Co-creation for sustainable  communities

Our starting point is that sustainable development is development that meets today's challenges and needs, while looking forward to the living conditions of future generations. The ambition is that participants in this research group will be able to explore and challenge questions concerning the UN's sustainability development goals (SDGs) from multiple perspectives - both in terms of local conditions, and the dilemmas that arise when different goals are to be realized.

We consider the SDGs to be mutually dependent on each other, without ecological sustainability we cannot achieve social and economic sustainability and vice versa.  

Through targeted interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research activity, the aim is to develop knowledge about education and local communities. The research group will work within Western Norway University of Applied Sciences’ strategic goal of being a co-creative university with vibrant campuses where employees take a clear regional role. By using action-oriented, qualitative, and quantitative research approaches, the research group will be able to become a regional innovation contributor in the work of co-creating knowledge.   

Co-creation in research is about developing knowledge and facilitating action that can contribute to improving and innovating public services and strengthening local communities. The research group uses a perspective on co-creation where collaboration for value creation is central. Seen from an overall socio-economic perspective, value creation is about managing scarce resources in the best possible way. Here, socio-economic benefits and costs that are not reflected in monetary capital will also be taken into account.   

In value co-creation, it is emphasized that different stakeholders can come from the public and private sector, and civil society, and/or be parties in service relationships (e.g. patient-health professional, student- teacher, customer-producer). A collaboration between, for example, a student and a teacher could result in experience-based value for both parties: a student may experience guidance and learning as valuable, and a teacher may value strengthening the student's competence. Co-creation of value can also result in shared value for society: For example, students with expertise in co-creation and sustainable development will be able to contribute in co-creation with the public, private and civil sector for sustainable solutions.  

Western Norway University of Applied Sciences has an overarching ambition to become a university with a clear professional and working life-oriented profile. In interaction internally in the organization and with actors in the surrounding environment, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences will work to promote multidisciplinary competence to find good solutions to challenges in social life, and contribute to sustainable regional development. Co-creation projects, where several parties engage in equal cooperation, can contribute to finding new solutions to complex challenges. Although interdisciplinary cooperation and participation are in demand both in research and development, we use co-creation to a small extent as an approach to cooperation between Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (employees and students), municipalities, business, non-profit organizations, and other citizens today. In December 2021, the project Co-creation for a sustainable Parish received a grant of NOK 5 million from the HK-dir program Increased work relevance in higher education, with the main aim of promoting both knowledge about, and action in, interdisciplinary collaboration and co-creation and to further develop contact and the flow of knowledge between students, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences employees, working life actors in the public and private sector and non-profit organizations in Sogn. In the project, we are working with three specific development initiatives:   

1) Development of a new interdisciplinary elective and further education subject "Sustainable co-creation" where students from various study programmes, employees at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, in private and public business as well as people in the civil sector will participate in the same course, and together develop solutions to real problems. Learning outcomes for the subject must be based on interdisciplinarity, co-creation, innovation and sustainability.   The bachelor/master subject Co-creation and innovation for sustainability is the result from an action research study described underneath.

2) Development of a digital meeting place between the aforementioned actors where external parties can register issues they wish to be investigated by students and/or relevant internships.   

3) Development of a research group for interdisciplinary collaboration and co-creation at HVL and evaluation of both work packages. Creation of this research group is thus part of the objective of this development project.   

According to the mandate for the project Co-creation for a sustainable Parish, the interdisciplinary research group is to consist of both internal and external members across faculties and subject areas. During the project period, the group will contribute to the development of the academic content of the interdisciplinary subject, evaluate the subject and contribute to the development of the digital meeting place. After the end of the project period, the research group will drive further knowledge development around interdisciplinary collaboration, co-creation, and sustainability. As part of the project Co-creation for a sustainable Parish, in collaboration with Sogndal municipality, an application has been made, and received approval from the Norwegian Research Counsil, for a public PhD employed by Sogndal municipality.  

Sogndal municipality has taken the initiative for a collaboration between Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Sogndal municipality and non-profit organisations in the local community to develop an "Activity barn" as a meeting place for interaction and outdoor activities close to the city centre: a public health initiative. A possible location is a foundation wall close to the city center after an old barn. Interested actors will be invited to create this meeting-place together so that it can cover their interests, with collaboration, innovation and sustainability in focus. This will be carried out as a theme in the interdisciplinary elective and further education subject "Sustainable co-creation". Academic staff will participate together with the students on the course and the actors who become involved.

The co-creation method is intended to be used as an action research design, to investigate what happens in the co-creation process and what comes out of it. Current questions are how the process is experienced by the various parties involved, how different considerations and actors are taken care of, and what challenges, competences and values may arise. The Faculty of Teacher Education, Culture and Sport, Department of Sport, Nutrition and Natural Sciences has granted NOK 731,000 in investment funds for the development of the Activity barn as an arena for co-creation and as a "learning-hub".  

