IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i17p7120-d407012.html

The Practice of Co-Production through Biocultural Design: A Case Study among the Bribri People of Costa Rica and Panama

Author

Listed:
  • Mariana Rodríguez Valencia

    (Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada)

Abstract

Research in co-production has given rise to a rich scientific literature in sustainability science. The processes by which co-production occurs are not well documented. Here, I present my work with the Bribri people to undertake a biocultural design project. Biocultural design is a process that begins with understanding participants’ aspirations to support their livelihoods. The process is collaborative, imagining ideas and executing products and services by drawing upon the capabilities of the participant’s biocultural heritage. In the Bribri territory, the biocultural heritage associated with cacao agroforestry systems is considered significant for Bribri livelihoods. Bribri people’s aspirations to grow cacao go beyond increasing cacao yields and include the respect for cultural teachings and social relationships. The participants of this project designed cacao value-added products (e.g., cacao jam, cacao butter) and services (e.g., showcase farm) by identifying viable ways to execute their ideas. Biocultural design offers a guide to co-imagine and co-execute ideas to solve specific problems and contributes to the practice of co-production by offering an approach that recognizes the value of science, while respecting the knowledge, aspirations and values of other actors.

Suggested Citation

  • Mariana Rodríguez Valencia, 2020. "The Practice of Co-Production through Biocultural Design: A Case Study among the Bribri People of Costa Rica and Panama," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-13, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:17:p:7120-:d:407012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/17/7120/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/17/7120/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. van der Hel, Sandra, 2016. "New science for global sustainability? The institutionalisation of knowledge co-production in Future Earth," Environmental Science & Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 165-175.
    2. Alford, 2014. "The Multiple Facets of Co-Production: Building on the work of Elinor Ostrom," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 299-316, April.
    3. Fikret Berkes, 2017. "Environmental Governance for the Anthropocene? Social-Ecological Systems, Resilience, and Collaborative Learning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-12, July.
    4. Maria Carmen Lemos & Christine J. Kirchhoff & Vijay Ramprasad, 2012. "Narrowing the climate information usability gap," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 2(11), pages 789-794, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Claudia de Brito Quadros Gonçalves & Madalena Maria Schlindwein & Gabrielli do Carmo Martinelli, 2021. "Agroforestry Systems: A Systematic Review Focusing on Traditional Indigenous Practices, Food and Nutrition Security, Economic Viability, and the Role of Women," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-20, October.
    2. Armando Borda & Oswaldo Morales & Hildy Teegen & Gareth H. Rees & Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez, 2021. "Addressing Sustainable Rural Development with Shared Value: A Peruvian Model from the Cacao Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-17, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Antonio J. Castro & Cristina Quintas-Soriano & Jodi Brandt & Carla L. Atkinson & Colden V. Baxter & Morey Burnham & Benis N. Egoh & Marina García-Llorente & Jason P. Julian & Berta Martín-López & Feli, 2018. "Applying Place-Based Social-Ecological Research to Address Water Scarcity: Insights for Future Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-13, May.
    2. Mikko Kurenlahti & Arto O. Salonen, 2018. "Rethinking Consumerism from the Perspective of Religion," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-18, July.
    3. Xueke Li & Amanda H. Lynch, 2023. "New insights into projected Arctic sea road: operational risks, economic values, and policy implications," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(4), pages 1-16, April.
    4. Chris Knudson & Zack Guido, 2019. "The missing middle of climate services: layering multiway, two-way, and one-way modes of communicating seasonal climate forecasts," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 171-187, November.
