Between the institutional cracks: a case study of co-production

This paper presents a funded co-production project - Access Through Tools - and shares the perspectives of those working on it around how it is to experience student-staff collaborative work.

Findings showed the project being positioned, figuratively and literally, as hidden from view. Despite a low institutional profile, the emergent ways of operating together ‘between the institutional cracks’ appeared to engender resilience in project participants, with developing professionalism, autonomy and leadership attributes evidenced. The resultant heightened sense of integration into both the college and professional design community was both the primary motivator for participation and also the most widely evidenced project outcome.