Book

Designing Public Policy for Co-production: Theory, Practice and Change

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Abstract

Drawing on twelve compelling international contributions, this important book argues that traditional technocratic ways of designing policy are now inadequate and instead suggests co-production as a more democratic alternative. The book will be a valuable resource for researchers and students.
... A substantial conceptual and empirical literature has arisen on co-production at the local level (Alford, 2009;Durose & Richardson, 2015), which includes strands on disaster management (Cretney, 2016;Suzuki & Kaneko, 2013) and safety service provision (Musso et al., 2019;van Eijk, 2018). However, to date, no attempt has been made to examine local co-production in surf lifesaving in the Australian context. ...
... The concept of 'co-production', which was introduced into the scholarly literature by Elinor Ostrom (Ostrom, 1972(Ostrom, , 1996Ostrom & Ostrom, 1977), refers to the role played by local residents and community groups in the delivery of local public services, including community safety services, such as lifesaving. However, after a while, co-production fell out of use in the public administration literature until its revival over the past decade (Durose & Richardson, 2015;Uzochukwu & Thomas, 2017). ...
... The renewed interest in co-production has engendered a substantial scholarly literature that includes a great deal of empirical analysis (Alford, 2009;Alford & Yates, 2016;Durose & Richardson, 2015) that contains empirical work on water safety, drowning prevention and rescue (Brawley, 2001;Martin & O'Brien, 2017). The present paper seeks to contribute to this literature by examining the operation of SLSNSW. ...
Article
Beaches are iconic in Australian culture. However, coastal areas are intrinsically hazardous, given the nature of recreational beach activities. The need for beach regulation and safety services has spawned a vast network of voluntary life‐saving clubs across Australia that operate collaboratively with local government and volunteers. In this paper, we examine the operation of Surf Life Saving New South Wales (SLSNSW) through the analytical lens of local co‐production. We argue that the effectiveness of SLSNSW can be mainly ascribed to the efficacious manner in which SLSNSW, local councils and volunteers have been combined to generate beach safety services.
... There is a wide range of methods, developed and adapted to diverse situations but all sharing these key features [33,35,38,[42][43][44][45]. This provides the substantive active engagement required for buy-in and shared ownership of the process and outcomes, which increases substantially the prospects for successful implementation and sustainability of the results. ...
... Accordingly, such methods are held to be appropriate and to provide new opportunities for tackling complex and intractable 'wicked' societal challenges. Their transformatory potential in this regard appears promising on the basis of experiences to date in diverse contexts worldwide, straddling both the global North and South [33,35,39,[41][42][43][44][46][47][48][49][50]. However, building up a broader evidence base-including on urban-rural partnerships-is urgent. ...
... This can be avoided by hammering out ground rules at the outset, including agreement regarding shared ownership of the intellectual property produced by all participating bodies, regardless of size, effective power or resources contributed to the process. That said, local authorities have sometimes led successful co-production exercises to improve the relevance and appropriateness of their service delivery [42,51], while there are examples of top-down co-creation experiments led by local authorities [52]. ...
Article
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The outdated and discredited notion of a binary urban-rural divide remains stubbornly widely used. However, it both sets up and reflects oppositional politics and processes between the two supposedly mutually exclusive categories of space and place, which hamper urban-rural partnerships. Empirical reality on the ground is far more complex. Just as more appropriate conceptualisations and approaches have evolved, so new research methods and tools have been developed to overcome the different institutional barriers and stakeholder priorities in the face of contemporary real-world complexities and the urgency of tackling the 'wicked' challenges of sustainability, which also underpin the New Leipzig Charter. The focus here is on co-production and related methods, which can be considered as representing the topmost rungs of Arnstein's (1969) Ladder of Participation. The relevance and application of these methods are exemplified from the work of Mistra Urban Futures in relation to transcending conventional European urban-rural divisions and forming partnerships, with due attention to problems and limitations. Such methods have considerable potential, including for addressing unequal power relations, but are time-consuming and require careful adaptation to each situation.
... 1. centralize power to maximize a single government's effectiveness and accountability; 2. localize to delegate responsibility and share accountability with multiple governments; 3. collaborate or co-create. This approach could encourage 'collaborative governance' among many levels and types of government (Ansell and Gash, 2008;Torfing and Ansell, 2017), the co-production of public services by policymakers and service users (Durose and Richardson, 2015), or the more expansive 'co-creation' of policy design by 'a plethora of public and private actors' (Ansell and Torfing, 2021: 216;Ferlie, 2021). ...
... • taxation and tax expenditure: how much to raise and from whom, and which activities, organizations, or people should be exempt from taxation; • public expenditure: the balance between capital and current spending, the distribution across policy sectors, and spending on specific populations; • economic incentives or disincentives: taxing some products to discourage their use, or subsidizing products to encourage activity; • linking spending and benefits to entitlement (e.g. to social security) or behaviour (e.g. seeking work); • regulations backed by (a) enforcement with harsh penalties or legal sanctions, (b) standards to encourage behavioural change, or (c) voluntary agreements to encourage businesses or individuals to regulate themselves (Lodge and Weigrich, 2012;Baggott, 1986); • public services: universal or targeted, free or with charges, delivered directly or via non-governmental organizations in quasi-markets; • public education, advertising, or promotion; • establishing or reforming policymaking units or departments; • behavioural instruments, to 'nudge' behaviour (John, 2011;Pykett et al., 2017); • the 'tools of policy formulation' , including commissioning research and funding to give advice on policy (Jordan and Turnpenny, 2015); • modes of governance, such as when governments seek to 'coproduce' policy with citizens rather than simply stipulate their behaviour (Durose and Richardson, 2015;Durose et al., 2017). ...
Book
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There is a broad consensus across European states and the EU that social and economic inequality is a problem that needs to be addressed. Yet inequality policy is notoriously complex and contested. This book approaches the issue from two linked perspectives. First, a focus on functional requirements highlights what policymakers think they need to deliver policy successfully, and the gap between their requirements and reality. We identify this gap in relation to the theory and practice of policy learning, and to multiple sectors, to show how it manifests in health, education, and gender equity policies. Second, a focus on territorial politics highlights how the problem is interpreted at different scales, subject to competing demands to take responsibility. This contestation and spread of responsibilities contributes to different policy approaches across spatial scales. We conclude that governments promote many separate equity initiatives, across territories and sectors, without knowing if they are complementary or contradictory. This outcome could reflect the fact that ambiguous policy problems and complex policymaking processes are beyond the full knowledge or control of governments. It could also be part of a strategy to make a rhetorically radical case while knowing that they will translate into safer policies. It allows them to replace debates on values, regarding whose definition of equity matters and which inequalities to tolerate, with more technical discussions of policy processes. Governments may be offering new perspectives on spatial justice or new ways to reduce political attention to inequalities.
