From Grassroots Experimentation to Market Politics. Scaling Through as Institutional Transformation

Contemporary transformative initiatives committed to re-politicising the market through cooperative practices face a persistent challenge: how to move beyond isolated experimentation to achieve meaningful systemic influence across political, social, and governance arenas. This paper contributes to debates on sustainability transitions by examining the conceptual and empirical foundations of scaling through, defined as the integration of transformative practices into broader institutional and political processes, drawing on rich monitoring and evaluation (M&E) material from the EUI (European Urban Initiative) Station for Transformation project. Station for Transformation is an EU-funded project that involves collaboration among multiple third-sector organisations, including the grassroots organisation La Foresta, and the municipality of Rovereto, a small town in the province of Trento (northeast Italy). Using a detailed, iterative monitoring and evaluation dataset, complemented by ethnographic observations of project meetings and activities, this paper aims to document not only project outcomes but, more importantly, how tensions between maintaining transformative intent and engaging with established power and decision-making structures are negotiated. Scaling through is conceptualised not merely as diffusion or replication, but as relational transformation: the capacity of grassroots initiatives to influence regulatory frameworks, governance practices, and institutional agendas by reshaping expectations, forging alliances, and making alternative imaginaries legible to broader audiences. Our analysis identifies three dynamics shaping scaling through. First, the co-production of knowledge between grassroots actors, public authorities, and market stakeholders can expand normative and regulatory horizons, but often occurs under asymmetric power conditions, privileging technical over political rationales. Second, M&E processes can function as boundary objects, facilitating dialogue across epistemic communities while risking reinforcement of dominant evaluative norms that obscure alternative logics of change. Third, the political and economic agency of transformative cooperative initiatives depends on their ability to mobilise and sustain supportive networks beyond immediate operational spheres—emphasising the relational and context-specific nature of scaling through. These findings suggest that embedding grassroots innovation into market and governance systems is not linear, but a continuous negotiation of power, legitimacy, and normative influence. Integrating empirical evidence and conceptual analysis, this article argues that scaling through constitutes an important strategy of bottom-up political and economic action, a process through which community-led initiatives shape governance and market arrangements while resisting capture by dominant institutional logics. In doing so, this study pursues three objectives: (1) to develop a nuanced framework for understanding scaling through in sustainability transitions and repoliticising the market; (2) to demonstrate how systematic monitoring and evaluation can clarify the politics of scaling, including power asymmetries and normative contestations; and (3) to provide practical insights for transformative cooperative initiatives seeking structural engagement without compromising core values.