Lessons Learned From a Co-Creative Research Project on Caring Neighbourhoods in Brussels: An Ethical Reflection on the Research Journey

This article describes and critically reflects on the backstage processes of MaN’Aige, a co-creative research project conducted in two inner-city neighbourhoods in Brussels. The project aimed to explore how caring neighbourhoods can be built between residents and diverse local users such as commuters, institutions, and businesses, through co-creative research. Using a multi-method approach embedded in a series of Living Labs, the project combined walk-along interviews, mapping, creative workshops, and collective reflection to co-create knowledge and community-based actions. While co-creative research is often promoted as a tool for social transformation, its implementation yielded significant tensions and contradictions. Drawing on our experiences as academic researchers involved in the project, we reflect on how the project’s ideals of participation and shared ownership were challenged by four key tensions: the gap between planned and actual trajectories; the absence of an explicit social justice lens; conceptual ambiguity around participatory research; and the limitations imposed by institutional structures. We argue that participatory and co-creative research must reclaim its political roots by actively confronting power imbalances and remain attentive to who participates and who benefits. Furthermore, co-creation entails a process of de-creation , challenging not only prevailing assumptions on academic research, but also funding and academic structures that shape and constrain these practices. Finally, we hope this article gives insights in the complexities of participatory research and contributes to fostering more equitable and supportive conditions for building genuine participatory research practices.