Addressing climate services in SouthAmerican Chaco region through a knowledge coproduction process

Highlights

• Epistemological and social dimension of knowledge co-production.
• Challenges of coproducing climate services for agricultural production.
• Power structure's role in the knowledge co-production process and climate impacts.
• Heterogeneous knowledge dialogue for socially meaningful climate products.
• Knowledge co-production for individual and collective climate change adaptation.

Abstract

When engaging in an interdisciplinary and intersectoral knowledge coproduction process, what premises should (academic and non-academic) participants consider to prevent power dynamics and divergent interests from becoming epistemological obstacles (Bachelard, 1974)? What methodological devices should be adopted to enable a productive dialogue between heterogeneous actors and knowledge? Despite the plethora of literature on the relevance of participatory approaches and the promotion of open science to produce socially meaningful knowledge, most works neglect central challenges present in any coproduction experience. Namely, how to deal with power dynamics, how to challenge the identity anchors of the participants and how to ensure the epistemological conditions for initiating long-term collaboration. Hence, based on these concerns, this paper puts forth the theoretical-methodological basis of a knowledge coproduction approach for the development of climate services for family farming. In addition, we present two major results achieved in the framework of a coproduction process involving academic and non-academic participants: the development of a community-based rainfall monitoring network in the eastern region of the South American Gran Chaco and the codesign of a smartphone application.