Co-production Of Knowledge Research Articles

Seven core competencies and conditions for equitable partnerships and power sharing in community-based participatory research

Equitable health research requires actively engaging communities in producing new knowledge to advocate for their health needs. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) relies on the coproduction of contextual and grounded knowledge between researchers, programme implementers and community partners with the aim of catalysing action for change. Improving coproduction competencies can support research quality and validity. Yet, frameworks and guidance highlighting the ideal competencies and conditions needed for all research partners to contribute meaningfully and equitably are lacking. This paper aims to advance CBPR by laying out seven core competencies and conditions that can promote power sharing in knowledge production, application and dissemination at the individual, community, organisational and systems levels.Competencies were developed through an iterative process, that synthesised pre-existing literature and frameworks with a wide range of tacit knowledge from researchers, activists, implementation partners and community researchers from Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Sierra Leone and the UK.The seven core competencies and conditions are: (1) capacity to interpret and respond to individual and relational identity, connection, uniqueness and inequities; (2) ability of communities and partners to work in the most suitable, inclusive and synergistic way; (3) aptitude for generating safe and inclusive spaces for multidirectional knowledge and skills exchange that goes beyond the research focus; (4) expertise in democratic leadership and/or facilitation to balance competing priorities and ensure shared decision-making; (5) capacity to analyse readiness for action, successes and areas for improvements throughout the research process; (6) ability to instigate sustainable change processes within the political dimensions of systems, policies and practices using advocacy, lobbying or activism approaches and (7) skills to interpret and disseminate findings and outputs that are understandable, respectful and promote community ownership. We present core competency and condition areas, individual and collective expertise associated with competencies, likely outcomes, examples of activities and sources of evidence.

Advancing transdisciplinarity as an epistemology for more ethical engagements with fishing communities

Abstract Celebrated as one of the necessary solutions to more sustainable ocean governance by the UN Ocean Decade for Sustainable Development, transdisciplinarity, co-design, co-production, and co-creation of knowledge continue to be praised by a variety of scholars for their opportunities for impactful and socially significant research. However, despite increased recognition as necessary to respond to complex sustainability challenges, including transformative ocean governance, there are sustained differences in how people and scholars define and conceptualize transdisciplinarity and how people operationalize and apply transdisciplinary research. This perspective is not about what transdisciplinary research entails but is rather asking whether transdisciplinary research is always the appropriate approach. Without a clear understanding of what ethical and equitable transdisciplinarity entails, how do we ensure this does not negatively impact non-academic collaborators such as fishing communities? How do we make sure transdisciplinarity does not become yet another extractive research practice? The paper discusses the difference between partial and comprehensive transdisciplinarity, addresses coloniality of co-design, and reflects on who we cite and why as researchers. Finally, the paper considers how we can advance transdisciplinarity as an epistemology for more ethical engagements with fishing communities and invite fellow marine researchers to ask critical questions.

Towards a Politics of Transgression in Environmental Education Research: Meta-review of a T-Learning Research ‘Archive’

Abstract The need for more radical forms of learning-centred transformation is increasingly recognised in transformations to sustainability. Yet these approaches to learning remain under-developed and undertheorised especially from a politics and environmental education research perspective. This paper offers a review of an emerging politics of transgression in environmental education research, as developed through an extensive T-learning (transgressive learning in times of climate change) knowledge co-production research programme, spanning eight years, and continuing. The ongoing problem that the research programme seeks to address is how to do transgressive learning in/as environmental education research in times where the fall out of coloniality and fossil capital collide in an increasingly regressive political landscape which Akomolafe and Ladha (2017, pg. 820) describe as “the deadening ideology of late-stage capitalism and its corollaries of patriarchy, rationalism, white supremacy and anthropocentrism.” Through the paper, I seek to highlight a “low theory” (Wark, 2021) of transgressive politics in environmental education research, embodied in practices of transgressive politics as movement in co-engaged T-learning research, which I illuminate through a meta-reflective curational process from the ‘archive’ or T-learning knowledge commons collection.