... A wide body of literature has demonstrated the importance of community and neighborhood qualities and activities and their impact on the well-being of people taking part in these settings (Beresford, 2021;McGowan et al., 2021;Popay et al., 2020;Prilleltensky, 2005Prilleltensky, , 2020Townsend et al., 2020). Community empowerment has been enshrined in health promotion/public health charters and statements for decades (WHO, 1986(WHO, , 2016(WHO, , 2019b and has increasingly been recognized as a key driver for social justice and greater equity in well-being and health (Durose & Richardson, 2016;Marmot et al., 2020;Ponsford et al., 2020;Russell, 2020;Townsend et al., 2020). According to Plunkett et al. (2018), a key component in community development is the amount of and ability to develop and use social capacity to impact desired outcomes in the settings of everyday life. ...
... My arguments for applying such theoretical approaches are grounded in ambitions to facilitate political leadership toward solving complex and unruly societal problems and achieving desired well-being outcomes. Here, co-creation is approached as processes informed by values and relevant knowledge (from an increasingly informed population), at the same time mobilizing socially inclusive citizen engagement and joint action (Ansell & Torfing, 2021a;Durose & Richardson, 2016;Loeffler & Bovaird, 2021). Trust between citizenry and key stakeholders, along with opportunities and skills to participate in democracy and community development, is a key issue in co-creation (Popay et al., 2020) and one to which I pay special attention. ...
Thesis
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Promoting public health and well-being is a challenging process, where widening inequities remain a tricky issue. This dissertation is a public sector PhD in the Levanger Municipality in Norway. It is rooted in public health and health promotion and a need for capacity-building to support well-being for all. The dissertation follows a transdisciplinary approach to ‘doing sociology’ to co-create public value. Its main focus is on including citizens who are at risk of being marginalized, aiming to improve equitable conditions to support capabilities for wellbeing. The purpose is to explore how co-creation can be made socially inclusive and just. The overall research question is: How can co-creation of practices and policies nurture socially inclusive participation and support equitable community well-being? The research question is explored through participatory action research (PAR) by approaching kindergartens as platforms for co-creation. The PAR involved socially inclusive processes for future-forming practices and policies. To prepare the PAR, an initial scoping review on articles at the intersection of health promotion and co-creation found that a merge is promising but lacks theoretical grounding. This cross-fertilization is critically explored, and a conceptual framework to guide socially just co-creation is proposed. Building on this backdrop, the results from the PAR, thematically analyzed, suggest that a “parentpowered” approach renders promising results by supporting inclusive relational coordination and capacity building for co-creation in the settings of everyday life. The dissertation outlines possible pathways to deepening co-creation through advancing relational welfare: a whole systems approach to welfare where people are being valued and add value in a public value co-creation ecosystem that supports fair processes and equitable outcomes. This dissertation argue that future research and innovation should continue to advance this approach. Keywords: well-being, health promotion, co-creation, public value, social justice, relational welfare, participatory action research
... Capacity is not only cognitive but also affective. The government needs the participation of citizens starting from dialogue as an arena for sharing knowledge, learning together where those with expertise and policies produce mutually beneficial solutions (Durose & Richardson, 2016). Involving citizens can be used to increase sensitivity that fosters the noble values of citizenship. ...
... Two verbal words that have been used from generation to generation in the culture of Indonesian society, such as gotong-royong and tepa selira appear predominantly regularly. Informal communication adjusts to time (including outside of duty service hours), and the habits of MSMEs have become part of improving the way of learning policy sensitivity for Pondok Aren tax office (Durose et al., 2016). ...
Article
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Community leaders indeed become strategic actors for the government. In Pondok Aren, a meatball seller has led the UMKM Sahabat Pajak (USP) or micro, small, and medium enterprises (SME) community tax-friendly, they were successfully directed to mobilize a social movement "We're great at paying taxes" (Bayar Pajak Untung). This study aims to describe how Kantor Pelayanan Pajak (tax office) Pondok Aren seeks lay actors and builds their capacity to become community movers. With the ethnographic research method, the findings show that the government needs to be diligent in looking for them, getting to explore them from the original place every day they are working because persuading citizens with social capital is not enough. The government should not be fascinated by educational and professional backgrounds because it does not guarantee the noble attitude of citizens who voluntarily participate in building a functioning society towards social welfare.
... Young (1990) provides normative reasons for why RM perspectives should be included, which revolve around the basic proposition that it is the right thing to do. The instrumental reason stems from the idea that the service will better meet RM groups' needs where RM groups' needs are specifically included in service delivery, as they provide an informed knowledge base for service delivery (Durose & Richardson, 2016). Public sector organisations (PSOs) articulate a clear commitment and strategy to achieving RM representation. ...
... Responsibilisation describes how individuals can be made responsible for aspects of welfare that the state had previously supported (Durose & Richardson, 2016). However, the responsibilisation critique of co-creation is not applicable in this case because employment support is one service that has always needed individuals' involvement as part of service delivery, with individuals having to take responsibility for their job search. ...
Article
IMPACT This article identifies three conditions that facilitate public sector organizations’ use of inclusive co-creation to achieve social innovation: a commitment to the inclusion of minoritized groups; active strategies for encouraging the participation of minoritized groups; and providing an environment in which minoritized groups can contribute, by sharing power with them so that substantive design inputs are incorporated in service delivery. For public sector organizations at the local level, these conditions can help with making design choices at the start of the co-creation process to ensure that minoritized groups are represented in decision-making processes. Co-creation then becomes the means through which social innovation is achieved because organizations address the social needs of minoritized groups.
... Usually, feasibility is not considered in co-design workshops for products/services since user-generated solution ideas are for finding in-depth needs of user participants, rather than plausible design concepts for actual development (Sanders 2002;Sleeswijk Visser, Van Der Lugt, and Stappers 2007;Ozcelik 2007;Durose and Richardson 2015;Mintrom and Luetjens 2016). In contrast, policy ideas by citizen participants are regarded as potential solutions for final adoption since the solution ideas are subject to 'public decision'. ...
... The trade-offs for winners and losers in the target group (benefit/cost) should be carefully weighed when developing and adopting a policy, which inevitably accompanies a conflict of values and interests among people (Gastil 2000). Many policy researchers explain that coordinating such conflicts and finding common ground can be achieved by enabling one to give an acceptable account of their ideas and carefully and seriously weigh the reasons (Durose and Richardson 2015;Roberts 2004;Carpini et al. 2004;Fearon 1998;Abelson et al. 2003;Fishkin 2011;Fishkin and Luskin 2005). ...
Article
Policy participation requires a democratic decision-making process, though typical co-design approaches focus more on immersing participants in the design process and facilitating creative thinking. This research proposes a new concept of policy co-design workshops to ensure both policy and co-design values. The feasibility and acceptability of policy ideas were found to be key requirements in policy co-design. The requirements were designed to be fulfilled through a gamified policy co-design workshop – Policy Puzzle Game – with a jigsaw puzzle-style toolkit and process. The game was used in real policy development by a municipal government with participating citizens, activists, civil servant s, and design thinking facilitators. The major findings from post-workshop interviews include insights on the engagement process of the game, the unique roles of different stakeholder groups, and their contributions to making policy ideas feasible and acceptable. Based on the findings, possibilities for further application of the game and the significance of the research are discussed.
