Co-creating knowledge in environmental policy development. An analysis of knowledge co-creation in the review of the significant residual impact guidelines for environmental offsets in Queensland, Australia

Abstract

Co-creation of knowledge in policy design and review processes is more likely to generate usable outcomes compared to a more traditional top-down approach. Despite this being a widely held view of policy makers and academics, there is limited literature articulating criteria for good knowledge co-creation or reporting on practical evaluations. This is particularly the case in environmental policy design and review. Drawing on the existing literature, we suggest that good knowledge co-creation includes a diverse stakeholder group (actors), with a shared goal but appreciation for diverse views (discourse), which interact in a well-resourced manner following explicit rules and with participants being able to reflect on and critique the process. Applying these as criteria, we evaluate the knowledge co-creation process applied to review an environmental policy in Queensland, Australia. We found that whether a co-creation process satisfies the criteria for being ‘good’ is constrained by the purpose of the process and the political and governmental frameworks in which the process occurs. Many trade-offs were made between a good knowledge co-creation and practical policy impact. Because of this, we highlight the critical role that clear rules implemented by an intermediary have in realising the potential of knowledge co-creation theory in practice.

Keywords

• Co-creation
• Policy
• Knowledge
• Environmental
• Offsets