Dear ONErs,
This open access paper reviews 32 initiatives to infer insights about roles in sustainability co-production.
Paper available at
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378021002016Abstract
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 mul-
tiple 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
.
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Nicholas Poggioli
University of Michigan
ONE Communications Team
www.nicholaspoggioli.com------------------------------