... Co-production can embrace: 'descriptive' responsibilisation, in which service users are expected to self-manage their care and comply with expectations about what they will contribute to their own well-being; 'intermediate' forms of engagement with and consultation by services and policy makers, where views are expressed but decisions about resource allocation are made elsewhere; and, at its most 'transformative', the transfer of resource and decision making from managers to frontline staff and citizens (Needham and Carr, 2009: 6). This transformative form of co-production requires reciprocity and reflexivity such that citizens and professionals change their perceptions of themselves and their roles, and develop trust in each other (Durose and Richardson, 2016). Bovaird et al. (2016: 17) argue that collective co-production only occurs when 'both citizens and professionals make a significant contribution', and this underlines the distinction between co-production and self-help or provision of information without opportunities to influence decisions. ...
... Like active citizenship, co-production can be motivated by reductive logics, making citizens responsible for co-producing services to meet their own communities' needs in the context of austerity and reduced provision of social resources. But co-production can also be more activist, when it opens up the value-based rationalities of policy making to political challenge and encompasses an 'additive logic' in which provision of social resources is sustained and combined with additional citizen action (Durose and Richardson, 2016). ...
Article
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Early help or early intervention is increasingly recommended for safeguarding children living with domestic violence, but little is known about what is effective. This article discusses findings from an evaluation of a pioneering early help service in North West England. This new service aimed to improve the safety and wellbeing of families (mothers and children) who were assessed as below the level of ‘high risk’ domestic violence and below the threshold for a child protection order. Between January 2014 and March 2015, families (473 mothers and 541 children) were identified within multiagency safeguarding hubs and referred to the early help service. The service that emerged was somewhat different to the service expected. This article discusses findings from qualitative data gathered from 39 participants (mothers, children and service providers) involved in the programme. Three main issues emerged as themes from the interviews: the benefits of having any service at all for children living with domestic violence who slip off the agendas of professionals working with child protection and high‐risk domestic violence; the importance of flexibility of key worker‐led service delivery; and the suitability of current group work and therapeutic models for meeting the varied needs of families affected by domestic violence. Key Practitioner Messages • Children, mothers and service providers reported both a perceived need for early help and a positive impact from domestic violence early help services on child health and emotional wellbeing. • The ability of services to flex their delivery model in response to the needs of families is important for supporting engagement of, and fostering a sense of control for, families receiving support. • Confidentiality, reliability, respect and trust are key factors in developing an effective key worker‐family relationship. ‘Discusses findings from an evaluation of a pioneering early help service in North West England’
... In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the potential for design methodologies and approaches to enhance the development, implementation, and evaluation of public policies (Durose & Richardson, 2015;Kimbell & Vesnić-Alujević, 2020;Lewis et al., 2020). This recognition stems from a broader acknowledgment of the complex and interconnected challenges facing governments and societies worldwide, ranging from environmental sustainability and social inequality to digital transformation and technological innovation (European Commission et al., 2019). ...
... We hope that the process of co-design in narrative development will ensure individuals within the high-level actor network retain a vested interest in returning year-onyear, whilst co-design is evidenced to be an effective tool for establishing trust and meaningful collaboration in research (Bradwell and Marr 2017;Durose and Richardson 2016). ...
... About the balance between the scientific rigour and the open bottom-up design that may merge the urgent actors' needs (Moser 2016), we argue the researcher plays a crucial role. For instance, Blomkamp (2018) by referring to Roggema (2014) and Durose & Richardson (2016) depicts the policy-maker in co-design as a figure that shifts from a "prima donna" role to a facilitating role without losing the scope of gaining scientific evidences from the process. On the contrary, the co-design process creates an addition of knowledge with the contribution of the participants. ...
Article
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Research Through Design (RTD) needs to reconsider the meaning of “designing” in the research process of “through design.” We propose Research Through Co-design (RTC) as a new application of Control System Theory (CST) that includes a research problem assigned to a co-design process in RTD. It embeds the participatory paradigm through collaborative design practice and makes the research a collaborative process for learning from all the participants. To sustain the RTC theory, we present a cognitive model of RTC. It is a “model for” – rather than a “model of” – describing how the co-design, as a neural network process, works through its nodes’ collaboration to find co-designed solutions and the research answer. Diversity increases as non-experts and non-designers with different backgrounds participate. This is valuable for the RTC learning system. The discussions highlight the possibility of considering (i) the RTC model as useful for describing a robust RTD process through CST; (ii) RTC as a cognitive model for explaining the value of co-design in research processes; and (iii) RTC as a strategy for applying the participative paradigm in formal research. Finally, new insights and implications are highlighted, including using RTC as a predictive tool through artificial intelligence.
... expertise "knowledge" (e.g.,Krueger 2015); "different forms of expertise"(Durose and Richardson 2016) 24 50 Experience from different practices"experience from real world practice" (Polk 2015) 9 19 Perspective "other types of relevant perspectives" (Polk 2015) 3 6 Unspecified "resources" (Blume 2016); "assets" (Lindsay et al. 2021) 14 29 Others "needs" (Reimann et al. 2021); "natural, human, financial and manufactured capital" service "public services" (e.g., Kelly and Lloyd-Williams 2013); "urban services" (Bwalya and Seethal 2013) 48 52 Knowledge "knowledge" (e.g., Polk 2015); "new knowledge" (Korhonen-Kurki et al. 2022) 27 29 Public good ...
Article
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Co-production is a concept that is becoming increasingly popular across various fields including planning. This article reviews planning literature on co-production and reveals that the term has not been well defined. The existing definitions are inconsistent and ambiguous, requiring more conceptual clarity to avoid contention. Based on the systematic literature review, and aided by bibliometric analysis, the article identifies seven dimensions within the current definitions of co-production: (1) actor, (2) reason, (3) input, (4) output, (5) phase, (6) means, and (7) context. This article concludes by proposing a conceptual and analytical framework for defining co-production in planning theory and practice.
... La participación pública es un elemento clave de una democracia que funciona, permitiendo a los ciudadanos participar en los procesos de toma de decisiones que afectan sus vidas (Durose y Richardson, 2015). La importancia de la participación pública se subraya en el estudio de Acasandre (2020), que analizó el proceso en Bucarest. ...
