Co-production of knowledge in soils governance

Main Article Content

Katrin Prager
Annie McKee

Abstract

The co-production of knowledge between different actor groups has the potential to generate ‘more socially robust knowledge’ and better decisions, therefore improving governance processes. This paper explores knowledge co-production between different types of actors involved in soils governance in Scotland: policy makers, agency staff, scientists, local authorities, land managers and other stakeholders. In a setting characterised by network governance, we investigate knowledge co-production in three arenas that aimed to implement the Scottish Soil Framework and progress several activities such as a Soil Monitoring Action Plan and the Scotland’s Soils website. Adopting an action research, case study approach, we collected data through document analysis, observation, personal communication with policy actors involved, and semi-structured interviews with soil data users (local authorities, farmers, estate managers). The findings show different levels of interaction in the different arenas, ranging from major interaction and two-way communication to no interaction. The interaction levels indicate the extent to which knowledge exchange has taken place. Analysis highlights the divergence in problem framing between the actor groups, their diverse soil data needs and, therefore, a variation in perceptions of solutions. The combination of co-production in the different arenas enhanced policy actors’ knowledge and allowed them to reconsider policy implementation efforts. However, the delineation of knowledge types remains challenging since the same actor can hold different types of knowledge. We conclude that the concept of knowledge co-production is useful as a frame for developing polycentric, interactive and multi-party processes in soils governance, as well as to identify where interaction requires facilitation and/or improvement, but the concept does not provide a consistent theory.

Article Details

Section
Articles (PEER REVIEWED)
Author Biographies

Katrin Prager, James Hutton Institute

Senior social scientist with the Social Economic and Geographical Group

Annie McKee, James Hutton Institute

Social scientist

References

Bäckstrand, K, ‘Civic Science for Sustainability: Reframing the Role of Experts, Policy-Makers and Citizens in Environmental Governance’ (2004) 3 Global Environmental Politics 3, 24

Birner, R, and H Wittmer, ‘On the “Efficient Boundaries of the state”: The Contribution of Transaction-Costs Economics to the Analysis of Decentralization and Devolution in Natural Resource Management (2004) 22 Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 667

Black, H, P Bruneau and K Dobbie, Soil Monitoring Action Plan (2012)

Black, H, P Bruneau and K Dobbie, ‘Soil Monitoring Action Plan’ (Update 3 – Implementation, Briefing for CAMERAS Monitoring Coordination Group, The Soil Focus Group, Scottish Government, 25 March 2013)

Brugnach, M, and H Ingram, ‘Ambiguity: The Challenge of Knowing and Deciding Together’ (2012) 15 Environmental Science ans Policy 60

Carew, A, and F Wickson, ‘The TD Wheel: A Heuristic to Shape, Support and Evaluate Transdisciplinarity Research’ (2010) 42 Futures 1146

Corburn, J, ‘Community Knowledge in Environmental Health Science: Co-Producing Policy Expertise’ (2007) 10 Environmental Science and Policy 150

Dobbie, K E, P M C Bruneau, W Towers, The State of Scotland’s Soil (Natural Scotland, 2011)

Edelenbos, J, A van Buuren and N van Schie, ‘Co-Producing Knowledge: Joint Knowledge Production Between Experts, Bureaucrats and Stakeholders in Dutch Water Management Projects’ (2011) 14 Environmental Science and Policy 675

Eshuis, J, and M Stuiver, ‘Learning in Context Through Conflict and Alignment: Farmers and Scientists in Search of Sustainable Agriculture’ (2005) 22 Agriculture and Human Values 137

Habermas, J, The Theory of Communicative Action Volume 1: Reason and the Rationalization of Society (Heineman, London, 1981)

Hajer, M and H Wagenaar, ‘Deliberative Policy Analysis. Understanding Governance in the Network Society’ in R Goodin (ed), Theories of Institutional Design (University Press, Cambridge, 2003) 307

Halcrow Group Ltd, Scottish Soil Framework’s Strategic Environmental Assessment post-adoption Statement (2010) Scottish Government

Hegger, D, M Lamers, A Van Zeijl-Rozema and C Dieperink, ‘Conceptualising Joint Knowledge Production in Regional Climate Change Adaptation Projects: Success Conditions and Levers for Action’ (2012) 18 Environmental Science and Policy 52

Hickey, G M, P Forest, J L Sandall, B M Lalor and R J Keenan, ‘Managing the Environmental Science-Policy Nexus in Government: Perspectives from Public Servants in Canada and Australia’ (2013) 40 Science and Public Policy 529

Ingram, J, P Fry and A Mathieu, ‘Revealing Different Understandings of Soil Held by Scientists and Farmers in the Context of Soil Protection and Management’ (2010) 27 Land Use Policy 27, 51

Jasanoff, S, States of Knowledge: The Co-production of Science and Social Order (Routledge, 2004) doi:

Kindon, S, R Pain and M Kesby, ‘Participatory Action Research: Origins, Approaches and Methods’ in S Kindon, R Pain and M Kesby (eds), Participatory Action Research Approaches and Methods (Routledge, Oxon, 2007) 9