The LTAR Croplands Common Experiment at Upper Mississippi River Basin-Ames.

Agricultural systems evolve from the interactions of climate, crops, soils, management practices (e.g., tillage, cover crops, nutrient management), and economic risks and rewards. Alternatives to the corn (Zea mays L.)-soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] (C-S) cropping systems that dominate in the US Midwest may provide more sustainable use of resources, reduce the documented environmental impacts of current C-S systems, and improve production efficiency and ecosystem services. Innovative management practices are needed to offer producers options to increase farm resilience to variable weather conditions and offset negative environmental impacts. In response to this need, the Upper Mississippi River Basin Long-Term Agroecosystem Research network site at Ames, IA, established a cropland experiment in 2016 to investigate an alternative crop management system that includes reduced tillage, cover crops, and right source, right rate, right time, and right place (4R) nitrogen (N) management. The experimental site is located on the Iowa State University Kelley Research Farm in Boone County, IA. Crop, soil, air, and tile drainage water measurements are made throughout the year using published methods for each agronomic and environmental metric. Our goal is to provide quantitative information to farmers, consultants, agribusiness partners, and state and federal agencies to help guide decisions on the effective use of alternative management practices. Future changes in experimental treatments will adopt a knowledge co-production approach whereby researchers and stakeholders will work collaboratively to identify problems, implement research protocols, and interpret results.

Participatory topological mapping: A novel approach for exploring and communicating situated knowledge of complex socio-ecological systems

Land use change impacts on Sámi reindeer husbandry are well-documented, but existing maps often fail to capture socio-ecological relationships between herders, reindeer and nature. Conventional Geographic Information Systems (GIS) simplify these relationships, lacking local context and excluding valuable knowledge due to their rigid structure. This paper introduces participatory topological mapping, a low-tech, knowledge co-production method that allows communities to share geospatial insights without advanced software. Combining hand-drawn maps with a standardised topological structure facilitates the visualisation of geographical relationships and dynamic land use systems from a local perspective. Developed and assessed through a Swedish case study in collaboration with Vittangi and Malå reindeer herding communities, the method aims to reduce barriers to knowledge exchange and enhance dialogue between Indigenous knowledge-holders, researchers and decision-makers. The paper discusses the authors’ experiences with participatory topological mapping, emphasising its potential and limitations for knowledge exchange. The method is advocated for broader use, recognising its value in articulating concerns about land use change beyond research settings and reindeer husbandry. Participatory topological mapping enables knowledge-holders to control the map and its narrative, deciding what is included or excluded. The maps and accompanying stories are valuable sources for documenting, sharing and analysing local perspectives on landscapes and the effects of land use change. The method treats mapping as a social process with the potential to affect how we understanding the world. When thoughtfully applied, it offers a valuable avenue for knowledge co-production, fostering deeper engagement, supporting informed decision-making and empowering communities.

Patient engagement in drug development: dialogically problematizing participation

ABSTRACT For many years, the field of drug development remained insulated from patient engagement initiatives that became commonplace in healthcare, it is currently experiencing a participatory turn. This has been informed by a re-evaluation of the patients' insights and of the roles they can play in drug development, with both democratising and technocratic arguments invoked in support of their more substantial engagement. This article problematises the democratising potential of drug development through a knowledge co-production process between the authors of this paper - two scholars and two practitioners in this field. It scrutinises what patients can participate in drug development by zooming in on the Patient Expert Training provided by EUPATI, arguably the most influential and reputable patient education provider in Europe currently. Through their dialogue, the authors highlight the considerable epistemic requirements placed upon patients and warn about the risk of the emergence of participatory practices that rely exclusively on a narrow patient elite. They also reflect upon the benefits and challenges of close collaborations between researchers and practitioners and call for the systemic transformations needed for such knowledge co-production initiatives to become commonplace in academia.

