Lorrae van Kerkhoff

Crafting usable knowledge for sustainable development

This paper distills core lessons about how researchers (scientists, engineers, planners, etc.) interested in promoting sustainable development can increase the likelihood of producing usable knowledge. We draw the lessons from both practical experience in diverse contexts around the world and from scholarly advances in understanding the relationships between science and society. Many of these lessons will be familiar to those with experience in crafting knowledge to support action for sustainable development. However, few are included in the formal training of researchers. As a result, when scientists and engineers first venture out of the laboratory or library with the goal of linking their knowledge with action, the outcome has often been ineffectiveness and disillusionment. We therefore articulate here a core set of lessons that we believe should become part of the basic training for researchers interested in crafting usable knowledge for sustainable development. These lessons entail at least four things researchers should know, and four things they should do. The knowing lessons involve understanding the coproduction relationships through which knowledge making and decision making shape one another in social–environmental systems. We highlight the lessons that emerge from examining those coproduction relationships through the ICAP lens, viewing them from the perspectives of Innovation systems, Complex systems, Adaptive systems, and Political systems. The doing lessons involve improving the capacity of the research community to put its understanding of coproduction into practice. We highlight steps through which researchers can help build capacities for stakeholder collaboration, social learning, knowledge governance, and researcher training.

Coproductive capacities: rethinking science-governance relations in a diverse world

Tackling major environmental change issues requires effective partnerships between science and governance, but relatively little work in this area has examined the diversity of settings from which such partnerships may, or may not, emerge. In this special feature we draw on experiences from around the world to demonstrate and investigate the consequences of diverse capacities and capabilities in bringing science and governance together. We propose the concept of coproductive capacities as a useful new lens through which to examine these relations. Coproductive capacity is “the combination of scientific resources and governance capability that shapes the extent to which a society, at various levels, can operationalize relationships between scientific and public, private, and civil society institutions and actors to effect scientifically-informed social change.” This recasts the relationships between science and society from notions of “gaps” to notions of interconnectedness and interplay (coproduction); alongside the societal foundations that shape what is or is not possible in that dynamic connection (capacities). The articles in this special feature apply this concept to reveal social, political, and institutional conditions that both support and inhibit high-quality environmental governance as global issues are tackled in particular places. Across these articles we suggest that five themes emerge as important to understanding coproductive capacity: history, experience, and perceptions; quality of relationships (especially in suboptimal settings); disjunct across scales; power, interests, and legitimacy; and alternative pathways for environmental governance. Taking a coproductive capacities perspective can help us identify which interventions may best enable scientifically informed, but locally sensitive approaches to environmental governance.

Developing integrative research for sustainability science through a complexity principles-based approach

The importance of taking an integrative approach to research has long been integral to sustainability science, and has recently been highlighted as fundamental to the co-design of research and co-production of knowledge. Just what this means, however, and how to implement such a broad notion has escaped effective methodological development. In order to become more than a generic descriptor, integrative research needs to be conceptualized and presented in ways that offer guidance to researchers designing and conducting integrative research projects, whilst remaining broad enough to be relevant to the breadth and depth of sustainability-related problems. Drawing on complexity theory and fundamental aspects of integrative research, I present a methodological framing that seeks to achieve this balance. Using a definition of integrative research as “research in the context of complexity, with an action imperative”, I draw from complexity theory that proposes minimal specifications, generative relationships, focusing on enablers and seeking diversity as core features of a complexity-based approach. On that basis I propose four principles that can be used by researchers to guide the design and implementation of their projects: embrace uncertainty; engage stakeholders; be transdisciplinary; and have a learning orientation. Each of these principles is explained, and their relationships to research design, methodological framing, choice of methods and project development are presented. Two integrative research project frameworks are presented as examples of how this principles-based approach can be implemented in research design. Using this approach offers a simple but powerful structure to guide integrative research for sustainability science at the project scale.

Comparative assessment of transport risks: how it can contribute to health impact assessment of transport policies

Health impact assessment (HIA) and comparative risk assessment (CRA) are important tools with which governments and communities can compare and integrate different sources of information about various health impacts into a single framework for policy-makers and planners. Both tools have strengths that may be combined usefully when conducting comprehensive assessments of decisions that affect complex health issues, such as the health risks and impacts of transport policy and planning activities. As yet, however, HIA and CRA have not been applied widely to the area of transport. We draw on the limited experience of the application of these tools in the context of road transport to explore how comparative assessment of transport risks can contribute to HIA of transport policies.

