A Spectrum of Collaboration: From Co-operation to Co-production

• In Event: TRANS-disciplinary Research Through STS Practice

Abstract

This paper reports on the early stages of a collaborative research programme originally entitled 'Learning Space: Inner City Christchurch - New Zealand’s Largest Urban Redevelopment Project' carried out as part of New Zealand’s National Science Challenge Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities. Our early aim was to identify and detail innovative projects and programmes that, although undertaken as part of Canterbury’s earthquake recovery, were transferrable to other non-disaster contexts. Importantly however, in our attempt to collaborate with each other as well as our research participants and potential end-users of our research over the last 12 months, the aims and objectives have shifted significantly.
Here we detail our research journey where the destination has been negotiated and, in so doing, present some preliminary ideas around a spectrum of collaborative research that ranges from co-operation to co-design through co-creation to co-production. We then outline key challenges associated with various points along this spectrum. These include – but are by no means limited to - issues around funding cycles and timelines, our participants’ own needs for information and knowledge, and epistemic differences between disciplined analytical enquiry that emphasise theory and the expertise of practitioners concerned with applications and implications. These challenges then lead us to questions about ‘transdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration to create meaningful change’ where we ask ‘meaningful for whom’? We suggest that this spectrum illustrates not just different challenges but also various opportunities to develop an infrastructure that better connects practitioners and researchers.

Authors

• Suzanne Vallance, Lincoln University

• Andreas Wesener, Lincoln University

• David Conradson, University of Canterbury

• Sarah Edwards, Lincoln University

• Hirini Matunga, Lincoln University