Beyond Two Communities. The co-production of research, policy and practice in collaborative public health settings

This thesis empirically focuses on the phenomenon of the ACCs. It does so in several ways: by investigating the general development of the ACCs over the last five years, but also by an in-depth analysis of four collaborative research projects that have been conducted in the context of these ACCs. However, this thesis does not take the notion of ‘two communities’ for granted, but rather seeks to take into account other conceptualizations of the relation between scientific knowledge production, policy development and professional practice. One of the most promising conceptualizations, which may provide analysts with more ‘analytical rigor’ than the ‘two communities’ framework is able to provide, is the notion of ‘co-production’ (Jasanoff, 2004). This radically different view on science/ policy relations focuses on how natural and social orders, or science and policy, are being produced simultaneously and interactively. Such a perspective sheds a radically different light on the interactions between researchers and policy makers. The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether a conceptualization of research/policy/practice relations in terms of this co-production framework serves as a better tool to understand these relations and interactions than the two communities perspective is able to provide.