A model for co-production of knowledge: Creating a Research Forum

Collaborations based on academic–practitioner interactions are not always as straightforward as presented in commonplace transdisciplinary theory. This chapter provides the most important insights from past and ongoing work from a sustainability project that uses the ‘Research Forum’ (RF) as a new a means of co-producing transdisciplinary knowledge. The findings center on four of the most common modes of interaction encountered during our work with the RF: academics to practitioners (A > P); practitioners to academics (A < P); academics with practitioners (A >< P); and academics without practitioners (A | P). As such, the RF a method helps better grasp the complexity of transdisciplinary interaction using the principle of separation between the different forms of actor configurations that may arise. We conclude that the specificity of different forms of knowledge cannot me melted into an amorphous mass, elsewise co-production is likely to become a tokenistic effort of little applicatory utility. Put simply, we must constantly remain open to change but also stay protective of knowledge that works without reinvigoration.