Developing adaptive capacity through reflexivity: lessons from collaborative research with a UK water utility

This paper develops debates about reflexivity and its role in adaptive management and collaborative research through recounting the case of an action research project aiming to support water utilities in adapting to climate change. The project sought to produce ‘usable’ knowledge about adaptation through interpretive social scientists working closely with water utility practitioners operating within a positivist knowledge context. Developing the work of Stirling, Voß and Kemp, the paper identifies four challenges arising from this collaboration. We have named these the challenges of difference, integrity, fit and valid knowledge. Each challenge was addressed through reflexive processes of first opening up debate and then closing down discussion by identifying routes for action. The paper argues that these same challenges may pose difficulties and hence require careful consideration in other collaborative projects that cross not only the interpretive-positivist but also the research–practice divide. We conclude that if collaborations are to be maintained, making things less comfortable and more reflexive must be cautious, based on strong relations of trust and willingness to, at times, compromise on what one believes is ‘usable’ knowledge.