Actionable knowledge for agroecological transformation: a critical realist analysis of co-innovation in a transdisciplinary project
Abstract
Transdisciplinarity and the production of actionable knowledge with and for societal actors is a central feature of sustainability science. Yet questions remain about whether such efforts genuinely challenge the structural roots of unsustainability or inadvertently reinforce them in pursuit of proximate impacts. This paper responds to calls for more critical monitoring and evaluation by evaluating a transdisciplinary Horizon Europe project, Agroecology-TRANSECT. We employ a critical realist approach to analyze qualitative data from project work with 11 territorially-rooted European networks focused on agroecological transition (called ‘innovation hubs’(IHs). This analysis was developed as a part of the project’s co-innovation approach, with iterative reflection and validation embedded throughout the research process. Our analysis sought to explain how observed actionable knowledge outcomes came about (or did not) by examining multi-level contextual factors. Societal effects were assessed using a conforming-transforming distinction informed by political agroecology. We found that the project’s co-innovation approach has resulted in many instances of actionable knowledge production among IHs, including new conceptual and strategic developments, and providing legitimacy and resources for instrumental gains like policy change. While the project served to amplify the agency of IHs, the extent to which this resulted in transformative societal effects varied. Effects were largely shaped by the IHs’ pre-existing strategic orientation (i.e. whether they already worked to challenge, alter, or replace dominant institutional structures and reconfigure their power relations). For some IHs, structural constraints – namely, market dependency, social acceleration, and state mediation of capital accumulation – limited the extent to which their network could generate transformative effects. We conclude that co-innovation’s complex-adaptive systems approach should widen its scope of system boundaries, integrating social structural analysis to reveal root causes of blockages and enhance agential effectiveness. For actionable knowledge to achieve societal effects that are both proximate and transformative, transdisciplinary research should prioritize involvement of partners with pre-existing transformative strategies, and devote creative focus to building enabling societal contexts.
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BibTeX
@article{leitheiser2026actionable,
title = {{Actionable knowledge for agroecological transformation: a critical realist analysis of co-innovation in a transdisciplinary project}},
author = {Stephen Leitheiser and Darleen van Dam and Jonas Egmose and Cecilia Zagaria and Henrik Hauggaard-Nielsen and Yanka Kazakova and Raquel Luján Soto and Bertrand Dumont and Carla Barlagne and Linn Schaan and Julie Duval and Walter Rossing},
journal = {Sustainability Science},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.1007/s11625-026-01867-z},
url = {https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05695912v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Actionable knowledge for agroecological transformation: a critical realist analysis of co-innovation in a transdisciplinary project
AU - Stephen Leitheiser
AU - Darleen van Dam
AU - Jonas Egmose
AU - Cecilia Zagaria
AU - Henrik Hauggaard-Nielsen
AU - Yanka Kazakova
AU - Raquel Luján Soto
AU - Bertrand Dumont
AU - Carla Barlagne
AU - Linn Schaan
AU - Julie Duval
AU - Walter Rossing
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/07
JO - Sustainability Science
DO - 10.1007/s11625-026-01867-z
UR - https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05695912v1
AB - Transdisciplinarity and the production of actionable knowledge with and for societal actors is a central feature of sustainability science. Yet questions remain about whether such efforts genuinely challenge the structural roots of unsustainability or inadvertently reinforce them in pursuit of proximate impacts. This paper responds to calls for more critical monitoring and evaluation by evaluating a transdisciplinary Horizon Europe project, Agroecology-TRANSECT. We employ a critical realist approach to analyze qualitative data from project work with 11 territorially-rooted European networks focused on agroecological transition (called ‘innovation hubs’(IHs). This analysis was developed as a part of the project’s co-innovation approach, with iterative reflection and validation embedded throughout the research process. Our analysis sought to explain how observed actionable knowledge outcomes came about (or did not) by examining multi-level contextual factors. Societal effects were assessed using a conforming-transforming distinction informed by political agroecology. We found that the project’s co-innovation approach has resulted in many instances of actionable knowledge production among IHs, including new conceptual and strategic developments, and providing legitimacy and resources for instrumental gains like policy change. While the project served to amplify the agency of IHs, the extent to which this resulted in transformative societal effects varied. Effects were largely shaped by the IHs’ pre-existing strategic orientation (i.e. whether they already worked to challenge, alter, or replace dominant institutional structures and reconfigure their power relations). For some IHs, structural constraints – namely, market dependency, social acceleration, and state mediation of capital accumulation – limited the extent to which their network could generate transformative effects. We conclude that co-innovation’s complex-adaptive systems approach should widen its scope of system boundaries, integrating social structural analysis to reveal root causes of blockages and enhance agential effectiveness. For actionable knowledge to achieve societal effects that are both proximate and transformative, transdisciplinary research should prioritize involvement of partners with pre-existing transformative strategies, and devote creative focus to building enabling societal contexts.
SN - 1862-4065
SN - 1862-4057
ER -