Redefining Science for Sustainable Development the Nexus of Endogenous Knowledge Systems and Scientific Paradigms

This article explores the integration of Western scientific paradigms and endogenous knowledge systems as a pathway to more inclusive and sustainable development. While Western science, rooted in positivism and empiricism, has driven technological progress, it often overlooks the socio-cultural and ecological contexts specific to local communities, particularly in the Global South. Endogenous knowledge, with its holistic and relational approaches, provides valuable insights for sustainable development. Through a theoretical and conceptual analysis, this paper advocates for epistemological pluralism, which fosters the co-production of knowledge across disciplines and cultures. The study also examines the decolonisation of science, addressing the historical marginalisation of indigenous knowledge and proposing institutional reforms that validate these systems in mainstream development practices. It highlights the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and participatory research to ensure local communities play an active role in shaping sustainable development strategies. The findings emphasise the need for policy shifts, interdisciplinary research, and institutional changes to ensure equitable inclusion of indigenous knowledge in global sustainability agendas, offering a more culturally sensitive and resilient approach to development.

Geodesign to advance boundary work in urban planning: A study in Stockholm focused on nature-based solutions.

Geodesign supports collaborative urban planning by managing 'boundaries' between diverse knowledge holders. However, there is a paucity of empirical evidence of its contribution to 'boundary work'. This paper aims to evaluate how a geodesign process facilitates knowledge co-production through boundary work and to assess the scientific credibility, politicalsaliency, and procedural legitimacy of its outputs in urban planning. We propose a replicable geodesign framework to assess boundary work, and test it in a case study on urban transformations with nature-based solutions in the Skarpnäck district of Stockholm, Sweden. Findings indicate that all geodesign steps facilitated communication by promoting collective reasoning. Participants acknowledged contributions to knowledge co-production and decision-making by mediating between different perspectives. However, data quality and modeling simplicity were identified as critical factors affecting the outputs' perceived credibility. Future applications should include co-designing the geodesign process, improving capacity and skills, and facilitating more integrated planning.

Methods and approach to the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural Alaska Arctic Salmon Workshop: critical self-reflections from fisheries scientists

Redistribution and shifting habitat envelopes are impacting organisms across many taxa, which in turn are impacting Indigenous ways of life. In Arctic Alaska, Pacific salmon are known to have occurred for at least a century, but in recent years appear to be increasingly common. With the goal of holistically understanding and describing these changes in a way that equitably considers Indigenous, local, and western knowledge, we share our experience and methodologies in facilitating the Arctic Alaska Salmon Workshop. We share our perspective, approach, and methods as fisheries natural scientists convening this workshop, which included community-based knowledge holders from the Iñupiat communities of Kotzebue, Point Hope, Utqiaġvik, and Kaktovik, and western scientists and researchers from universities, fishery management agencies, and local community government. After briefly discussing some of the workshop highlights, we conclude with four key takeaways: 1) that the process of co-production of knowledge is an ideal towards which we must strive, but acknowledge we may rarely, if ever, fully achieve, 2) pursuit of the ‘good science’ should guide our work, 3) examination and assessment of assumptions should occur early and often, and 4) Anglanikina! Make sure you have a good time, (Yup’ik).

When words fail us: An integrative review of innovative elicitation techniques for qualitative interviews.