The role of innovative global institutions in linking knowledge and action

It is becoming increasingly recognized that our collective ability to tackle complex problems will require the development of new, adaptive, and innovative institutional arrangements that can deal with rapidly changing knowledge and have effective learning capabilities. In this paper, we applied a knowledge-systems perspective to examine how institutional innovations can affect the generation, sharing, and application of scientific and technical knowledge. We report on a case study that examined the effects that one large innovative organization, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, is having on the knowledge dimensions of decision-making in global health. The case study shows that the organization created demand for new knowledge from a range of actors, but it did not incorporate strategies for meeting this demand into their own rules, incentives, or procedures. This made it difficult for some applicants to meet the organizations dual aims of scientific soundness and national ownership of projects. It also highlighted that scientific knowledge needed to be integrated with managerial and situational knowledge for success. More generally, the study illustrates that institutional change targeting implementation can also significantly affect the dynamics of knowledge creation (learning), access, distribution, and use. Recognizing how action-oriented institutions can affect these dynamics across their knowledge system can help institutional designers build more efficient and effective institutions for sustainable development.

DESIGNING THE GREEN CLIMATE FUND: HOW TO SPEND

Confronting and responding to climate change is one of the foremost issues of our time, with the burden of response spread unequally around the globe. In general, climate impacts are hitting, and will continue to hit, both developed and developing worlds. However, developing and less developed countries will be affected more quickly and emphatically than the industrialized world. Although it is widely acknowledged and provisioned under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that industrialized countries must assume a large share of the global emission reduction target, adapting to the existing and future consequences of climate change will be a greater challenge for developing countries. In recognition of this, in 2009 developed countries proposed a fund of up to US

100 BILLION SENSIBLY

100 billion per year to help developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change. This How to Spend

Future oriented conservation: knowledge governance, uncertainty and learning

100 Billion Sensibly

Understanding citizen perceptions of the Eastern Hills of Bogota: a participatory place-based ecosystem service assessment

Despite significant progress in understanding climate risks, adaptation efforts in biodiversity conservation remain limited. Adaptation requires addressing immediate conservation threats while also attending to long term, highly uncertain and potentially transformative future changes. To date, conservation research has focused more on projecting climate impacts and identifying possible strategies, rather than understanding how governance enables or constrains adaptation actions. We outline an approach to future-oriented conservation that combines the capacities to anticipate future ecological change; to understand the implications of that change for social, political and ecological values; and the ability to engage with the governance (and politics) of adaptation. Our approach builds on the adaptive management and governance literature, however we explicitly address the (often contested) rules, knowledge and values that enable or constrain adaptation. We call for a broader focus that extends beyond technical approaches to acknowledge the socio-political challenges inherent to adaptation. More importantly, we suggest that conservation policy makers and practitioners can use this approach to facilitate learning and adaptation in the context of complexity, transformational change and uncertainty.

Linking Knowledge and Action for Sustainable Development

Integrated assessment of natural and human systems is regarded as a way to facilitate effective governance of complex environmental issues, and engagement of stakeholders is recognised as a key requirement of such an assessment. Place-based ecosystem service analysis is one framework for integrative research on understanding citizen values. By using the lens of place, participants can articulate values and perceptions. Advantages of this framework are particularly relevant in the urban setting, given that the population and functioning of cities create especially high pressure on ecosystems and biodiversity of the surrounding areas. This study reports on a place-based ecosystem service analysis study in Bogota, Colombia. It aimed to identify how urban citizens conceptualise the socio-ecological value of a nearby protected natural area, the Eastern Hills Protected Forest Area. The objective was to generate an integrated understanding of the services the Hills provide to Bogota. The study found that the services of fresh water and habitat provision, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, erosion control and climate and air quality were highly prioritised ecosystem services due to their fundamental importance for the maintenance of human life. The Hills also hold cultural value for Bogotans, such as a sense of belonging and identity, being the natural symbol of Bogota and inspiration for escapism. There is enthusiasm for greater stewardship and conservation of the Hills, and demand for a greater role in decision making. The place-based ecosystem service approach can be developed as a tool for developing an integrated understanding of citizen values for landscape management.