Co-production in Action: Towards Realising Just Cities

Samlingsverk (redaktörskap), 2016

Some years ago, in several cities on different continents, groups of people started to organise themselves differently – beyond their institutional frameworks – to create knowledge about how cities possibly could evolve in the future using co-production approaches. They began to share their insights across continents, learning from each other what particular local contexts could offer. These knowledge-transferring group of people grew into the unique international collaboration that is Mistra Urban Futures. If you are interested in how urban change can work towards realising a more just society in a world as challenged and challenging as ours, the book Co-production in action: Towards realising just cities will take you one step in that direction. Its contributors share their stories of how they developed, and are constantly reworking, their methods for addressing the complexities of the urban environment. You will not be given the answers to what could be a sustainable solution to a specific urban problem, but it will take you into a discussion of how possibly to create new knowledge for difficult emerging urban challenges. In search of this new knowledge, it is more and more frequently said that complex urban issues need a transdisciplinary approach – in other words, bringing academic and other researchers and stakeholders together in joint teams to co-produce knowledge. However, this is a challenging way of doing research. Challenging for the collaborating institutions bound by traditional formal plans and work descriptions. Challenging for research agendas that are not able to address a multi-stakeholder approach, and above all, challenging for participants who need to step out of both institutional and individual comfort zones.