IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v296y2022ics0277953622000387.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From sustainability to sustaining work: What do actors do to sustain knowledge translation platforms?

Author

Listed:
  • Borst, Robert A.J.
  • Wehrens, Rik
  • Bal, Roland
  • Kok, Maarten Olivier

Abstract

Knowledge translation platforms (KTPs) are seen as an important collaborative arrangement between researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. Yet, their ‘sustainability’ is a recurring issue. Several studies describe what makes KTPs sustainable, and focus on the role of institutional and contextual factors therein, yet few studies show how sustaining of KTPs is done in practice. We therefore performed an ethnographic case-study on ‘sustaining work’ of KTPs in Jordan, Cameroon, and Nigeria. This approach focusses on what KTP actors do to make and keep their platforms productive. We followed the KTP actors for two years and interviewed the KTP actors and their colleagues (n = 63), observed the KTPs' practices (59d), and reviewed related documents to construct thick descriptions of their practices. We collected all data between September 2017 and November 2019. Our analysis revolves around three work processes of translating, contexting, and institutionalising and shows that sustaining takes place within the platform actors' everyday work. Sustaining work, while not necessarily purposive, and without a clear ending, was crucial: the KTPs were not sustainable by themselves, but were actively sustained through the struggles and efforts of the platform actors. This move from ‘sustainability as such’ to sustaining work has important theoretical ramifications for understanding how KTPs work and are made to perdure. Most importantly, this requires a shift from identifying factors that make KTPs sustainable towards constructing environments in which sustaining work can be done. This includes further exploring the role of (research) projects in sustaining KTPs. Additionally, our analysis showed that the sustaining of KTPs was contingent on the capacity of platform actors to forge productive dependencies with other actors and ongoing policy or research agendas. Our analysis thereby offers a practice-based perspective that can inform capacity-building programmes for KTP actors and that can guide the actual sustaining of KTPs.

