by Wai-Fung Lam and Vivian H Y Chu
The studies of co-creation and commoning emphasise the value of bottom-up initiatives for sustainability. Co-creation research examines cross-sector collaboration with a focus on bottom-up innovation. Since 2022, the Centre for Civil Society and Governance (CCSG) at the University of Hong Kong embarked on an exciting journey to study co-creation with the “GOGREEN” project (https://gogreen-project.com/) led by Professor Jacob Torfing at Roskilde University. The project involves researchers from across the world, altogether contributing thirty-six case reports for comparative analysis driven by the mission to better understand the governance factors supporting co-creation for local sustainability problems.
Earlier in May, we met with forty scholars in Sorø, Denmark during the GOGREEN Partner Conference organised by the Roskilde team. Writing workshops were filled with insightful discussions about cross-case findings as we begin to work on a series of papers for a special issue in Policy & Politics and book chapters for an edited volume. Our team is working on a paper that focuses on comparing the characteristics of facilitative leadership across co-creation processes that are led by different types of actors.
The conference ended with a discussion of the prospect of developing a global platform for researchers and practitioners interested in local partnerships and co-creation for sustainability which sparked much excitement amongst all partners.
If you are passionate about the potential of co-creation, check out the GOGREEN research protocol and theoretical framework at https://gogreen-project.com/publications/.
Researchers flew to Denmark from different parts of the world to attend the GOGREEN Partner Conference.