Article
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Este estudio investiga el impacto de la información, la consulta y la comunicación en las administraciones públicas locales rumanas dentro de la esfera en línea, donde la transición digital complementa los métodos tradicionales e introduce nuevas oportunidades y desafíos. La atención se centra en la participación pública en las comunicaciones en línea, especialmente en lo que respecta a las invitaciones a consultas públicas de las administraciones locales. Los datos de las publicaciones de Facebook de los municipios de Constanta y Cluj-Napoca se analizaron mediante FanPageKarma y RStudio, lo que brindó información sobre la participación pública. La investigación subraya la importancia de las plataformas en línea para promover la transparencia, la participación ciudadana y la toma de decisiones colaborativa en la gobernanza abierta. Revela que a pesar de que el número de puestos de consulta pública es relativamente bajo, afirman el compromiso con la gobernanza participativa. Curiosamente, las publicaciones que no invitaban explícitamente a la consulta pública registraron tasas de participación más altas, lo que sugiere la necesidad de contenido atractivo y comprensión de la audiencia. El estudio también encontró que los puestos de planificación urbana tenían una menor participación, lo que indica una posible necesidad de estrategias de comunicación más simples para temas técnicos. Los hallazgos destacan que, si bien las plataformas digitales se han utilizado de manera efectiva para la participación ciudadana, existe la necesidad de una mejora y adaptación continuas para mantener una gobernanza transparente e inclusiva. La investigación se suma a nuestra comprensión de las estrategias empleadas en las transiciones digitales y la importancia de medir la percepción pública de la comunicación en línea.
... Collaborative services are, by their nature, dynamic and variable; it is difficult to validate theorical collaborative models due to the complexity of service network. As collaboration is 'a means of transforming public services, by challenging traditional relationships or power, control and expertise' (Durose and Richardson, 2016) further empirical studies of the relational dynamics within public sector organisations is required. It is only through application and reflection that insights and limitations of theorical models can be tested and adapted to the dynamic environment of collaborative governance. ...
Article
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Collaborative governance which repositions citizens as service co-ordinators - has become an increasingly visible methodology within public organisations. In this new model, service management is dependent upon a complex series of iterative interactions between multiple stakeholders, making the service network is notoriously difficult to manage. Shared Service Organisations (SSOs) - unit(s) within an enterprise that deliver specialized, value-added services across the organization to multiple internal users – are uniquely positioned to understand and manipulate the complex, non-linear, relational nature of collaborative networks and fully harness operant resources for long-term impactful service delivery. Despite significant potential for SSOs within collaborative governance, there is a surprising lack of insight best managerial practices and the effect on staff behaviour, and even more so on the potential of SSOs to manage these networks. This research presents a single in-depth case study with the Project Management Office of an Irish national economic development agency using a Participatory Action Research (PAR) Methodology within a Design Thinking Framework. This allowed the researcher to see and interact with the challenges faced by participants and hone their understanding of influencing factors and contextual considerations. The research identified three key managerial implications. Firstly, explicit actions to establish and maintain a service mindset - which recognises and values operant resources - must be formally implemented into SSO operations. It is not sufficient to for managers to assume staff have a service orientated mindset, particularly when existing organisational processes reinforce old practices through quantifiable, process orientated outputs. Secondly, critical reflection must be formally integrated into management processes and must support the questioning of current operations in an open and frank atmosphere. Formalising time for critical reflection provides staff with opportunities and resources to question old practices and discuss and construct knowledge collaboratively. Thirdly, relational user engagement and communication practices within SSO service strategies must be deliberate and strategic. Due to the integrated nature of SSOs and the collaborative nature of their operations, clear operational and interaction guidelines empowers SSO staff fully harness their strategic role, question high level management and support critical strategic thinking.
... Number of service users. A precondition for a successful co-creation is the "salience of the problem", implying a recognition by stakeholders that a problem/topic is important enough for them to get actively engaged (Chaebo and Medeiros, 2017;Durose and Richardson, 2016a;Van Eijk and Steen, 2016). Accordingly, a service that is often used and is considered important by citizens (and their loved ones) is more likely to ensure motivation and involvement of external co-creators (Vanleene et al., 2017). ...
Article
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Purpose This paper aims to develop a model that supports public organisations in making informed strategic decisions as to which public services are most suitable to be improved through co-creation. Thus, it first identifies the features that make public services (un)suitable for co-creation and then applies this knowledge to develop a multi-criteria decision support model for the assessment of their co-creation readiness. Design/methodology/approach The decision support model is the result of design science research. While its structure is determined by a qualitative multi-criteria decision analysis, its substance builds on a content analysis of Web of Science papers and over a dozen empirical case studies. Findings The model is comprised of 13 criteria clustered into two groups: service readiness criteria from the perspective of service users and service readiness criteria from the perspective of a public organisation. Research limitations/implications The model attributes rely on a limited number of empirical cases and references from the literature review. The model was tested by only one public organisation on four of its services. Originality/value The paper shifts the research focus from organisational properties and capacity, as the key co-creation drivers and barriers, to features of public services as additional factors that affect the prospect of co-creation. Thus, it makes a pioneering step towards the conceptualisation of the idea of “service readiness for co-creation” and the development of a practical instrument that supports co-creation in the public sector.
... Individual co-production indicates situations in which an individual is the producer and beneficiary at the same time (e.g., home-schooling services); group co-production describes situations where a specific group of citizens are both producers and beneficiaries (e.g., residents of a neighbourhood engaging in watch schemes); collective co-production involves a group of citizens as providers of a service (e.g., time-banking) but the beneficiaries are the wider community. Despite specificities, the assumption is that these relationships offer the basis for a different form of efficiency in managing public resources and delivering public services [31,64], promising also to enhance public participation. Public sector innovation labs are spaces that allow citizens to participate in the development of alternative e-government solutions [8,46,63,74] to overcome high failure rates in user experience [51,97]. ...
... Globally, co-production has most commonly involved local authorities and other public sector institutions engaging with residents and organised community groups, often in relation to service provision. This derives from initial work by Roger Parks and colleagues including Elinor and Victor Ostrom (1981) and the diverse forms have recently been characterised as constituting a typology in terms of the degree of participation by service users (Brandsen and Honingh, 2016; see also Polk, 2015aPolk, , 2015bDurose and Richardson, 2016;Wolf and Mahaffey, 2016). Nevertheless, nowadays the term co-production also applies to diverse forms, partnerships and applications of research, including, for instance, in relation to global change and peri-urban disaster risk reduction (Mauser et al, 2013;Schaer and Komlavi Hanonou, 2017) and the health sector. ...
... Despite the growing number of models for the structures and policies necessary to support co-production and newer models of evaluation (e.g. Durose and Richardson, 2016), we have limited evidence about whether these approaches are sustainable in the longer term. ...
Article
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This study explores co-production between practitioners and service users through a longitudinal analysis of two programmes, identifying the factors that facilitate or prevent co-production from being sustainable over the longer term. There is no one 'best practice' for sustainable co-production; rather, it is contingent upon the nature of the service and the environment in which it operates. Sustainable co-production requires an alignment between four elements-structure, skills, resources, and mutual commitment. Structure (design and framework for co-production) must be able to deploy available resources and skills so that service users' and professionals' commitment to continue co-production is fostered.
