Coproduction is not just a tool but a commitment to recognise the entangled nature of knowledge and society. We are committed to working with a wide range of partners, acknowledging that knowledge is not owned only by experts alone but emerges from collaborative, participatory engagement with diverse stakeholders.
Our coproduction work stems from the Global Systems Institute, at the University of Exeter which is a leading research center that focuses on finding solutions to global environmental and social challenges. Together, we work towards a more sustainable & equitable future for all.
3 Tales of Coproduction
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Coproduction Oracle
The Oracle of Coproduction is an initiative that fosters collaboration between researchers and communities to address complex societal challenges. Emerging from a collaboration between artist Hannah Mumby, and Ernesto at the Global Systems Institute, the Co-production Oracle invites users to rethink collaboration through a playful and interactive process. The deck of 30 cards provokes users to step outside prescriptive practices and engage in reflections on collaborations, projects and team dynamics, bringing to the forth discussions about power, inclusion, and complexities in research practices that co-production demands. By inviting researchers and communities to think and act together, this initiative fosters more inclusive and equitable approaches to addressing global environmental and social challenges, creating space for multiple voices to shape a sustainable and just future. The toolkit is designed to help navigate areas of stuck-ness in collaborative situations and can be accessed online on: https://gsi-oracle.research.exeter.ac.uk/
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Dark Arts of Coproduction
Co-production is a messy and uncomfortable process. The Dark Arts of Co-production pushes us to the uncomfortable terrain where all research practices become political. The dark arts perspective demands us to move beyond views that simply equate co-production to democratising research. Instead it reveal all the sticky business involved in tackling issues such as power imbalances, ownership & colonial legacies. It is a deeply idiosyncratic tool, that does not hide the values imbued in our research and world making practices. The Dark Arts of Coproduction provides a unique opportunity to explore the dark side of science and society.
The Never Ending Story
Co-production is a never ending story that transcends how we co-produce knowledge in structured projects to ongoing, everyday practices of doing research – whether through developing apps with communities or engaging in citizen led science. It challenges the lack of reflexivity often present in conventional co-production practices, where it is simply equated with democratic ideals or ethical obligations. The never ending story embraces a philosophy of co-production that refuses to ignore the messy politics and complexities of knowledge making practices.
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Coproduction
Ethnography as Drunken Fist Kung FU
Fire Technique
Deep Respect vs. Shallow Respect, cultivate confrontation- let the sparks fly!
The fire technique is grounded in the commitment that deep respect embraces confrontation as a form of engagement which can only be born out of intimacy and empathy. Fire does not arise from a cold, detached space. It emerges from the warmth of long-term engagement where intimacy and understanding allow to push back, question, and challenge. This technique is about questioning authority, it is a risky approach but one that recognises that avoiding confrontation under the guise of ‘respect’ can only maintain the status quo. Fire can happen because there is confrontational respect and candidness. It is difficult, because it challenges authority and things we take for granted. Let the sparks fly!
Air Technique
Cultivating radical Ignorance and breaking with research conventions.
Cultivating radical ignorance and breaking with research conventions.
Reimagining ethnography through the lens of Drunken Fist Kung Fu, the air technique embodies radical ignorance and a break from traditional research conventions. Air, symbolic of ubiquitous data, prompts researchers to question everything encountered. This approach thrives on unpredictability and serendipity, favouring a fluid, unstructured methodology that adapts dynamically to emerging field conditions. Intense snowballing and open-ended navigation through social and material contexts are key, embracing unknown unknowns and letting the field guide the process. Grounded in feminist methodologies, this technique allows for multiple truths, reflecting diverse realities and fostering a flexible research methodology. It asks:
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How are realities constructed and interpreted in a dynamic socio-material context?
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What are the implicit assumptions and taken-for-granted norms within a particular situation?
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How do unexpected events and serendipitous encounters shape the experiences and narratives of the field?
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In what ways do diverse perspectives and multiplicities of truth emerge within the field?
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How do researchers and participants co-construct knowledge through iterative and adaptive interactions?
Water Technique
Listening is the name of the game- let everything flow
The water technique in reimagined ethnographic methods emphasises active listening and allowing the research process to flow. Like water in a braided stream, this technique allows for fluid movement, pushing and pulling in response to emerging leads. It embraces diversions and split tributaries, allowing researcher and participants to co-create the research process. This technique embodies shape-shifting, adapting to multiple contexts and positionalities. It reflects the ability to pivot, moving away from certain established paths and returning with richer, deeper understanding, much like tributaries rejoining the main flow. The technique borrows from other methodologies, at times becoming solid and grounded like earth, and at other moments, moving freely like air. The refractions through ice and water is like how diverse perspectives and splintered narratives emerge, allowing for the simultaneous emergence of multiple layered truths. It asks:
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How does the flow of interactions shape the co-construction of realities?
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What assumptions become apparent when research navigates diverging paths?
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In what ways do the refracted perspectives on the field reveal layered realities?
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In what ways do diverse perspectives and multiplicities of truth emerge within the field?
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How do researchers and participants co-construct knowledge through fragmented interactions?
Earth Technique
Excavating the foundations of knowledge claims.
The earth technique in reimagined ethnography grounds inquiry in the bedrock of epistemology. This technique allows researchers to scratch at the foundations of knowledge, asking not just what people know, but how they know it, one that unearths the assumptions, practices, and material realities that give rise to knowledge claims. Here, the nuts and bolts of practice are explored, moving beyond abstract ideas to uncover the operational tools that make knowledge real, functional and valuable within a social world. Although the technique is non-confrontational, it doesn't shy away for asking disruptive questions, challenging assumptions and breaking open assumptions. It asks:
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What are the foundations that underpin knowledge claims?
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How does knowledge become operational, functional and valuable in specific social field?
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What material and practices contribute to the legitimacy of knowledge practices?
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What underlying assumptions and conventions sustain particular way of knowing?
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We explore climate change by engaging in active listening and conversation with those actors, landscapes and technologies that rarely appear in global policy reports or mass media as knowledge producers, and more commonly are portrayed as knowledge consumers.
By actively disrupting the monopoly of any one perspective, our practices can meaningfully address the environmental challenges we collectively face, in a way that is oriented in justice. Coproduction goes beyond simply putting yourself in another’s shoes or democratising knowledge production – it demands us to let alternative voices, experiences and even recalcitrant views to shape and transform our own practices of world making.
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