Post by Dennis Fila

🧵 New paper on how transdisciplinary knowledge co-production shapes climate change adaptation research with local governments We often celebrate transdisciplinary knowledge co-production in climate change adaptation research as something inherently positive. But how do different forms of co-production processes actually shape collaboration, knowledge production, and what can be acted on in practice? 📄 In our new paper in Environmental Science & Policy, we reflect on the 3.5-year LoKlim project on local climate change adaptation in southwest Germany, carried out together with three municipalities and three districts. 🔹 Together, we (alongside with Nils Riach, Hartmut Fünfgeld and Rüdiger Glaser) examine how two different co-production modes shaped collaboration, knowledge production, and authority within the same project: one centred on producing usable adaptation knowledge for practice, the other on designing and facilitating adaptation planning processes. 🔍 A key message is that different forms of co-production do not just lead to different outputs. They also shape who gets to define problems, what counts as credible knowledge, how authority is distributed, and how much space remains for reflexivity and contestation. ✅ Output-oriented co-production can generate highly relevant and usable products for adaptation practice. But it can also stabilise scientific authority, narrow problem framings, and reduce space for disagreement. 🔄 Process-oriented co-production can make institutional routines, hidden constraints, and power relations more visible. But it is also slower, messier, and harder to sustain in projects expected to deliver concrete results. 💡 One implication from the paper is that transdisciplinary co-production processes for adaptation with local governments should be designed more consciously: not only around the outputs it is meant to deliver, but also around how it shapes roles, authority, and the space for reflection and disagreement. 🎓 This paper marks the final published piece of my recently completed PhD as well as the last output from our LoKlim research project. We’re sharing a few of the project outputs in the comments. Our sincere thanks to the three anonymous reviewers, former project staff (especially Stefanie Lorenz), participating local governments, and research partners whose collaboration was essential to the wider project context. #climatechange #adaptation #transdisciplinary #localgovernment #climategovernance #loklim #coproduction https://lnkd.in/gQGjQ2ni