To illustrate the use of this framework, Table 2 characterises five commonly understood ‘modes’ of renewable energy implementation that have emerged in the UK and the broad configurations of ‘hardware’ and ‘software’ associated with each mode. We specifically use ‘mode’ here in preference to the terms ‘regime’ and ‘niche’ that are commonly used in the literature on socio-technical systems (Rip and Kemp 1998; Geels and Schot 2007). As a looser term ‘mode’ allows for greater simultaneous heterogeneity and avoids some of the problematic assumptions of the deliberate nested hierarchical transition management framework (for a more detailed discussion, see Shove and Walker 2007). The label given to each mode, and the key distinguishing factor that we thereby highlight, identifies the locus of agency to implement energy generation. Table 2 also indicates the political discourses associated with each mode, highlighting how their emergence has been bound up and legitimised by wider ideological currents (Bijker et al. 1987).