Keeping the doors open: experimenting science-policy-practice interfaces in Africa for sustainable urban development

Academics and policy-makers are increasingly being challenged to acknowledge that their knowledge is necessary but insufficient in addressing the complex challenges associated with global urbanization. But few studies offer a coherent framing of how actors from academia, policy and local communities can interface and build synergies for resolving urban sustainability challenges. This paper presents three parameters along which science-policy-practice interfaces for urban sustainability can be understood. The three parameters are: (1) co-framing research agendas; (2) co-designing methodologies; and (3) co-experimentation of scalable solutions. Co-framing research agendas speaks to the process of jointly developing research problems and questions from on a particular or interrelated set of urban sustainability challenges. Co-designing methodologies centers on the spectrum of approaches and methods for generating and sharing knowledge that is scientifically credible, relevant to policy and socially valuable. Co-experimentation refers to testing or taking to scale locally-embedded solutions that can resonate with systemic change at wider scales. To illustrate the contextual meanings and dynamics of these three parameters, case studies of interfaces amongst academic and non-academic actors are presented from cities of Durban, Stellenbosch and Kampala. The case studies demonstrate that all the parameters mean altering the positionality of local communities and policy-makers, from end-users to co-bearers of knowledge with scientists from academia. None of the case studies indicates that one parameter is a step to another, rather the emphasis is on reflexive modes of collaboration amongst the actors involved to permit the co-production of knowledge.