TY - JOUR

T1 - Co-productive agility and four collaborative pathways to sustainability transformations

AU - Chambers, Josephine M.

AU - Wyborn, Carina

AU - Klenk, Nicole L.

AU - Ryan, Melanie

AU - Serban, Anca

AU - Bennett, Nathan J.

AU - Brennan, Ruth

AU - Charli-Joseph, Lakshmi

AU - Fernández-Giménez, María E.

AU - Galvin, Kathleen A.

AU - Goldstein, Bruce E.

AU - Haller, Tobias

AU - Hill, Rosemary

AU - Munera, Claudia

AU - Nel, Jeanne L.

AU - Österblom, Henrik

AU - Reid, Robin S.

AU - Riechers, Maraja

AU - Spierenburg, Marja

AU - Tengö, Maria

AU - Bennett, Elena

AU - Brandeis, Amos

AU - Chatterton, Paul

AU - Cockburn, Jessica J.

AU - Cvitanovic, Christopher

AU - Dumrongrojwatthana, Pongchai

AU - Paz Durán, América

AU - Gerber, Jean David

AU - Green, Jonathan M.H.

AU - Gruby, Rebecca

AU - Guerrero, Angela M.

AU - Horcea-Milcu, Andra Ioana

AU - Montana, Jasper

AU - Steyaert, Patrick

AU - Zaehringer, Julie G.

AU - Bednarek, Angela T.

AU - Curran, K.

AU - Fada, Salamatu J.

AU - Hutton, Jon

AU - Leimona, Beria

AU - Pickering, Tomas

AU - Rondeau, Renee

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s)

PY - 2022/1/1

Y1 - 2022/1/1

N2 - Co-production, the collaborative weaving of research and practice by diverse societal actors, is argued to play an important role in sustainability transformations. Yet, there is still poor understanding of how to navigate the tensions that emerge in these processes. Through analyzing 32 initiatives worldwide that co-produced knowledge and action to foster sustainable social-ecological relations, we conceptualize ‘co-productive agility’ as an emergent feature vital for turning tensions into transformations. Co-productive agility refers to the willingness and ability of diverse actors to iteratively engage in reflexive dialogues to grow shared ideas and actions that would not have been possible from the outset. It relies on embedding knowledge production within processes of change to constantly recognize, reposition, and navigate tensions and opportunities. Co-productive agility opens up multiple pathways to transformation through: (1) elevating marginalized agendas in ways that maintain their integrity and broaden struggles for justice; (2) questioning dominant agendas by engaging with power in ways that challenge assumptions, (3) navigating conflicting agendas to actively transform interlinked paradigms, practices, and structures; (4) exploring diverse agendas to foster learning and mutual respect for a plurality of perspectives. We explore six process considerations that vary by these four pathways and provide a framework to enable agility in sustainability transformations. We argue that research and practice spend too much time closing down debate over different agendas for change – thereby avoiding, suppressing, or polarizing tensions, and call for more efforts to facilitate better interactions among different agendas.

AB - Co-production, the collaborative weaving of research and practice by diverse societal actors, is argued to play an important role in sustainability transformations. Yet, there is still poor understanding of how to navigate the tensions that emerge in these processes. Through analyzing 32 initiatives worldwide that co-produced knowledge and action to foster sustainable social-ecological relations, we conceptualize ‘co-productive agility’ as an emergent feature vital for turning tensions into transformations. Co-productive agility refers to the willingness and ability of diverse actors to iteratively engage in reflexive dialogues to grow shared ideas and actions that would not have been possible from the outset. It relies on embedding knowledge production within processes of change to constantly recognize, reposition, and navigate tensions and opportunities. Co-productive agility opens up multiple pathways to transformation through: (1) elevating marginalized agendas in ways that maintain their integrity and broaden struggles for justice; (2) questioning dominant agendas by engaging with power in ways that challenge assumptions, (3) navigating conflicting agendas to actively transform interlinked paradigms, practices, and structures; (4) exploring diverse agendas to foster learning and mutual respect for a plurality of perspectives. We explore six process considerations that vary by these four pathways and provide a framework to enable agility in sustainability transformations. We argue that research and practice spend too much time closing down debate over different agendas for change – thereby avoiding, suppressing, or polarizing tensions, and call for more efforts to facilitate better interactions among different agendas.

KW - Co-production

KW - Impact

KW - Power relations

KW - Social-ecological relations

KW - Tensions

KW - Transformative processes

KW - Sustainability Governance

KW - Environmental Governance

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85121097919&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/5ebb297e-e115-329d-a3d2-e3d99294d0e5/

U2 - 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102422

DO - 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102422

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85121097919

VL - 72

JO - Global Environmental Change

JF - Global Environmental Change

SN - 0959-3780

M1 - 102422

ER -