In Sweden, several researchers have worked closely together with cities and national innovation actors to support them in steering sustainability transitions by contributing to learning from practice, increased reflexivity and helping to identify evidence about system change. This role got the name of ‘följeforskare’ (literal translation from Swedish is ‘following’ or ‘companion’ researcher). This kind of research role and approach – “följeforskning” – is sometimes supported by Swedish funding agencies such as Vinnova and The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth to strengthen both projects and programs they fund.
The concept is related to action research and developmental evaluation, where the researcher joins a team of practitioners to do research together with them and provide continuous feedback, reflections and results based on theory to impact in real-time the quality and direction of the work. At the same time, the researcher can also inform theory based on the insights from the joint work with practitioners.
In this digital Climate Breakfast we meet three researchers who have all done “följeforskning” with cities involved in Viable Cities program “Climate Neutral Cities 2023” and the program itself:
- Dr Erica Eneqvist, The City of Stockholm (Klimatneutrala Stockholm 2030)
- Dr Kateryna Pereverza, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
- Dr Emily Wise, Lund University
Together we will explore what makes “följeforskning” special in terms of benefits and challenges, why it is especially relevant in accelerating the transition to climate neutral cities, and what role it can play for both cities and national support platforms. After an initial conversation with the researchers, everybody joining this Climate Breakfast will get the opportunity to continue to talk to them and each other in smaller groups before we convene again for a joint wrap-up. We will also provide links to relevant articles on “följeforskning”.
This Climate Breakfast is moderated by Dr Lena Holmberg, Lund University, and provided in collaboration with CapaCITIES. It will be provided in English.
The speakers talked about:
- Introduction – on interactive research
- The triple loop learning model
- (Re)framing of challenges in portfolio-based approaches for system transformations
- Transformative portfolio-based approaches for urban transition governance: Insights from the recent City Lab workshop
- Review of current system & portfolio practices in the development sector: Organizational perspectives and collaborative experiments
- Future of mobility systems in Nordic winter cities: exploring expert-based and context-driven imaginaries of sustainable mobility
- Innovationsarbete i offentlig sektor – 10 års forskningserfarenhet
- Innovationsplattformar för hållbara attraktiva städer
- Future by Lund: Resultat och slutsatser Följeforskning innovationsplattformar
- A version of the layer model is described here
- The model and process used for tracking systems change in Vinnväxt
- Mutual Learning Exercise on EU Missions