The research group's interests are also to investigate how different actors express and justify their knowledge in different processes where they are expected to co-create. Exploring what happens when people with different forms of knowledge meet is key. The research interest is to identify possible tensions, breaks and syntheses that arise in knowledge processes where, e.g. expert and life-world knowledge, verbal language knowledge, bodily/sense-based knowledge, professional knowledge and everyday knowledge compete for influence.

A relevant question is also what kind of material and symbolic artefacts enable different knowledge practices, and what norms and values are included in different actors' knowledge production? The research approach also involves a critical examination of what kind of power relations are manifested and productive within the various fields where people meet to co-create.

What kind of status and value is attributed to the different forms of knowledge, and how do differently positioned actors understand and express their "own" versus "other people's" knowledge? An exploration of knowledge practices is fundamental to understanding potential barriers and opportunities that can arise when actors with different social, cultural and professional backgrounds meet with the intention of working on the co-creation of knowledge for a sustainable future.  

Western County Council has an ongoing development project: Innovative activity facilities, where they want to stimulate municipalities to develop and build local meeting places with varied and attractive low-threshold offers for physical activity.

The project Innovative activity facilities is based on the local communities needs related to physical activity, based on participation, a broad knowledge base, and sustainable solutions. Sogndal municipality is one of the municipalities involved in the project. Western county municipality and Sogndal municipality want to link research to the development of innovative activity facilities, and in collaboration with the research group Physical activity and public health, Collaboration for sustainable local communities will work for an application to the Research Council of Norway for a collaborative project with Western county municipality and Sogndal municipality in 2024.

A workshop was carried out in February 2023. Here various actors participated from the county council, Sogndal municipality, youth council, all the faculties at HVL and other research institutions, to work on stakeholder analyzes and research ideas related to Innovative activity facilities in Sogndal.  

PhD project where students are co-researchers and co-creators. The case study is a public co-creation process in connection with the design of a new primary school. The project's aim is to help implement and evaluate children and young people's participation and contribution to innovation and sustainability in public co-creation processes. The project will highlight the "inside perspective" of children and young people and examine the importance it has for innovation and sustainability.   

As part of the research project Co-creation for a sustainable Parish, a new interdisciplinary elective and further education subject has been innovated in collaboration between public, private and civil sector stakeholders. Thus, the action research aim has been to facilitate and contribute to co-creation of the subject.

Another aim has been to develop competence, knowledge, and teaching resources in this process. In the subject, student competence and skills in interdisciplinary cooperation and co-creation for sustainability is central. In the research, both public service development and regional development applies: 1) the subject that is co-created (among stakeholders such as students, academic staff and partners such as the municipality, business and non-profit organisations) will become a new public service that the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences can offer students, and 2 ) the course will promote co-creation for sustainability in the Sogn region, by having the students work with practice-based development projects in collaboration with business, public services and voluntary organisations.

The co-creation method has been the frame for the action research design, and an inclusive co-creation process that can accommodate creativity and unpredictability has been facilitated. The subject-pilot was launched in December 2023 and is evaluated as part of this study.

Evaluation study on the introduction of a mandatory practice element in sociology as part of the subject "Working-life-relevant sociology". The research question is what lessons students gain from and in sociological practice, and how students create meaning between the theoretical and the practical use of sociology.  

The co-creation method is a result from the two studies:  

1. From user participation to co-creation leadership. An action research case study in public specialised mental health and substance abuse services.  
2. Co-production: A development collaboration between patients/users, staff, and leaders. Action research in public mental health and substance abuse services, and mental health services in collaboration with welfare services.  

It is a qualitatively oriented action research and practice method that promotes co-creation of knowledge, service development/innovation and value co-creation. The method was developed in study 1 and tested, evaluated in study 2, and as mentioned above – it was used to develop the new subject Co-creation and innovation for sustainability. It is a flexible design that can be adapted to the needs of different contexts for process adaptation. The applicability of the method itself will be evaluated in a comparative study between the three aforementioned research projects in this section.  

This research project also draws on data from the studies

1. From user participation to co-creation leadership. An action research case study in public specialised mental health and substance abuse services.
2. Co-production: A development collaboration between patients/users, staff and management. Action research in public mental health and substance abuse services, and mental health services in collaboration with welfare services.

Different leadership behaviors among stakeholders in the studies are explored here. The aim is to understand what kind of leadership behaviors that can promote and inhibit co-creation, and thus contribute to the conceptualization of co-creation leadership. In particular, the Facilitation and Training and Team is followed from endogenous entrepreneurship and innovation (study 1) to the implementation of the co-creation method as a new public service (study 2). The Facilitation and Training and Team consisted of co-researchers from the first study, i.e. staff, manager, former patient and action researcher.  

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