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Contents

Chapter 5: Process Attributes

Knowledge Co-production

Knowledge Co-production

At its most general, knowledge co-production refers to creating purposefully designed facilitation opportunities to ensure the development of group knowledge that is ultimately larger than the sum of its parts – in essence providing opportunities for new ideas and insights to emerge from all members through discussion and exploration in a collaborative learning environment that informs group decision making.

From a more specific, operational perspective, knowledge co-production relates to the integration of scientific and technical knowledge with practical, local, traditional, or other ways of understanding and types of knowledge (Eden et al. 2016) to improve the scientific and group basis of decision-making (Wyborn et al. 2019)—a critical process for improving management of complex environmental problems. In engaged settings, this involves creating robust opportunities for participants to collectively draw from multiple sources of knowledge.

Collecting Ideas in the Water 4 Ag Project

In one of our Pennsylvania sites the World Café’ exercises were the first comprehensive opportunity to get a wide range of ideas – scientific, local, regulatory, and programmatic on the table. This led to a wide-ranging discussion ultimately building a consensus around the group’s key objectives and goals. (You can find a description of the World Café process in the Resources section of this chapter. LINK)

Knowledge Co-production in Potter-Tioga

The way knowledge co-production emerged, and was purposefully facilitated, in our Potter-Tioga site provides a good example of this process. An agricultural business shared its nitrogen decision tool, a local farmer brought in another farmer to talk about no-till and planting green, the conservation districts presented on all their most current surface water quality data and quantity, a university researcher presented surface and subsurface water quality and quantity data, and a local landowner shared historic flooding documents and local news on a regular basis. Following in-depth discussions, this information was incorporated into the group’s collective understanding of the issues before them ultimately culminating in a robust leadership team-driven surface water sampling project.

Creating an environment in which knowledge co-production emerges requires an intentional effort to foster collaborative learning, managing power imbalances, and creating an environment in which all types of knowledge and ways of understanding are surfaced and respected. There are a wide range of tools and strategies available to help you ensure this is an integral aspect of your engagement process design. (See Chapter 7 for more detail). 

Tools & worksheets

Additional resources

Stakeholder Engagement Process Attributes

This slide deck addresses the following questions related to stakeholder engagement process attributes: (1) What are they? (2) Where do they come from? and (3) Why are they important?

The World Café: Overview slides by WorkshopBank

“The World Café is a 20 year old workshop activity for engaging your participants in conversations that matter. It draws on 7 design principles to create a simple, effective and flexible format for hosting large group discussions for between 12 to 200 participants.”

The Role and Importance of Boundary Spanners – Fact Sheet

Describes the role played by “boundary spanners” – individuals who manage complexity and interdependencies and seek to establish new alliances, collaboratively develop innovative solutions, and encourage the transfer and translation of information – in engagement processes.