Making Sense Together’? The Role of Academics in the Co-Production of Knowledge for Local Food Governance in South Africa

Complex dynamic ‘wicked’ problems, such as food insecurity, cannot be solved by technical expertise alone (‘speaking truth to power’). They require the successful integration of scientific knowledge with knowledge of the social, ecological and historical circumstances of particular places through deliberative processes of societal learning through the co-production of knowledge (‘making sense together’). This realization is leading to a call for the reorganization of science: It is argued that traditional closed and elitist forms of science should be abandoned in favour of new roles of science. Yet much of the research on the role of scientists in politics and policy making (including co-production) is theoretical and empirical verification of these models is often lacking. Thus, what the new roles mean is not always clearly defined. The risk is that, if the precise role of scientists seeking to embark in co-production in practice is not made explicit, science will continue in its traditional linear model of the science policy interface while paying lip service to more innovative models such as knowledge brokerage and co-production. This may lead to a perceived failure of these models without their proper implementation and testing. This article seeks to bring more clarity on the role of scientists in the co-production of knowledge through a real world example. To do this the article constructs an analytical framework based on the existing literature for of the role of scientists in creating a space for societal learning and the co-production of knowledge. This framework incorporates three stages – ‘problem exploration’ (e.g. locating and inviting multiple stakeholders, identifying diverging views, overlaying concepts from the literature on problem narratives), ‘problem puzzling’ (e.g. translating an interpreting complex scientific information to a diverse audience, gathering ideas, linking scientific ideas to public debate), and ‘problem solving’ (e.g. integrate different forms of knowledge, decompose a problem into solvable parts). The article then tests this framework against the experiences of scientists in the co-production of a local government food security policy in South Africa. Although food insecurity is widely seen as a problem that needs to be addressed in South Africa, there has been little coordinated action taken beyond large welfare programmes. This lack of policy is not only seen as a result of a lack of knowledge of the food system and how it is affected by a plethora of inter-related policy issues, but also a lack of agreement on the values of a society that allows food security to exists. The Western Cape Provincial Government Household Food and Nutrition Security Strategic Framework was drafted in 2015 and 2016 by a team of policy makers and academics through a series of collaborative workshops and interviews with key stakeholders. The aim of this process was to embed scientific and political knowledge in context specific knowledge using a ‘whole of society approach’ deliberately crowding in a diverse range of individuals, organizations and departments to identify strategic priorities and opportunities.