Ligtermoet and colleagues move reflexivity upstream, before co-production has fully begun. Their diagnostic framework asks research teams to examine positionality, purpose, contextual conditions, stakeholder power and the intended design of engagement before participatory mechanisms are fixed. This preparatory emphasis is significant because much co-production guidance begins too late, assuming that a collaborative format can compensate for unexamined institutional positions. The framework generates learning across cognitive, epistemic, normative and relational domains, making reflexivity an active design capacity rather than retrospective self-critique. Its methodological operation is diagnostic and iterative: teams repeatedly interrogate who they are, what forms of knowledge they privilege, what outcomes they seek and how power may shape participation. The work bridges transdisciplinary methodology, critical reflexivity and organisational learning. It makes clear that co-production is not simply a method applied to stakeholders; it is a reconfiguration of the research team’s own assumptions, authority and modes of intervention.
URBANISM MEETS ART