Abstract
The imperative to massively and quickly scale sustainability transitions in urban areas globally stands in tension with the sustained commitments required of grounded coproduction efforts that seek to deliver locally credible, relevant, and legitimate pathways for place-specific transitions. Is it possible to develop policy guidance that meets the magnitude of the urban transitions challenge while still leveraging the benefits of coproduction? We suggest that coproducing urban transitions guidance around relevant types of cities, as compared to specific individual cities, offers a potential pathway for scaling the impact of such guidance. However, little work has been done to explicitly interrogate how concepts of credibility, relevance and legitimacy are implicated by relying on urban types in coproduction processes. In this frontiers discussion, we describe what greater emphasis on the use of types and proxies in urban transitions coproduction might entail. Elaborating the concept of ‘coproduction-by-proxy’, we articulate six key premises and draw on two real-world instances of science-policy dialogue to illustrate its operative features. This frontiers discussion aims to supply more structured language for framing debate about whether, and how best, to strategically construct and deploy urban types in coproduction processes for developing urban transitions guidance, with an emphasis on maximizing generalization and impact, while maintaining both technical and political credibility. The discussion argues that exploring the role (and limits) of urban types and proxies in coproduction processes is a key frontier for the iterative science and practice of urban transitions, with implications for advancing both overall urban systems knowledge and place-specific sustainability transitions.
Highlights
There is a growing body of scholarship explicitly focused on urban coproduction—of knowledge, values, and interventions—advising that relevant and lasting urban sustainability transitions are most effectively shaped by meaningfully engaging diverse stakeholders and end users (McCormick et al 2013; Muñoz-Erickson 2014; Patel et al 2015; Frantzeskaki and Kabisch 2016; Dunn et al 2017; ACERE 2018)
If centering coproduction on wellconstructed urban types may permit a degree of generalizability and scaling, can the use of urban types in coproduction processes result in guidance that is credible, relevant and legitimate? Undertaking coproduction focused on urban types is a process we describe as ‘coproduction-by-proxy.’
Who is making decisions about the above-mentioned considerations of both credibility and relevance vis-a-vis types, and how might one determine if they have the stature necessary to make decisions on representation that win the confidence of uninvolved end-users such that those end-users see their interests, by proxy, as having been sufficiently represented in the deliberations that might lead to any eventual policy guidance? who is benefitting from the construction of types in particular ways for particular transitions challenges, and who may be losing?
Summary
There is a growing body of scholarship explicitly focused on urban coproduction—of knowledge, values, and interventions—advising that relevant and lasting urban sustainability transitions are most effectively shaped by meaningfully engaging diverse stakeholders and end users (McCormick et al 2013; Muñoz-Erickson 2014; Patel et al 2015; Frantzeskaki and Kabisch 2016; Dunn et al 2017; ACERE 2018) This includes working with both technical and non-technical stakeholders from across research, policy, civil society, and industry communities, as well as members of the general urban public at large, in the process of grappling with diverse knowledge bases, visioning future scenarios, imagining and devising implementation pathways, and building the political will and capacity to pursue those pathways. We consider the CRELE attributes of coproduction processes to be conceptually linked to potentially achieving both increased “accountability,” understood as a reflection of a compact between science and society, and “impact,” due to reduced skepticism and greater likelihood of intervention uptake (van der Hel 2016)
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