Interviews are central to many qualitative studies in health professions education (HPE). However, researchers often struggle to elicit rich data and engage diverse participants who may find this strategy exclusionary. Elicitation techniques are strategies tailored to address these challenges, enhancing oral conversations through other forms of interaction-for example, participant photography and neighbourhood walks. These strategies are tailored to elicit the rich data needed to address complex problems and meaningfully engage participants. Unfortunately, guidance on these techniques is scattered across literatures from diverse fields. In this synthesis, we offer an overview of the elicitation techniques available and advice about how to choose between them. We conducted an integrative review, drawing on methodological literature from across the health and social sciences. Our interdisciplinary searches yielded 3056 citations. We included 293 citations that were methodologically focused and discussed elicitation techniques used in interviews with adults. We then extracted specific elicitation techniques, summarising each technique to capture key features, as well as strengths and weaknesses. From this, we developed a framework to help researchers identify challenges in their interview-based research and to select elicitation techniques that address their challenges. To enrich data, researchers might seek to shift conversations away from participants' entrenched narratives, to externalise conversations on sensitive topics, or to elicit affect, tacit knowledge or contextual details. When empowering participants, researchers might seek to increase equity between the researcher and participant or foster interview accessibility across diverse participant populations. When chosen with study goals in mind, elicitation techniques can enrich interview data. To harness this potential, we need to re-conceptualise interviews as co-production of knowledge by researcher(s) and participant(s). To make interviews more equitable and accessible, we need to consider flexibility so that each participant can engage in ways that best suit their needs and preferences.

Introduction: participatory knowledge co-production

ABSTRACT This special Forum presents three articles that demonstrate efforts at participatory knowledge co-production. The three experiences were successful in the modest sense that they provided meaningful agency for participants and their knowledge roles, though in different ways. All three articles comment on the participatory turn that emphasizes an increasing role in public participation in scientific and policy data knowledge production and acknowledge that participation can have diverse meanings, contingent on the interests of the groups involved. This can mean a performative participation with coercive means to achieve particular goals with the participants or the groups that they represent; alternatively, participation can mean liberatory approaches that are designed to remove oppressive structures from disenfranchised populations and shift power to them. The cases here add nuance to critiques of power. Two cases demonstrate how participants are molded to conform to institutional power structures, though at least some participants find that shift (and recognition of their contribution) legitimizing and desirable. While each considers the relevance of participation for democracy, they highlight differences in values related to democracy, as regards whether participation is the endpoint value in democracy, or else whether democracy is a larger process towards redistributing power towards achieving equity and justice.

Factors influencing adoption of agro-ecological pest management options for mango fruit fly under information constraints: a two-part fractional regression approach

The catalytic effect of climate change on the emergence and prevalence of invasive alien pests along with weak pesticide regulatory frameworks in developing countries calls for a transition towards sustainable pest management. Agro-ecological pest management (APM) offers a nature-based, cost-effective alternative for addressing systemic pest challenges, such as mango fruit fly invasion. We applied a two-part fractional regression to sequentially model APM adoption and intensity decisions among 423 smallholder mango orchard managers from Makueni County, Kenya. Despite APM’s potential, we observed moderate adoption rates (56.7%), with the average adopter implementing only 25% of the APM practices concurrently. Farmers’ socio-psychological attributes significantly influenced both adoption and intensity decisions. While perceptions of technology attributes and institutional and social factors primarily influenced both the adoption and intensity decisions, information constraints, resource endowment, gender and inter-generational factors significantly influenced only the intensity decision. To support the transition from synthetic insecticides to APM measures, policymakers should create more opportunities for awareness creation, training and knowledge co-creation and co-production, particularly through social networks and gender-disaggregated participatory group approaches.

Knowledge co-production for identifying indicators and prioritising solutions for food and land system sustainability in Australia

Achieving sustainable Australian food and land systems requires the rapid implementation and scaling up of a broad suite of solutions to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Decision-making frameworks are needed to identify suitable indicators and prioritise solutions at national scales to inform sustainability transitions. Using a knowledge co-production framework, we convened 150 stakeholders from 100 + organisations to identify 18 nationally relevant indicators that aligned with critical SDGs describing a sustainable food and land system for Australia, in addition to 78 key solutions (supply- and demand-side) to enable progress against these indicators. We then asked subject matter experts to code the impact of each solution on each indicator using an adapted interaction mapping method accounting for uncertainty. The solution category ‘Protecting and restoring nature’, which included solutions targeting conservation and restoration, showed the highest potential for capturing synergies and avoiding trade-offs across multiple indicators. This category exhibited 34.6% of total major synergies, supporting the achievement of clean water and sanitation (SDG6), economic growth (SDG12), life under water (SDG14), and life on land (SDG15). The solution category ‘Carbon sequestration’, which included technological and biological carbon dioxide removal solutions, had the highest number of trade-offs with individual sustainability indicators (42.3%), particularly those relating to zero hunger (SDG2), wellbeing (SDG3), SDG6, SDG14, and SDG15. Our framework can be used to inform future research investment, support the prioritisation of solutions for quantitative modelling, and inform discussions with stakeholders and policymakers for transforming national-scale food and land systems in alignment with the SDGs.

