A co-production approach to integrated risk management also allows for the findings and potential research impact to be relevant to all the involved stakeholders. This allows for the identification and strengthening of existing solutions based on local knowledges, creativity and appropriateness – regardless of their scale – as well as co-creating new solutions through balancing local knowledge with knowledge that may be external to the communities, such as technical studies or academic research. In addition, the action-research process
contributes to identifying knowledge development needs at the community and government levels, for which academic input is valuable, in particular to strengthen capacity based on dialogue. Importantly, this research approach ensures that community priorities are addressed and thus contribute to the reduction of risks as perceived by these communities. These co-created research
365 Urban Resilience
Within participatory action-research processes, establishing shared responsibility is crucial for two reasons. First, it invites different stakeholder groups to contribute their ideas, thoughts and concerns. Creating a space for these negotiations to take place helps not only to resolve conflict before and during the research process, but also to identify potential challenges when solutions are being implemented and research is complete. Second, shared responsibility enables solutions that can have an impact over the long term, with stakeholders themselves driving further communication, system maintenance, and development. In addition, the early involvement of stakeholders across decision and power levels allows for the methods, and hence the solutions under investigation, to be adaptive, allowing stakeholders to collaboratively develop solutions on an ongoing basis that can address context-specific issues and help communities to cope with changes and shocks (e.g., environmental, economic, political) by building resilience. Most importantly, implementation of co-created research methodologies ensures that solutions are based on social cohesion through learning and dialogue. Whilst implementing a ‘dialogue a knowledges’ helps to strengthen community autonomy, interlinking local government with community organisations provides overview and control for governments. Once negotiated agreements have been reached, more effective and long term solutions can be established through the shared responsibility built through the research process.