... The benefits of co-creation in public management and service delivery include building trust in institutions (Fledderus et al., 2014); enhancing democratic accountability in policymaking (Nabatchi et al., 2017;Durose & Richardson, 2016), and strengthening social cohesion by empowering marginalized groups (Torfing et al., 2019). Essentially, what emerges from the literature is that the involvement of citizens in co-creation is considered intrinsically valuable, a goal in itself, regardless of the quality or effectiveness of its outputs (McGann et al., 2019). ...
Technical Report
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This Guidebook is the final deliverable of the work package 4 (WP4) of the UPLIFT project. The overall aim of this work package was to explore how young people’s voices can be put at the centre of youth policy. In order to do this, we carried out four parallel policy co-creation processes with young people in four different locations across Europe, each with a different focus – education, housing and NEET youth. The process took the best part of three years and involved several institutional stakeholders, as well as dozens of young people. This deliverable is a comprehensive outlook of the WP4 work in all four locations – Tallin, Sfântu Gheorghe, Barakaldo and Amsterdam.
... Approaches such as collaborative action research (Bennett and Brunner 2022), participatory action research (Kemmis et al 2014), action learning (Revans 1982), and action science (Argyris et al 1985) provide methodological processes for involving researchers in practice-shaping inquiry. Co-production (Durose and Richardson 2015), co-creation, and co-operative inquiry conversely engage practitioners in the design of core elements of the research process, ensuring that practice-relevant needs are taken on board and extending ownership of the research process. Although there are distinctions within each tradition, often in terms of methods and processes used, the approaches are 'loosely-linked' (Weick 1976) as a broad field of 'action-oriented' research roles, methods and tools which seem conceptually appropriate to the responsive, iterative, and engaged research demands of a complexity-informed public service praxis (French and Hawkins 2020). ...
Book
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Building on research in public health, social epidemiology and the social determinants of health, this book presents complexity theory as an alternative basis for an outcome-oriented public management praxis. It takes a critical approach towards New Public Management and provides new conceptual inroads for reappraising public management in theory and practice. It advances two practical approaches: Human Learning Systems (a model for public service reform) and Learning Partnerships (a model for research and academic engagement in complex settings). Open Access via https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/harnessing-complexity-for-better-outcomes-in-public-and-non-profit-services With up-to-date and extensive discussions on public service reform, this book provides practical and action-oriented guidance for a radical change of course in management and governance.
... Across the broader landscape of policy studies, one can view relationality as part of the interpretive turn in policy scholarship. This can be understood in the same spirit as other studies' attempts to describe how policy is constructed through the interactions of multiple policy actors (e.g., Durose and Richardson, 2015). Focusing on relationality means understanding these interactions as, in part, expression of relationships among these actors. ...
Book
This Element argues that relational policy analysis can provide deeper insights into the career of any policy and the dynamics of any policy situation. This task is all the more difficult as the relational often operates unseen in the backstages of a policy arena. Another issue is the potentially unbounded scope of a relational analysis. But these challenges should not dissuade policy scholars from beginning to address the theme of relationality in public policy. This Element sketches a conceptual framework for the study of relationality and illustrates some of the promise of relational analysis using an extended case study. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
... Co-design, in particular, is based on the democratic principle that all those 'affected by design decisions should be involved in the process of making the decisions' (Sanoff 1990, i). Co-designing and co-producing strategic plans with community members increases the likelihood of governments meeting the needs of residents and stakeholders, as well as achieving joint ownership for solutions (Torfing and Ansell 2017;Durose and Richardson 2016). Collaborating with diverse actors can fundamentally change the way public problems are perceived and prevent public sector organizations 'from wasting money, time and energy on solving the "wrong" problem' (Sørensen and Torfing 2015, 152). ...
Article
Full-text available
In 2021, faced with rolling changes to the rules of community engagement due to COVID restrictions, Port Macquarie-Hastings Council, a local government on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, embarked on the creation of their new Cultural Plan. With State Government legislation requiring local governments to create strategic planning with documented community engagement, an opportunity presented itself for the researchers to work with council and community. In this research, we combined a modified Design Thinking model, Co-Design Principles and Harvard Kennedy School’s Public Policy Design Arc. Our aim was to explore, firstly, whether this approach might build the capacity of both council staff and community representatives in the use of design methods for strategic planning, and secondly, whether it could provide a framework of genuine community engagement for council staff. This paper discusses how and why these approaches were adapted for a local government to create the ‘SITT Model’ and how council staff and community representatives responded to the process.
... The Constitution establishes the normative framework for public participation, makes it mandatory for policy and law-making processes, establishes the key institutions for public participation and directs the establishment of statutory bodies and enactment of legislation for effective participation (Smith, 2020). Among the factors that continue to hinder public participation include lack of enabling policy, legal and institutional frameworks; deficient civic education; lack of capacity; inadequate resources, and; inimical cultural attitudes and practices (Durose & Richardson, 2015). Strengthening public participation and governance is a core element in Kenya's strategy to accelerate growth and address long-standing inequalities in economic opportunities, investment, and service delivery in different parts of the country (Shimengah, 2018). ...
... increasing service access or quality) as well as intrinsic motivations such as to gain independence, confidence and social links (Alford, 2014;Van Eijk and Steen, 2014). Many of these purported benefits are difficult or impossible to evidence, due to the trickiness of assessing qualitative improvements as well as the temporal and spatial distances that may exist between co-production activities and the benefits they are argued to produce (Durose and Richardson, 2016). For example, coproducing family support services may result in reducing the strain on housing services, mental health support and criminal justice. ...
Article
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In this paper, I explore how different conceptions of public value influence the types of co-production that professionals undertake in delivering projects to reduce loneliness and isolation of older people. The analysis shows a preponderance of individual and group co-production by the case in England, driven by aims to create user and group value, whereas the French case emphasizes collective co-production linked to social and political value. The research contributes to the co-production literature by showing how types of co-production are prioritized to a different extent to address the same social problem, shaped in part by cultural and political context.
... It outlines an intention to achieve equitable relations between living beings, things and ecologies that can be represented and have agency. Here design expertise and traditions are in dialogue with understandings of co-production and democracy (Durose & Richardson, 2015;Saward, 2021). ...
Article
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The term 'social design' is used in a variety of contexts, but - or maybe because of this - it is far from clear what it means. The starting point for this paper is that there is a need for stronger and more critical community discourse to understand and clarify what social design is and what it does. By analyzing key texts, the paper identifies commonalities, disagreements and unresolved questions in relation to social design. Drawing on the example of citizen science, the paper argues for a need to develop principles for social design for further inquiry and discipline-building for social design. The paper offers twelve principles that focus on the notion of the social in social design, its methods and practices and its normative intent, as well as its critical reflexivity. These principles are intended as a 'potluck' boundary object to kickstart a stronger social design community. The paper reports feedback from two workshops where these principles were discussed and tested with design academics suggesting how the principles can be applied.