Latour, B, Pandora’s Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies (Harvard University Press, 1999)

Lowndes, V, and C Skelcher, ‘The Dynamics of Multi-Organisational Partnerships: An Analysis of Changing Styles of Governance’ (1998) 76 Public Administration

Maiello, A, C V Viegas, M D Frey and J L Ribeiro, ‘Public Managers as Catalysts of Knowledge Co-Production? Investigating Knowledge Dynamics in Local Environmental Policy’ (2013) 27 Environmental Science and Policy 141

Mauelshagen, C, and M Smith, F Schiller, D Denyer, S Rocks and S Pollard, ‘Effective Risk Governance for Environmental Policy Making: A Knowledge Management Perspective (2014) 41 Environmental Science and Policy 23

Mauser, W, G Klepper, M Rice, B S Schmalzbauer, H Hackmann, R Leemans and H Moore, ‘Transdisciplinary global change research: the co-creation of knowledge for sustainability’ (2013) 5 Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 420

Meuleman, L, ‘The Cultural Dimension of Metagovernance: Why Governance Doctrines May Fail’ (2010) 10 Public Organizational Review 49

Muñoz-Erickson, T A, ‘Co-Production of Knowledge-Action Systems in Urban Sustainable Governance: The KASA Approach (2014) 37 Environmental Science and Policy 182

Newig, J, and O Fritsch, ‘Environmental Governance: Participatory, Multi-Level and Effective?’ (2009) 19 Environmental Policy and Governance 197

Nowotny, H, P Scott and M Gibbons, Re-Thinking Science: Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty (Polity Press, Cambridge, 2001)

Nursey-Bray, M J, J Vince, M Scott, M Haward, K O’Toole, T Smith, N Harvey and B Clarke, ‘Science into policy? Discourse, Coastal Management and Knowledge’ (2014) 38 Environmental Science and Policy 107

Ostrom, E, Understanding Institutional Diversity (Princeton University Press, 2005)

Pahl-Wostl, C, L Lebel, C Knieper and E Nikitina, ‘From Applying Panaceas to Mastering Complexity: Toward Adaptive Water Governance in River Basins (2012) 23 Environmental Science and Policy, 24

Petts, J and C Brooks, Expert Conceptualization of the Role of Lay Knowledge in Environmental Decision Making: Challenges for Deliberative Democracy (2006) 38 Environment and Planning A 1045

Pohl, C, et al, ‘Researchers' Roles in Knowledge Co-Production: Experience from Sustainability Research in Kenya, Switzerland, Bolivia and Nepal’ (2010) 37 Science and Public Policy 267

Prager, K, J Prazan and I Penov, ‘Soil Conservation in Transition Countries: The Role of Institutions’ (2012) 22 Environmental Policy and Governance 55

Prager, K, J Schuler, K Helming, P Zander, T Ratinger and K Hagedorn, ‘Soil Degradation, Farming Practices, Institutions and Policy Responses: An Analytical Framework’ (2011) 22 Land Degradation & Development 32

Reed, M S, ‘Stakeholder Participation for Environmental Management: A Literature Review’ (2008) 141 Biological Conservation 2417

Rinaudo, J D and P Garin, ‘The Benefits of Combining Lay and Expert Input for Water-Management Planning at the Watershed Level’ (2005) 7 Water Policy 279

Roux, D J, k H Rogers, H C Biggs, P J Ashton and A Sergeant, ‘Bridging the Science - Management Divide: Moving from Unidirectional Knowledge Transfer to Knowledge Interfacing and Sharing’ (2006) 11 Ecology and Society

Roux, D J, R J Stirzaker, C M Breen, E C Lefroy and H P Cresswell, ‘Framework for Participative Reflection on the Accomplishment of Transdisciplinary Research Programs’ (2010) 13 Environmental Science and Policy 733

Scottish Government, The Scottish Soil Framework, Edinburgh (2009)

Scottish Government, The Scottish Soil Framework: Annex B: Soil Focus Group (February 2009)

Scottish Government, Scottish Soil Framework (SSF) Progress Report (2013a)

Scottish Government, Soil Policy Framework (2013b)

Scottish Natural Heritage, Soil and Earth Science Information Notes (SESIN) (2014)

SEPA, Improving Water Environments: Diffuse pollution

Spruijt, P, A B Knol, E Vasileiadou, J Devilee, E Lebret and A C Petersen, ‘Roles of scientists as policy advisers on complex issues: A literature review’ (2014) 40 Environmental Science & Policy 16

Watzlawick, P, J B Bavelas and D D Jackson, Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies and Paradoxes (Norton, 2011)

Weber, E P and A M Khademian, ‘Wicked Problems, Knowledge Challenges, and Collaborative Capacity Builders in Network Settings’ (2008) 68 Public Administration Review 334

Wehrens, R., ‘Beyond Two Communities – From Research Utilization and Knowledge Translation to Co-Production?’ (in press) Public Health

Yin, R K, Case Study Research. Design and Methods (Sage, 3rd ed, 2003)