Committing to diversity in participants, participation and knowledge production: place-based insights from the community science of Soilsafe Aotearoa

Researchers have an obligation to study aspects of our world that have meaning for society. This means recognising a place-based diversity of society, of potential participants, of types of participation and of knowledge production. Therefore, developing a successful community science (CS) programme that engenders a sense of ownership for a diversity of public participants requires the prioritisation of getting to know what diverse participants value and the context of that valuation. This paper describes the necessary rigour of considering the launch of the CS programme Soilsafe Aotearoa (SA) in 2021, and its subsequent implementation and evolution based on a project commitment to diversity of social values of soil in Aotearoa New Zealand (Aotearoa NZ), delivering on public demand. We discuss how SA engages with the community by scientific screening soil metal contaminants in participants’ backyards, as well as through inclusive education and knowledge co-production in schools and community spaces. The objective in this work is to generate wider participation and dialogue on a diversity of soil value(s) so that communities in Aotearoa NZ are cognisant of what soil might represent to others, and to contextualise what a lack of soil care might mean for them and society more broadly. Here we argue that a diversity of participants and participation can support a more inclusive and contextual, place-based CS approach. We illustrate how that might be achieved through bridging arts, Indigenous knowledge production, and social, as well as conventional sciences. Through an approach that recognises that values about the world are tied to participants’ geographic, demographic and cultural contexts as well as the sectors of society they work and live with, we demonstrate the importance of researchers’ attention to not just scientific enquiry, but intersections of different knowledge production and communication for better societal and science outcomes.

Whose knowledge counts? Power dynamics in the co-production of knowledge and innovation in agri-food systems

Whose knowledge counts? Power dynamics in the co-production of knowledge and innovation in agri-food systems

Exploring procedural justice in stakeholder identification using a systematic mapping approach

In the face of complex societal challenges, stakeholder participation/engagement and knowledge co-production have become increasingly important to the sustainability sciences. Why and how these stakeholders are identified frequently remains unclear, which raises concerns regarding rigor and procedural justice of research processes. Against this background, this paper seeks to contribute to a better understanding of how and why procedural justice issues materialize in stakeholder identification and assess the extent to which they can be addressed. We build on proposals for stakeholder identification in the academic literature that integrate three common approaches: analytical, sampling, and participant-based approaches. Further zooming into these approaches and related methods through a procedural justice lens, we show how the inclusion of stakeholders, the influence of stakeholders on the identification process, and the transparency of the overall identification process matter. We draw upon our own case study experiences to share the lessons learned, including the benefits of systematic mapping approaches for stakeholder identification. We conclude that stakeholder mapping facilitates accurate documenting of identification procedures and supports iterative refinement and adjustments of the stakeholders identified, whilst also creating reflexive potential to address intuitive and past experience-based practices, ultimately opening promising avenues to advance procedural justice in stakeholder identification.

