Phases and scales of co-creation

In this lesson we further explore ways of initiating and sustaining co-creative practices by zooming in on a few specific dimensions. Namely: phases and scales, types of stakeholder, and different ways of learning.

Phases and scales:

The first aspect we encourage you to reflect upon is the phases and scales of engagement in a collaborative process.

Whilst not all phases or activities may be collaborative, it is important to be aware of when they are, and for what purpose, in order to avoid various traps of participatory research, such as:

• ‘Token participation’: a mismatch between the degrees and outcomes of engagement as promised versus as practiced, which can reduce participants’ willingness to be involved over time (Brombal, Moriggi, & Marcomini, 2017).
• ‘Tyranny of participation’: the practice of research centres, NGOs, and development agencies of employing participatory methods while continuing to validate top-down planning and solutions (Cooke & Kothari, 2001)

For instance, Tobias et al (2019), in the graph below, reflecting upon a transdisciplinary project and its impacts, offer a valuable way to represent different levels of engagement, different stakeholders, and different methods – and put them all in the same visual.

What do you make of this figure? Can you suggest an alternative way in which the information could be visualised?