SEA research. Theoretically the current understanding and discussion on change agents is sharpened through the focus on real-life linkages, putting forward the contextual influence and the unpredictability related hereto.