Co-productive agility and four collaborative pathways to sustainability transformations
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In: Global Environmental Change, Vol. 72, 102422, 01.01.2022.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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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 -