Co-producing city-regional intelligence: strategies of intermediation, tactics of unsettling

Abstract

Co-production is increasingly embraced as a means to combine forms of urban expertise to address complex and uncertain societal problems. Conventional city-regional intelligence processes rely on epistemic monocultures that prioritize certain forms of expertise over others. Co-production challenges dominant conceptualizations of city-regional intelligence through questioning what and whose knowledge matters. We suggest that the co-production of city-regional intelligence is a political epistemic practice comprised of strategies of intermediation and tactics of unsettling. We draw on experiences working in Cape Town (South Africa) and Greater Manchester (UK) to critically reflect on how different strategies and tactics can open up the concept of city-regional intelligence.