Knowledge Co-Production Through International Comparison

The complex interplay of power and knowledge and its implications for developing spatial policies and plans has gained increasing relevance with the progressive rescaling and redistribution of competencies among the different territorial levels and the incremental consolidation of global multi-level governance. Within this framework, public actors increasingly need to back up their decisions with convincing evidence, to strengthen the legitimacy of their policies and actions. This chapter explores how international comparative planning studies can contribute to knowledge co-production and in so doing deliver evidence that may serve as inspiration for the development of spatial policies and planning instruments at different territorial levels. More specifically, the authors discuss the role of transnational ‘territorial knowledge communities’ as ‘knowledge brokers’, facilitating the co-production, collection, systematisation, and distribution of knowledge in support of policy-making. Furthermore, they argue that these are not neutral processes, but are shaped by the set of values of the engaged actors as well as by the power dynamics that characterise the different arenas where knowledge is co-produced and utilised.