Suggested Citation

  • Borst, Robert A.J. & Wehrens, Rik & Bal, Roland & Kok, Maarten Olivier, 2022. "From sustainability to sustaining work: What do actors do to sustain knowledge translation platforms?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:296:y:2022:i:c:s0277953622000387
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114735
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953622000387
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114735?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pluye, Pierre & Potvin, Louise & Denis, Jean-Louis, 2004. "Making public health programs last: conceptualizing sustainability," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 121-133, May.
    2. Stoopendaal, Annemiek & Bal, Roland, 2013. "Conferences, tablecloths and cupboards: How to understand the situatedness of quality improvements in long-term care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 78-85.
    3. Katharina Schlierf & Morgan Meyer, 2013. "Situating knowledge intermediation: Insights from science shops and knowledge brokers," Post-Print hal-00850563, HAL.
    4. Carliss Y. Baldwin & C. Jason Woodard, 2009. "The Architecture of Platforms: A Unified View," Chapters, in: Annabelle Gawer (ed.), Platforms, Markets and Innovation, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Borst, Robert A.J. & Kok, Maarten Olivier & O’Shea, Alison J. & Pokhrel, Subhash & Jones, Teresa H. & Boaz, Annette, 2019. "Envisioning and shaping translation of knowledge into action: A comparative case-study of stakeholder engagement in the development of a European tobacco control tool," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(10), pages 917-923.
    6. Katharina Schlierf & Morgan Meyer, 2013. "Situating knowledge intermediation: Insights from science shops and knowledge brokers," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 40(4), pages 430-441, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Taheri, Mozhdeh & van Geenhuizen, Marina, 2016. "Teams' boundary-spanning capacity at university: Performance of technology projects in commercialization," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 31-43.
    2. Mónica Ramos-Mejía & Alejandro Balanzo, 2018. "What It Takes to Lead Sustainability Transitions from the Bottom-Up: Strategic Interactions of Grassroots Ecopreneurs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-20, July.
    3. Marina Van Geenhuizen & Pieter Stek, 2015. "Mapping innovation in the global photovoltaic industry: a bibliometric approach to cluster identification and analysis," ERSA conference papers ersa15p697, European Regional Science Association.
    4. Florence Gignac & Anne-Sophie Gresle & Valeria Santoro Lamelas & Montserrat Yepes-Baldó & Leonardo de la Torre & Maria-Jesus Pinazo & the InSPIRES Consortium, 2021. "Self-evaluating participatory research projects: A content validation of the InSPIRES online impact evaluation tool [Content Validity and Reliability of Single Items or Questionnaires]," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 30(4), pages 500-513.
    5. Valentina Tudisca & Adriana Valente, 2016. "(English) Design and implementation of an online Delphi study to develop indicators for evidenceinformed policy making (Italiano) Ideazione e implementazione di uno studio Delphi online per lo svilupp," IRPPS Working Papers 88:2016, National Research Council, Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies.
    6. Paul Benneworth, 2017. "The role of research to shape local and global engagement," CHEPS Working Papers 201706, University of Twente, Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS).
    7. Wynanda I. Van Enst & Peter P. J. Driessen & Hens A. C. Runhaar, 2017. "Working at the Boundary: An Empirical Study into the Goals and Strategies of Knowledge Brokers in the Field of Environmental Governance in the Netherlands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-14, October.
    8. Annette Boaz & Robert Borst & Maarten Kok & Alison O’Shea, 2021. "How far does an emphasis on stakeholder engagement and co-production in research present a threat to academic identity and autonomy? A prospective study across five European countries [Systems Thin," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 30(3), pages 361-369.
    9. Lhoste, Evelyne F., 2020. "Can do-it-yourself laboratories open up the science, technology, and innovation research system to civil society?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    10. Miriam Dunn & Mark D. Rounsevell & Henrik Carlsen & Adis Dzebo & Tiago Capela Lourenço & Joseph Hagg, 2017. "To what extent are land resource managers preparing for high-end climate change in Scotland?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 141(2), pages 181-195, March.
    11. Baldwin, Carliss Y. & Bogers, Marcel L.A.M. & Kapoor, Rahul & West, Joel, 2024. "Focusing the ecosystem lens on innovation studies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(3).
    12. Christian Bartelheimer, Philipp zur Heiden, Hedda Lüttenberg, Daniel Beverungen, 2021. "Systematizing the Lexicon of Platforms in Information Systems: A Data-Driven Study," Working Papers Dissertations 79, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    13. Fontagné, Lionel & Secchi, Angelo & Tomasi, Chiara, 2018. "Exporters’ product vectors across markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 150-180.
    14. Toledo Romani, Maria E. & Vanlerberghe, Veerle & Perez, Dennis & Lefevre, Pierre & Ceballos, Enrique & Bandera, Digna & Baly Gil, Alberto & Van der Stuyft, Patrick, 2007. "Achieving sustainability of community-based dengue control in Santiago de Cuba," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 976-988, February.
    15. Cenamor, Javier, 2021. "Complementor competitive advantage: A framework for strategic decisions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 335-343.
    16. Alfonso, Moya L. & Nickelson, Jen & Hogeboom, David L. & French, Jennifer & Bryant, Carol A. & McDermott, Robert J. & Baldwin, Julie A., 2008. "Assessing local capacity for health intervention," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 145-159, May.
    17. Lukas Stricker & Joël Wagner & Angela Zeier Röschmann, 2023. "The Future of Insurance Intermediation in the Age of the Digital Platform Economy," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-32, August.
    18. Panos Constantinides & Ola Henfridsson & Geoffrey G. Parker, 2018. "Introduction—Platforms and Infrastructures in the Digital Age," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(2), pages 381-400, June.
    19. Cristina Alaimo & Jannis Kallinikos, 2017. "Computing the everyday: social media as data platforms," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 81432, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Dolata, Ulrich, 2023. "Industrieplattformen: Eine neue Form der Handlungskoordination in der Wirtschaft," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2024-01, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.

    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:eee:socmed:v:296:y:2022:i:c:s0277953622000387. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    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.