Metagovernance as scaffolding: strategies promoting co-created learning and innovation for sustainability transitions

Co-creation among cross-sectoral actors offers a promising pathway for fostering collaborative learning and innovation in response to complex societal challenges. While prior research highlights the role of metagovernance in shaping co-creation, it has often focused on the use of discrete governance tools rather than on how these tools operate in combination. This article argues that a key task for metagovernors is to scaffold co-creation through the strategic configuration of complementary and interlocking governance factors that support three dimensions of collaborative learning and innovation: (a) reciprocal knowledge exchange and perspective transformation (input); (b) adaptive responsiveness to emerging needs and feedback (process); and (c) collective ownership and commitment to both the collaborative process and its outcomes (output). Based on a within- and cross-case analysis of four successful co-created sustainability initiatives in Denmark, the United States, Malaysia, and Serbia, we draw the distinction between (1) necessary scaffolding, which provide the baseline support structures for co-creation, and (2) contingent scaffolding, which are situationally activated in response to context-specific challenges. Our findings demonstrate that successful co-creation emerges not from the additive effects of individual governance tools, but from their configurational and mutually reinforcing interaction, through which their combined impact exceeds the sum of their parts.

Text 125900.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB) Official URL or Download Paper: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2210...

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