Co-production in action: perceiving power in the organisational dimensions of a global biodiversity expert process

Opening up knowledge–action systems to a wider range of disciplinary and societal actors is considered to be a necessary step in achieving transformative change for sustainability. In science for sustainability, there is a growing body of experience and literature of putting this ‘co-production’ int...

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Main Author: Montana, J
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Springer 2019
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author Montana, J
author_facet Montana, J
author_sort Montana, J
collection OXFORD
description Opening up knowledge–action systems to a wider range of disciplinary and societal actors is considered to be a necessary step in achieving transformative change for sustainability. In science for sustainability, there is a growing body of experience and literature of putting this ‘co-production’ into action. However, there is an opportunity to strengthen the application of analytical resources for more explicitly recognising and accounting for the power relations embedded in these initiatives. This paper deploys social theory from science and technology studies to develop an approach to perceive power relations between the participants, processes and products of co-production. This necessitates paying attention to the multiple and distributed organisational spaces where co-production takes place to discern: who participates; who (and what) is represented; how deliberations are structured; and how outcomes are circulated. This paper shows that these organisational dimensions of participation, representation, deliberation, and circulation not only give structure to co-productive forums, but can also define the power relations between their participants, processes and products. The paper then illustrates the applicability of this approach using the case of a current global expert process for biodiversity: The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). This case study offers insights on the challenges and opportunities for designing and evaluating co-production initiatives for sustainability.
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spelling oxford-uuid:a9c446a6-f08d-452f-bbd1-5a2b7ab605a62022-03-27T03:10:40ZCo-production in action: perceiving power in the organisational dimensions of a global biodiversity expert processJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:a9c446a6-f08d-452f-bbd1-5a2b7ab605a6EnglishSymplectic ElementsSpringer2019Montana, JOpening up knowledge–action systems to a wider range of disciplinary and societal actors is considered to be a necessary step in achieving transformative change for sustainability. In science for sustainability, there is a growing body of experience and literature of putting this ‘co-production’ into action. However, there is an opportunity to strengthen the application of analytical resources for more explicitly recognising and accounting for the power relations embedded in these initiatives. This paper deploys social theory from science and technology studies to develop an approach to perceive power relations between the participants, processes and products of co-production. This necessitates paying attention to the multiple and distributed organisational spaces where co-production takes place to discern: who participates; who (and what) is represented; how deliberations are structured; and how outcomes are circulated. This paper shows that these organisational dimensions of participation, representation, deliberation, and circulation not only give structure to co-productive forums, but can also define the power relations between their participants, processes and products. The paper then illustrates the applicability of this approach using the case of a current global expert process for biodiversity: The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). This case study offers insights on the challenges and opportunities for designing and evaluating co-production initiatives for sustainability.
spellingShingle Montana, J
Co-production in action: perceiving power in the organisational dimensions of a global biodiversity expert process
title Co-production in action: perceiving power in the organisational dimensions of a global biodiversity expert process
title_full Co-production in action: perceiving power in the organisational dimensions of a global biodiversity expert process
title_fullStr Co-production in action: perceiving power in the organisational dimensions of a global biodiversity expert process
title_full_unstemmed Co-production in action: perceiving power in the organisational dimensions of a global biodiversity expert process
title_short Co-production in action: perceiving power in the organisational dimensions of a global biodiversity expert process
title_sort co production in action perceiving power in the organisational dimensions of a global biodiversity expert process
work_keys_str_mv AT montanaj coproductioninactionperceivingpowerintheorganisationaldimensionsofaglobalbiodiversityexpertprocess