    5. Benoît Desmarchelier & Faridah Djellal & Faïz Gallouj, 2018. "Public Service Innovation Networks (PSINs): Collaborating for Innovation and Value Creation," Working Papers halshs-01934275, HAL.
    6. Ojha, Hemant & Regmi, Udeep & Shrestha, Krishna K. & Paudel, Naya Sharma & Amatya, Swoyambhu Man & Zwi, Anthony B. & Nuberg, Ian & Cedamon, Edwin & Banjade, Mani R., 2020. "Improving science-policy interface: Lessons from the policy lab methodology in Nepal's community forest governance," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    7. Ming Lu & Zhuolin Tan & Chao Yuan & Yu Dong & Wei Dong, 2023. "Resilience Measurements and Dynamics of Resource-Based Cities in Heilongjiang Province, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-22, January.
    8. Snow, Stephen & Fielke, Simon & Fleming, Aysha & Jakku, Emma & Malakar, Yuwan & Turner, Charles & Hunter, Tammy & Tijs, Sigrid & Bonnett, Graham, 2024. "Climate services for agriculture: Steering towards inclusive innovation in Australian climate services design and delivery," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    9. Targetti, Stefano & Schaller, Lena L. & Kantelhardt, Jochen, 2021. "A fuzzy cognitive mapping approach for the assessment of public-goods governance in agricultural landscapes," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    10. Lukas Schmidt & Stian Stensland, 2025. "Managing climate change in the cradle of skiing: exploring adaptation and mitigation strategies," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 30(7), pages 1-25, October.
    11. Gillian L. Galford & Julie Nash & Alan K. Betts & Sam Carlson & Sarah Ford & Ann Hoogenboom & Deborah Markowitz & Andrew Nash & Elizabeth Palchak & Sarah Pears & Kristen L. Underwood, 2016. "Bridging the climate information gap: a framework for engaging knowledge brokers and decision makers in state climate assessments," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 138(3), pages 383-395, October.
    12. Kevin Raaphorst & Gerben Koers & Gerald Jan Ellen & Amy Oen & Bjørn Kalsnes & Lisa van Well & Jana Koerth & Rutger van der Brugge, 2020. "Mind the Gap: Towards a Typology of Climate Service Usability Gaps," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-21, February.
    13. Willig, Julius & Häublein, Sabeth & Sorge, Stefan & Brudermann, Annechien & Cantarello, Elena & Espelta, Josep Maria & Häyrinen, Liina & Hlasny, Tomás & Horstmann, Nina & Krajter Ostoić, Silvija & Lau, 2025. "Information access, governance support and operational flexibility are needed to drive adaptation of European forests to global change," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    14. Selma Ferhat & Raphaël Oger & Eric Ballot & Matthieu Lauras, 2024. "Building a collaborative manufacturing system’s network resilience through an adaptability potential analysis," Post-Print hal-04834992, HAL.
    15. Alejandro Esguerra & Sandra van der Hel, 2021. "Participatory Designs and Epistemic Authority in Knowledge Platforms for Sustainability," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 21(1), pages 130-151, Winter.
    16. Svenja Keele, 2019. "Consultants and the business of climate services: implications of shifting from public to private science," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 9-26, November.
    17. Melanie Zurba & Dominic Stucker & Grace Mwaura & Catie Burlando & Archi Rastogi & Shalini Dhyani & Rebecca Koss, 2020. "Intergenerational Dialogue, Collaboration, Learning, and Decision-Making in Global Environmental Governance: The Case of the IUCN Intergenerational Partnership for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-19, January.
    18. Zack Guido & Sara Lopus & Kurt Waldman & Corrie Hannah & Andrew Zimmer & Natasha Krell & Chris Knudson & Lyndon Estes & Kelly Caylor & Tom Evans, 2021. "Perceived links between climate change and weather forecast accuracy: new barriers to tools for agricultural decision-making," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 1-20, September.
    19. Richard H. Moss, 2016. "Assessing decision support systems and levels of confidence to narrow the climate information “usability gap”," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 143-155, March.
    20. Nast, Carolin & Llopis, Oscar & Yankova, Dima & D'Este, Pablo, 2025. "Sourcing insights elsewhere: The positive influence of academic engagement on scientific impact," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:17:p:7120-:d:407012. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.