Research Objective and Questions

Much of the literature addressing sustainability creation acknowledges the inclusive nature of co-creation as an especially relevant approach to balancing the social, economic and evironmental aspects of sustainability (see e.g. Arnold, 2017 180; Elkington 1998; Kruger et al. 2018, Steurer et al. 2005). Co-creation supports the flexible integration of a variety of stakeholders into the development process, allowing for the consideration of marginalized groups or even the environment as individual stakeholders (Yang, Han & Lee 2017, 482). The approach has been adopted by a multitude of actors from politicians and citizens co-creating novel policy solutions to small businesses and customers co-creating new services and products (Deya, Babub, Rahmanc, Doraa & Mishra 2018, 4; Roser, Defillippi & Samson 2013; Sørensen & Torfing 2018; 311). Co-creation has become a buzzword, which has spread into popular discussion (Saarijärvi 2011; see also Saarijärvi, Kannan

& Kuusela 2013). Its application to a large variety of contexts has contributed to the growing ambiguity of the concept. Co-creation may now be understood as any type of open-ended and goal-oriented interaction between stakeholders with differing expertise, which is experienced as mutually beneficial to all participants (Ind & Coates 2013).

This study draws empirical exemplaries from an intervention employing co-creation in piloting the smart community concept in Namibia. The United Nations has stated that sustainable urbanization is now the key focus for achieving succesful development, addressing the challenge posed by rapid growth of urban population especially on the African continent (UN 2018). More than half of the global population is now living in urban areas and the number of urban dwellers has close to doubled since the 1950’s (UN 2018; World Bank 2019). Namibia has one of the fastest urbanizing populations (Ibid.). There is a great need for answering to the needs of the urban poor in relation to infrastructure and social services (UN 2018). In Namibia’s case the need for housing is extremely dire. The UN SDG’s promote thinking globally and acting locally. In line with this sentiment the smart community approach aims to enhance the overall quality of life locally, through connecting all dwellers and service providers to address each others’ needs in the most sustainable way possible (Coe, Paquet

& Roy 2000). The smart community pilot project is the context of the empiria, while the focus of the study is solely on the co-creation activities implemented in the case intervention.

6 This study aims to offer critical insight on the implementation of the co-creation approach in a new socio-cultural context. The approach was primarily developed to facilitate the bilateral interaction between companies and customers in the process of developing new offerings. Today, it is commonplace to adopt practices and procedures developed in one sector to the activities of other sectors. With sectoral boundaries becoming blurred, it is important to critically examine how these practices and procedures are adapted to service differing goals. A critical perspective is especially relevant when adapting approaches developed in the ‘Global North’ to address needs emerging in the ‘Global South’. Today in international development cooperation a variety of stakeholders are often included in creating solutions. The international development cooperation context may be considered as one of the more complex settings for implementing co-creation, as it differs significantly from the setting it has been developed for. In the literature coining the approach, co-creation aims to equally generate economic and brand value to companies and customer satisfaction through the positive experience of participating in the process. In the development setting these aims become more ambiguous. Actors involved in development activities have recognized the potential of co-creation in facilitating the generation of equal long-term benefit for involved stakeholders, in respect of sustainability. A critical examination may shed light on how the approach should be developed with in order to better service sustainable development aims. The study critically explores the implementation of the co-creation approach in a smart community pilot which is to be considered as an international development project involving multiple stakeholders. The smart community pilot engages business goals and the needs of marginalized groups to generate sustainable solutions that support development both locally and internationally (see Figure 1.).

FIGURE 1. Positioning of the main concepts in the study.

7 To uncover the nature of the co-creation approach phenomenon and its potential in servicing sustainable development goals (SDG), it is important to understand how it is primarily understood to work and how it works when practically implemented in a development setting. A critical perspective is employed to better understand co-creation through the challenges imposed by its wide implementation in settings which differ from the one it has been developed in. It is apparent that this would be best served through exploring what in co-creation works in relation to sustainable development and what does not. In an international setting, development activities have been criticized for not offering approaches and solutions that are context-specific enough to truly support sustainability. What works in a given context may not work in another, and vice versa. To explore the context-specific nature of the co-creation phenomenon, a special emphasis on the mechanisms which emerge from the context is called for. This study endeavours to offer new knowledge on co-creation for its development as both a theoretical approach and a practical tool to support sustainability in development activities by offering further insight to these mechanisms. The aim is to provide insight to what co-creation looks like in practice: what is it in co-creation and its given context that generates certain outcomes? The study thus uses a theory-driven evaluation approach as a tool to analyse co-creation in a way that objectively evaluates its realization in a certain context with an emphasis on its mechanisms.

To guide the study towards offering new knowledge for the development of the co-creation approach to better address sustainability aims in a development setting, the study aims to answer its primary research question: What are the emergent mechanisms of co-creation in a sustainable development context?

To answer this primary research question, the realist evaluation method is employed to uncover:

1) What works?

The perception of co-creation in the intervention: its objective, actors and resources involved.

2) In which context?

Identifying dynamics, contradictions, tensions and paradoxes specific to development activities.

3) With what mechanisms?

Identifying both intended and emergent mechanisms of co-creation in the context of the intervention.

This study aims to inquire how co-creation of sustainability is achieved in the context of smart community building in a city-region in Namibia. More specifically this study seeks to identify mechanisms of co-creation and the interrelationships of stakeholder perspectives and experiences which shape these mechanisms. As more general results, the study will shed light on the potential of the co-creation approach in similar contexts. Only one study has been found during this research process which has explored co-creation in the context of a sustainable development project (Keeys

8

& Huemann 2017). As Keeys and Huemann (2017, 1211) have stated, project co-creation is a contextual phenomenon which needs to be explored in other contexts, different types of project orientations, structures, industries and sectors. While this study focuses on an intervention which is a part of a project, rather than aiming to evaluate the project as whole, it may provide further insight to how co-creation is seen to actualize in the context of development.