... Design thinking is not about developing an optimal prescription but rather about questioning presumptions and existing ways of doing things. Design is both creative and inventive and deeply human (Durose and Richardson, 2015). ...
Chapter
Built on the notion of 'cities as forces for good' (CFG), the purpose of this chapter is to dissect the problematique of reclaiming and greening degraded spaces in Africa's drylands for urban development. The focus of the chapter is on the Sahara and the Kalahari deserts. The chapter adopts a critical literature review anchored in case study analysis and reflexive methodology. These methodologies are critical for constructing and reconstructing reality in a way that speaks to pragmatism. Literature reviews point to the visioning of the future Sahara and Kalahari deserts in which complexes of regional cities arise. The cities become endogenous attractors of populations and pose newer solutions to the challenges that existing cities have today, of pollution, congestion, sprawling, and shrinking job markets. Indeed, the next desert complexes will act as paragons of cities as forces for good. Decentralized mechanisms for energy, water, food production, and waste management are proposed.
... However well intentioned, such initiatives have, though, typically reported modest, poorly sustained outcomes (Kerr and Dyson 2017;Duveneck et al. 2021;Rees, Power, and Taylor 2007). A factor widely identified as contributing to this is that place-based initiatives have tended to perpetuate deficit narratives about their target areas and those living in them (Durose and Richardson 2016). Gulson (2005), for instance, describes how policymakers can easily develop a deficit narrative of blaming local people for not taking the opportunities policy has (supposedly) made available to them to improve their outcomes -whether or not these are realistically accessible. ...
Article
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Background Internationally, young people experiencing poverty and related disadvantages do least well in school. These inequalities tend to be concentrated in places with high levels of poverty and poor outcomes across multiple domains. Although place-based initiatives are sometimes used by policymakers as a vehicle to improve outcomes, such programmes often fail to engage meaningfully with local resources, further marginalising disadvantaged communities. Purpose This article considers what asset-based approaches, which seek to understand existing resources (assets) in disadvantaged places, might bring to such situations. Focused on a disadvantaged inner-city neighbourhood in England, it explores professionals’ and young people’s understandings of assets through an assets-mapping approach. Method During a two-year study, a university researcher was embedded in a secondary school, and 10 students (aged 13) were trained as co-researchers. Utilising visual mapping methods, they conducted 17 focus groups (45 minutes each) with around 225 of their peers in total. In addition, the researcher conducted 14 semi-structured interviews with a group of local multi-agency professionals and with the co-researchers. Data were analysed thematically. Findings The analysis indicated that professionals and young people understood the neighbourhood’s assets in relation to perceived ‘lived territories’. Professionals described different residential groups as ‘owning’ different geographical ‘territories’, identifying professionally-led institutions as assets that could transcend these. Conversely, young people talked about ‘territories’ primarily in terms of power and control: they identified self-defined social spaces, away from professional scrutiny, as among the neighbourhood’s most valuable assets. Conclusion Exploring the students’ and professionals’ contrasting positions through Giddens’ notion of regionalisation, which distinguishes front spaces (i.e. professional and public-facing) and back spaces (i.e. private and personally developed), suggests that the tangible nature of assets is perhaps less important than the different power relationships at play within them. The study highlights the necessity of working in partnership with young people throughout the development of place-based initiatives.
... It provides money transfers to women farmers to purchase cattle and buffaloes [42]. Previous research has suggested co-creation, involving local communities in local and national policy development and implementation, can be innovative and provide real-time feedback on policy plans, as well as increase transparency of the values and politics underlying interventions and programmes [43,44]. Any policy or intervention targeting one part of the dairy food supply chain (e.g., dairy production or consumption practices) would benefit from in-depth engagement with communities, such as those sampled, to take account of local concerns and develop inclusive and feasible pathways to move towards more sustainable and healthier food systems. ...
Article
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Background Managing the role of dairy foods in healthy and sustainable food systems is challenging. Milk production is associated with greenhouse gas emissions and milk-based processed foods can be high in fat, sugar and salt; yet, milk production provides income generating opportunities for farmers and dairy foods provide essential nutrients to young children, with a cultural significance in many communities. This is particularly relevant to India, the world’s largest producer of milk. The aim of this study was to use Photovoice, a participatory research method, to explore the experiences and perceptions of communities in India on the role of dairy products in local sustainable and healthy food systems. Methods Purposive sampling recruited two women’s self-help groups in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh: one in a rural area and one in an urban area. A total of 31 participants (10–17 urban group and 12–14 rural group), produced photographs with captions to represent their views on how dairy was produced, sold, and consumed in their community. A discussion workshop was held in each area, with prompts to consider health and the environment. Workshop transcripts, photographs and captions were analysed qualitatively using thematic analysis. Results A range of experiences and perceptions were discussed by the two women’s self help groups. Participants had an awareness of their local food system and how stages of dairy food supply chains were non-linear and inherently interconnected. Three main themes were identified: 1) Quality and value matters to producers and consumers; 2) The need to adapt to sustain dairy farmer livelihoods in water scarce areas; 3) It’s not only about health. Conclusions Moderate milk-producing states such as Andhra Pradesh will continue to develop their dairy industry through policy actions. Including communities in policy discussions through innovative methods like Photovoice can help to maximise the positive and minimise the negative role of dairy in evolving local food systems.
... By incorporating users into the design process, the end result is more likely to better match or represent user needs [67,68]. This is re-emphasised by Burns, Cottam, Vanstone and Winhall [69] who argue that users are experts in their own right as experts in their experiences, which leads them to have valid inputs into solutions to challenges that impact them. ...
Article
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Having been widely acknowledged as enabling access to education, employment, leisure and social activities, transport choices are also the cause of many challenges cities face. Recognising that change is needed, planners and policymakers are considering alternative methods of planning and delivering transport. Mobility as a Service (or MaaS) is one such idea that has gained traction with academics and professionals alike. Hailed as the answer to integrating complex transport systems, MaaS has yet to be implemented at scale in urban transport systems due in part to the lack of an agreed conceptual definition, the top-down approach to implementing what is meant to be a more personalised method of accessing transport, and the lack of local promoters (in comparison to global corporations and lobbyists). This article reflects on the current barriers to defining MaaS, considers how a novel public engagement approach could be used to create local definitions that support citizen engagement, and suggests a route forward for future research.
... The solution, then, is to be more critical and reflective about aspects of the policy sciences that appear to serve epistemic transition while perpetuating old ways of thinking; this involves an approach that is 'radical' in the original sense of the wordrevisiting unadulterated core ideas and re-routing their evolution towards a different epistemic vision. This epistemic transition is synonymous with what Berger and Esguerra (2017) From the applied perspective, the policy sciences see participatory mechanisms and their variants (e.g., coproduction; Durose and Richardson, 2015) as necessary if not beneficial in the policymaking process. McDougal et al. (1973) argued that equal access to knowledge by "territorial and pluralistic groups" is essential for legitimizing the policymaking process and its outputs; without access to information, nonelites can be marginalized and their views "dismissed as the fruit of ignorance and bias" (p. ...
