The thorny road to technology legitimation — Institutional work for potable water reuse in California

This paper addresses this gap between technological innovation and societal legitimacy by proposing an analytical framework for the early technology legitimation phase that combines recent insights from innovation studies and institutional sociology. The framework we put forward in this paper conceptualizes technology legitimation as being enacted by different actors in a technological innovation system through specific forms of institutional work. This framework is illustrated with a case study on potable water reuse, in this case the injection of treated wastewater into drinking water reservoirs — a technology most consumers confront with revulsion. We outline how the legitimation process interrelates with other core development processes of a technological innovation system and discuss how our framework informs recent work in innovation and transition studies.

Also see our Legal Planet blog post on moving beyond the “yuck factor” with Direct Potable Reuse (DPR).