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Paper short abstract

Predetermined project frames can hamper transformative transdisciplinary research. Drawing on two agricultural projects in the Netherlands and Tanzania, this paper shows how repertoires influence a project’s capacity to reframe.

Paper long abstract

Co-production is proposed as a promising way for diverse actors to collaborate within research projects (Norström et al., 2020). Ideally, co-production entails the braiding-together of diverse knowledges, equitable decision-making, agile project framing, and the generation of transformative outcomes (Chambers et al., 2021, 2022; Tengö et al., 2017). While ample contemporary literature describes how successful co-production can be facilitated (Djenontin & Meadow, 2018; Mach et al., 2020; Norström et al., 2020), the majority of these studies focuses on projects that integrate diverse perspectives from the outset, for example through co-design.

In contrast, many interdisciplinary projects do not begin this way. Project frames are often predetermined by narrow a subset of researchers, which may hamper transformative outcomes if these frames remain unchallenged. What, then, enables or constrains projects to adapt existing frames to the perspectives of diverse actors later on?

Building on foundational work characterizing research communities (Kuhn, 1962; Knorr-Cetina, 1999), we propose repertoire theory (Ankeny & Leonelli, 2016, 2021) as a lens to analyze how the structural characteristics of actor groups influence a project’s capacity to reframe. Repertoires are patterns of conceptual, material, and socio-economic elements that structure actors’ activities. We extend the use of repertoire theory to analyzing co-production processes between research communities and societal stakeholders.

Drawing on participant observation and 30 interviews in two transdisciplinary agricultural projects in the Netherlands and Tanzania, we show that transdisciplinary tensions do not automatically become productive sites of reframing. Rather, their potential depends on whether existing repertoires can be aligned and partially reconfigured.