Transdisciplinary Knowledge Co-Production for Sustainable Cities

How can we create new practices for research collaboration that mirror the complexities we are facing around the world, including the impacts of climate change, widening inequalities, decreasing biodiversity and untenable consumption levels? Transdisciplinary co-production aims to address this issue, by focusing on real-world problems through collaborative processes that include a wide variety of knowledge and expertise.

Transdisciplinary co-production brings together diverse actors from, for example, universities, citizen organizations, local authorities and official agencies. Together they reflect collectively on, and propose robust solutions to, often 'wicked' challenges involved in realizing sustainable development, especially in cities. But further practical guidance that supports academic researchers and other participants or funders when they seek knowledge on how to go about it is needed.

In addition, there is no ideal or universal method for how to cross-fertilise different worlds of knowing. In each case, the broad principles and methods need to be locally contextualised and tailored to fit each specific local context. This is methodologically challenging.

This book sets out to address these challenges, with practical examples of methods in action, underpinned by a reflexive approach to learning about limitations and opportunities for advancing urban sustainability. Based on extensive experience from research projects enabled under the umbrella of Mistra Urban Futures - an international centre for sustainable urban development, the authors identify how transdisciplinary co-production can generate usable knowledge for sustainable urban futures.