A refugee history perspective

This article draws upon ongoing research in refugee history and specifically a close examination of confidential individual case files in the archives of the UNHCR to explore aspects of the cultural representation of refugees in different sites of population displacement in the modern world. Reflections by Roland Barthes and Abdulrazak Gurnah FBA provide the starting point to consider visual culture and cultural representation in efforts to assist refugees, such as the UN campaign for World Refugee Year in 1959–1960. No less significant have been the efforts by refugees themselves to make themselves heard in relation to the international refugee regime. The article ends with a plea for scholars and refugees to engage in the co-production of knowledge about population displacement and its consequences. (This article is published in the thematic collection `The arts and humanities: rethinking value for today—views from Fellows of the British Academy’, edited by Isobel Armstrong.)

User needs for coastal inundation at climate time scales: A multi‐sectoral case study in the coproduction of knowledge

AbstractCoastal regions are becoming increasingly vulnerable to flooding. Due to growing risk, there is a need for a variety of accessible flood inundation services and information to improve resilience and adaptation outcomes. To better understand these needs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office for Coastal Management and the Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services collaborated to host five virtual workshops during the COVID‐19 pandemic to understand inundation needs and deficits of five professional sectors: coastal planning, transportation and navigation, realty and insurance, health and human services, and natural resource and floodplain managers. This paper outlines the information collected from these workshops, shares recommendations for future research to improve equitable coastal resilience and highlights the value of remote engagement for knowledge coproduction. From the project results, we share cross‐cutting topics that emerged and propose a need for greater equity, inclusive engagement, interagency coordination and future research directions through scientist‐stakeholder coproduction workshops for improved coastal resilience.

Linking boundary organizations to co-produce actionable knowledge: A case study of ice forecasting for Great Lakes navigation

Abstract Navigating the Great Lakes during icy conditions poses significant safety challenges for the shipping sector. Available ice information is uncertain and fragmented, and navigators must seek out multiple sources for information at the spatial and temporal scales they require, if the information is available at all. Navigators have expressed that they require more highly localized and easily usable information for current and predicted ice conditions to support decision-making. In this study, we seek to meet this information need by applying a boundary organizations chain (BOC) approach to facilitate the co-production of an actionable short-term Great Lakes ice forecast. We focus on two main aspects of this research: 1) producing an actionable decision-support product that meets the needs of Great Lakes ice navigators, and 2) contributing to the knowledge co-production scholarship on BOCs by providing a detailed account of our methods to create a BOC and co-produce an actionable ice forecast. Our results support incorporating existing communities of practice (COPs) into BOCs to enhance the co-production of actionable knowledge, specifically through increasing their complementarity and embeddedness. COPs are informal networks of users that meet voluntarily to share knowledge and develop professional skills, which we found naturally builds the co-production capacities of participants (e.g. embeddedness and complementarity). We also find that COP members are well positioned to disseminate co-produced knowledge across wider user groups.

Territorialising knowledge-policy interfaces: Lessons from urban food governance spaces

There has been increased academic attention on enhancing the effectiveness of knowledge-policy interfaces at the international level for urgent food systems transformation. However, previous literature signals that actions to improve science, policy, and society relations occur at multiple scales and often through informal avenues. This paper examines the potential role of multi-actor urban food governance spaces in developing more inclusive and territorialised knowledge-policy interfaces; a subject rarely investigated in the literature. To do so, the study proposes a three-dimensional analytical framework that acknowledges their place-based and networked nature. This framework is applied in València and Barcelona, focusing on the knowledge practices within multi-actor urban food governance spaces and their interrelations with the politics of evidence-informed policymaking. The results illustrate that such spaces function as a form of informal knowledge-policy interfaces that promote local and multi-scalar collective learning and knowledge co-production. However, whether knowledge from such spaces becomes a key part of policymaking grapples with issues of limited administrative capacities, scarce data, and lack of political prioritisation of food in the municipal agenda. As such, there is a need for increased efforts to link global, national, and local processes to build on existing infrastructures at different scales, such as by developing translocal knowledge-policy interfaces. This study not only contributes to progress in the field of food. It also offers insights to enhance science-policy-society relations more broadly, illustrating the need to acknowledge the effectiveness of knowledge-policy interfaces as a function of the broader actings of contested place-based and governance dynamics.