What is co-production? Conceptualising and understanding co-production of knowledge and policy across different theoretical perspectives

Background: ‘Co-production’ is one of the key concepts in evidence-informed policy and practice – terms both its theoretical importance practical applications − being consistently discussed as most effective strategy for mobilising evidence contexts. The concept co-production was developed (almost) independently across multiple disciplines has been employed various fields including environment, sustainability, health. Aims objectives: This paper surveys literature to identify different meanings disciplinary bodies knowledge. Such exploration aimed at identifying points convergence divergence traditions. Methods: We performed a systematic search Web Science via query designed capture likely focusing on co-production, then manually examined each document relevance. Citation network analysis used ‘map’ this by grouping papers into clusters based density citation links between papers. top-cited within cluster were thematically analysed. Findings: research identified five understood science-politics relationship, knowledge democracy, transdisciplinarity, boundary management, an evidence-use intervention. Discussion conclusions: Even though scholarship exploring are closely connected, mobilised phenomena levels abstraction from post-structuralist theories power specific strategies be researchers policymakers.