Julius Wesche ^1* Elisabeth Dütschke ² Simona O Negro ³ Marko P Hekkert ³

• ¹ Faculty of Humanities, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
• ² Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI (FHG), Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
• ³ Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands, Netherlands

To achieve sustainability transitions, substantial changes in current policies are necessary. There is consensus in the transitions literature that coalitions can help to initiate such changes. However, while it is suggested that coordination and alignment of such coalitions are key to the building of powerful coalitions, these processes have not been well understood in the transitions studies literature. To unpack coordination, the paper presents a comprehensive systematic literature review of the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) (initial corpus of 700+ papers, final corpus with 45 documents). The ACF is a prominent policy process framework that puts actors and coalitions centre-stage and suggests that advocacy coalitions that struggle for political dominance are key for the adoption of policies. After reviewing the ACF with regard to factors that influence coordination, a typology of coalition coordination among four transitions phases is conceptualised, and implications are derived for coordination and coalition-building to accelerate sustainability transitions.