Book
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This Element explores the uncertain future of public policy practice and scholarship in an age of radical disruption. Building on foundational ideas in policy sciences, we argue that an anachronistic instrumental rationalism underlies contemporary policy logic and limits efforts to understand new policy challenges. We consider whether the policy sciences framework can be reframed to facilitate deeper understandings of this anachronistic epistemic, in anticipation of a research agenda about epistemic destabilization and contestation. The Element applies this theoretical provocation to environmental policy and sustainability, issues about which policymaking proceeds amid unpredictable contexts and rising sociopolitical turbulence that portend a liminal state in the transition from one way of thinking to another. The Element concludes by contemplating the fate of policy's epistemic instability, anticipating what policy understandings will emerge in a new system, and questioning the degree to which either presages a seismic shift in the relationship between policy and society.
... The benefits of co-creation in public management and service delivery include building trust in institutions (Fledderus et al., 2014); enhancing democratic accountability in policymaking (Nabatchi et al., 2017;Durose and Richardson, 2016), and strengthening social cohesion by empowering marginalized groups (Torfing et al., 2019). Essentially, what emerges from the literature is that the involvement of citizens in co-creation is considered intrinsically valuable, a goal in itself, regardless of the quality or effectiveness of its outputs . ...
Technical Report
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This deliverable is titled ‘Updated Action Plans for the co-creation process’ and it consists of a common methodological approach, the state of the art of the Local Action Plans of the four WP4 implementation sites, and a reflection on the co-creation process. This deliverable is the formal update of D4.1, which is taken as the starting point to further explain the evolution of the co-creation activities in the four locations. In particular, compared to D4.1 the theoretical section has been updated with some new perspectives on the Capability Approach, and the methodological section has been updated to reflect changed practices, and clearer guidelines on diversity and gender approaches. The four sections on the state of the art of the four Local Action Plans are totally new, and they explain the progress that occurred in each location in terms of stakeholders, participation of young people, process and outputs. Finally, a new section has been added in which we reflect on the nature of the co-creation process as we have experienced it in all the WP4 implementation sites. The deliverable ends with an outline of the future steps that will be taken in WP4.
... A third approach conceptualizes policy design as democratic politics based on qualitative participatory democracy (as opposed to electorally legitimated power), and combining procedures and outcomes. Unlike the technocratic ideal-type and evidence-based policy making, it advocates co-production incorporating more knowledge and using a wider range of evidence through "participatory positivism" (Durose and Richardson, 2015). It also considers procedural legitimacy as the best way to generate policy legitimacy, following deliberative and argumentative procedures. ...
Chapter
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In this chapter we operationalize the Policy Design Framework through a four-fold model of causation, evaluation, instrumentation and intervention. We delve into the theories of policy design around three common threads: the politics of policy design, policy instrumentation and social constructivism. Then we deal with the main problems of causation, namely the multiple causes of policy problems and bounded rationality in decision-making. We proceed with the problems raised by evaluation, framing and values, considering the importance of ideas and cognitive frames, on the one hand, and policy change through re-design, on the other hand. We also discuss the core aspects of instrumentation and coordination related to governance, institutional frames and coordination mechanisms. Eventually we present a series of innovations in contemporary models of intervention, such as design thinking and policy labs, or deliberation and co-design. The concluding section draws on the future of policy design regarding complexity, expertise and collaboration in the four-fold model of our framework.
... From this perspective, whether or not the public sector should participate in co-production and co-creation initiatives is no longer an option (Ansell and Torfing 2021;Parrado et al. 2013). Likewise, proponents of co-production and co-creation argue that there is a potential for public and private actors to learn from each other and mutually benefit from developing new networks for collaboration (Durose and Richardson 2015). More critical voices contend that all the buzzwords cover up a neoliberal market dispositive (Abildgaard and Jørgensen 2021) or (yet) a neoliberal trend foregrounding cost savings and privatization, where welfare services-previously provided by professionals-are now being handed over to volunteers and other civil society actors (Van Houdt, Suvarierol, and Schinkel 2011). ...
Article
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Over the past decade, co-production and co-creation have become central buzzwords throughout society. The terms engender a fundamental participatory ethos, entailing an increasing involvement in decision-making processes of a variety of people across diverse contexts, who should be given a voice in a wide range of practices to a higher degree than previously done. To a large extent, this participatory wave thus creates new challenges and dilemmas for employees in contemporary organizations. For instance, many public employees (frontline workers) experience challenges regarding translating (and/or enacting) co-creative/co-productive policy objectives into (in) their practices. A central obstacle seems to be the fact that existing organizational frameworks and conditions are often rooted in contradictory management paradigms and reified institutionalized practices, complicating participatory aspirations and processes in various ways. In different ways, the contributions in this issue critically address and discuss a variety of challenges related to co-production and co-creation in contemporary society.
... A shift to the co-production of services may not seem a controversial means of cutting costs and, indeed, has been supported not only as a means by which services can be made more effective and appropriate to varying needs (Boviard, 2007;Durose and Richardson, 2015), but as a significant advance in developing inclusive citizen participation (Rosen and Painter, 2019). However, concerns about the social justice implications of co-production in the context of state retrenchment are emerging. ...
Article
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A decade of austerity has amplified concern about who gets what from public services. The article considers the socio-economic and gendered impacts of cuts to local environmental services which have increased the need for citizens to report service needs and effectively ‘co-produce’ services. Via a case study of a UK council’s decade of administrative data on citizen requests and service responses, the article provides one of the first detailed analyses of the unfolding impact of austerity cuts over time on public service provision. It demonstrates the impact of austerity across the social gradient, but disproportionately on the least affluent, especially women. The article argues for the importance of detailed empirical examination of administrative data for making visible, and potentially tackling, long standing inequalities in public service provision.
... It is also important that all parties share a common understanding of the basic principles of the process and are prepared for constructive interaction(Surva, Tõnurist and Lember 2016). Precisely, this means that they have a clear idea about the expected outcomes and each other's goals, respect each other and are open-minded to change their positions in the light of stronger arguments(Kemp and Rotmans 2009;Fledderus, Brandsen and Honingh 2014;Richardson 2016a and2016c). In addition to the need for establishing this relationship from an early stage of the policy process (McCabe 2016), another relevant driver is the feeling among the participants that they have sufficient time for deliberation and performance of the tasks required (vs. ...
Article
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Co-creation is promoted as a solution to the 'wicked' problems of today. Despite its applicability across policy areas and its promising effects, culture is often referred to separately, as a special field of interest and favourable environment for co-creation. Although this tacitly implies that this policy area features rather different conditions for co-creation, there are no solid arguments to justify the fact that culture is treated differently than other policy areas. To address this dilemma, the paper aims to answer whether and to what extent co-creation drivers and barriers in the area of culture are 'policy specific'. This is achieved with the help of a systematic literature review and a case study of the 2020 Rijeka European Capital of Culture project. On this basis, the paper concludes that there are no 'culture specific' drivers and barriers to justify the 'special treatment' of culture as a substantially different co-creation arena.
