Six modes of co-production for sustainability

Abstract

o-production is a rapidly growing endeavour now widely applied in the fields of health, development, education, climate change, industrial production and sustainability [1][2][3][4][5][6] . It broadly seeks to connect researchers with diverse societal actors to collaboratively and iteratively produce knowledge, action and societal change 1 . The promise is compelling: developing solutions through legitimate processes that draw on diverse and credible expertise with, by and for those best placed to use them 5,7,8 . Sustainability

Limited Progress in Improving Gender and Geographic Representation in Coral Reef Science

“…The science community needs to address deeply embedded institutional and cultural issues and commit to increased intentional action and accountability to accelerate positive tangible change. Here, we make three broad recommendations for the science community to proactively address the issues identified in this paper: (1) foster increased geographic representation in authorship and increase representation of authors from countries in which research is undertaken (Chambers et al, 2021); (2) improve gender representation in research teams and leadership (Fox et al, 2018;Potvin et al, 2018); and (3) directly address historical and institutional harm, while cultivating a culture of equity, diversity, inclusion, and justice in research institutions through measurable and concrete actions (Kalev and Dobbin, 2016).…”

Exploring mechanisms for systemic thinking in decision-making through three country applications of SDG Synergies

“…Ownership, representation, and purpose are crucial for creating the conditions for participation, and ensuring that these elements are in place requires careful facilitation to bridge diverse perspectives (Chambers et al 2021). A key challenge lies in creating decision spaces that give voice to a broad range of actors, while ensuring that participation is also representative of society and aligned to the purpose of the process (Bennich et al 2020).…”

Three-Decades of Research Integration—Transforming to Collaborative Aquatic Food Systems Research Partnerships in the Pacific

“…Like other CGIAR centers across the world, WorldFish prioritizes commitment to national partner agencies, which is arguably why CGIAR research is recognized for its unique research mandate (Anon, 2020). The research programme approach continues to be guided by accepted wisdoms such as Chambers' (Chambers, 1983) request to "reverse" thinking in development, research and associated approaches, based on a key principle that the research process itself creates opportunities for change when done in collaboration (Cameron and Gibson, 2005;Cameron et al, 2014). Increasingly, the literature on scaling agricultural innovation frames the opportunity for impact through this way of working (e.g., Wigboldus and Leeuwis, 2013;Wigboldus et al, 2016;Shilomboleni and De Plaen, 2019).…”

“…The partnership spans over three decades and reflects post-colonial national development trajectories along with the disruptions, changes in priorities, and the societal change that the world has experienced over this time. Our analysis contributes an example to the emergent research topic of evaluating equitable research partnerships for development and its role for co-production for sustainable change (Price et al, 2020;Chambers et al, 2021). We discuss observed changes through the lens of power and capacity over priorities and embedded co-production for impact at scale.…”

“…For example, a recent analysis of 100,000 articles in agricultural and agronomic research found that only 2% of published research reported original and high-quality data about solutions for small-scale producers (Anon, 2020). The interweaved co-production of research and practice is increasingly understood to enable change, but it also relies on partnerships that often span diverse perspectives, values and identities (Glasbergen, 2011;Chambers et al, 2021). For example, models of scaling up innovations from small and local to large and many can be inhibited by inertia within various structures and institutions (Mayne and Stern, 2013;Steenbergen et al, 2021), which, in some cases, are set to compete rather than collaborate, inhibiting theorized impact pathways (Starr and Miers, 2020).…”