CoprodAction: Addressing the coproduction of urban environment in Quito, Ecuador

CoprodAction addresses the problem of societal restructurings stemming from rapidly advancing climate change in combination with the current COVID-19 pandemic that has triggered major additional challenges in cities across the Globe, and especially in Global South. The case of Quito reveals both critical encounters of these multidimensional problems and also community-based innovative experiments that have achieved coproduction of more sustainable and resilient urban environments. The main objective of CoprodAction is to understand to what extent the application of community-led practices influences or contributes to improving the coproduction of such environments, affecting the effectiveness of urban planning and social equality. To this end, CoprodAction will employ both quali-quantitative and socio-spatial approaches. Therefore, the research will be developed through theoretical research about practices and concepts, including the comparison between conceptualization and application of co-producing urban environments. Further, the empirical research includes both traditional spatial analysis, ethnographic analysis and collaborative analysis, such as co-mapping and permanent coproduction laboratory with local actors as civic organizations, NGOs, municipal authorities, urban planners and other relevant stakeholders. The project will provide in-depth understanding on how such alternative knowledge may inform and contribute to the elaboration and implementation of novel approaches for the governance of contested urban territories, with transferable results to other geographical contexts in cities across Latin America and Global South. Finally, it defines a new and broader conceptual framework of coproduction, and also processes and mechanisms preparatory to the success of coproduction. Further, it presents a co-designed proposal for updating and adapting the planning and transformation model of the resilient, sustainable and equity-oriented urban environment.