Co-Producing Sustainability: Reordering the Governance of Science, Policy, and Practice

TLDR

Co‑production is a cornerstone of sustainability science, driving collaborations among diverse actors to produce research that supports societal and policy change. This review seeks to advance co‑production theory and practice by arguing that it must move beyond stakeholder engagement to deliberately design societal transitions, and by proposing deeper engagement with public administration and STS to enhance reflexive co‑production. The authors review literature and suggest that co‑production can foster societal transitions by reshaping institutional arrangements among knowledge, power, science, society, and the state, and by integrating public administration and STS perspectives. They identify key weaknesses in current co‑production conceptualizations regarding power, politics, and governance.

Abstract

Co-production has become a cornerstone of research within the sustainability sciences, motivating collaborations of diverse actors to conduct research in the service of societal and policy change. This review examines theoretical and empirical literature from sustainability science, public administration, and science and technology studies (STS) with the intention of advancing the theory and practice of co-production within sustainability science. We argue that co-production must go beyond stakeholder engagement by scientists to the more deliberate design of societal transitions. Co-production can contribute to such transitions by shifting the institutional arrangements that govern relationships between knowledge and power, science and society, and state and citizens. We highlight critical weaknesses in conceptualizations of co-production within sustainability sciences with respect to power, politics, and governance. We offer suggestions for how this can be rectified through deeper engagement with public administration and STS to offer a broad vision for enhancing the use, design, and practice of a more reflexive co-production in sustainability science.