... Second, the directive promotes public communication about harmful events (Art.23) but this public involvement is mostly unidirectional, highly bureaucratised (Art.24), and hence far from the idea of transparency and co-production of knowledge (Carrozza 2014;May and Perry 2017;Durose and Richardson 2016) wished in the SF, in the post-normal science (Funtowicz and Ravetz 1992) and in the open science movement (Elliot and Resnik 2019). Third, the Italian law (Legislative Decree 152/06) on RSINs is insufficient since the remediation efforts are mandatory only in proximity to the source of contamination, without considering diffused damages and losses in the ecosystems. ...
Article
This paper provides a re-signification of industrial risk as a slow-burning issue (Mah [2017] “Environmental justice in the age of big data: challenging toxic blind spots of voice, speed, and expertise.” Environmental Sociology 3 (2): 122–133.), invisibly and violently diffusing across time and space and affecting relational entanglements between human and non-human components of risk landscapes. As an alternative to a planning approach based on quantitative and objective data, the authors propose to build strategic planning of riskscapes upon what they call small data, that is, the ensemble of qualitative and embodied data that can be gathered through street science (Corburn [2005]. Street Science: Community Knowledge and Environmental Health Justice. Cambridge: MIT Press.) and toxic autobiographies (Armiero et al. [2019]. “Toxic Bios: Toxic Autobiographies – A Public Environmental Humanities Project.” Environmental Justice, 1–5. ). In order to discuss the potential role of both small data and toxic autobiographies in the planning field, the authors present the results of an ongoing empirical case study in Gela, a Sicilian town converted into one of the main Italian petrochemical poles in the 1960s by a multinational oil company. The authors analyse Gela’s risk landscapes through the perceptions of citizens and their initiatives to tackle environmental injustices. Finally, the authors argue that small data can provide a better understanding of the landscape of risk through four lenses that allow seeing the slow and diffused change brought by industrial risk: memories of injustice, memories of smell, trans-corporeal stories, and relational stories.
... However, synergies are possible as institutions collaborate across sectors and boundaries. As illustrated by the rapid development of the fields of collaborative governance (Emerson et al., 2012) and co-production (Durose & Richardson, 2015;Howlett et al., 2017), cooperation, partnerships and engagement can become common alternatives to state-society confrontation and competition under the right set of circumstances (Li & Wong, 2019). Hence, the co-existence of a strong state, an autonomous bureaucracy and a vibrant civil society is feasible, whilst other combinations of their strengths under various settings of state-society relations can also arise. ...
Article
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This article examines the importance of an autonomous bureaucracy and a strong civil society in the combat against COVID-19 by analysing the policy responses of Hong Kong under the combined framework of policy capacity and Political Nexus Triads (PNT). The case of Hong Kong underlines the importance of state–society interactions in constituting policy responses under a weak or failed state. From the perspective of collaborative governance, it is crucial for citizens to be engaged as partners in public policies, thus highlighting a certain degree of complementarity between state and non-state actors in the co-production of public policies.
... As has been argued elsewhere, concerns "about the requisite time and cost of co-productive policy approaches should be taken into account when managers decide which policy issues warrant a more participative approach" (McGann, Wells, and Blomkamp 2021, 16). Other research on co-design, co-production and public sector innovation has similarly highlighted the challenge of introducing designerly methods and participatory practice into the hierarchical and bureaucratic culture and structures of government (Bason 2014;McGann, Wells, and Blomkamp 2021;Lewis, McGann, and Blomkamp 2020;Blomkamp 2018;Durose and Richardson 2016;Aguirre Ulloa 2020). Despite the challenge and cost of participatory approaches, systemic design may nevertheless "pay off in the longer run in terms of establishing solutions that enjoy a higher degree of endorsement and robustness" (Dieckmann et al. 2020, 158). ...
Article
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As the complexity of policy problems is increasingly recognized, and participatory approaches gain popularity, policy workers are applying different methods to engage a wide range of stakeholders and citizens in policy development and implementation. Alongside burgeoning interest in various forms of design and systems thinking, systemic design has emerged as a descriptor for a practice that integrates dialogue, design and co-creation for sensemaking and decision-making. As an approach to participatory policymaking, systemic design involves creating the conditions for stakeholders to more meaningfully participate in building shared knowledge and taking collective action. This article puts forth a new practice framework for systemic design in public policy and social innovation. It distills insights from the author’s experience and knowledge as a researcher, evaluator, practitioner and educator in the design and delivery of public policy and human services. The five core domains of the practice framework—principles, place, people, process and practice—are based on established understandings of design-led, systems-informed and participatory approaches to policymaking, as well as knowledge from critical practice reflections, recent research and evaluation reports. The relevance of the practice framework is illustrated through a case study of a design-led approach to a community services policy in New Zealand. Examples from the case study demonstrate some of the benefits and challenges of systemic innovation and participatory policy design.
Article
The diversity of knowledge surrounding behavioural insights (BI) means in the policy sciences, although visible, remains under-theorized with scant comparative and generalizable explorations of the procedural prerequisites for their effective design, both as stand-alone tools and as part of dedicated policy 'toolkits'. While comparative analyses of the content of BI tools has proliferated, the knowledge gap about the procedural needs of BI policy design is growing recognizably, as the range of BI responses grows in practice necessitating specific capabilities, processes and institutional frameworks to be in place for their design. This Element draws on the literature on policy design and innovation adoption to explore the administrative, institutional and capacity endowments of governments for the successful and appropriate integration of BI in existing policy frameworks. Further, we present three illustrative cases with respect to their experience of essential procedural endowments facilitating for the effective integration of BI in policy design.
Article
We consider how lived experience might actively inform policy design. Good policy design calls for analysis of problems, how they might be addressed, and likely outcomes. Policy scholars and practitioners have devised methods that bring rigor to policy design through problem framing, assessment of potential interventions, and prediction of outcomes of those interventions. This pursuit of analytical and predictive rigor has often given short shrift to the insights of people whose lives are affected by current challenges and who will be impacted by policy change. Our theory of change is that creative engagement with citizens can generate insights of high value to the process of policy design. We introduce the Tomorrow Party – a design method for generating novel stakeholder insights regarding desirable future states. We then discuss initial findings from a series of pilots. Those findings suggest the Tomorrow Party is a broadly applicable creative tool for advancing policy design.
Article
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People in the Global North often have a problem talking about — and processing — the inevitability of death. This can be because death and care of the dying has been professionalised, with encounters of death within our families and communities no longer being ‘normal and routine’ (Kellehear 2005). Young people are particularly excluded from these conversations, with implications for future mental health and wellbeing (Ainsley-Green 2017). Working in Wolverhampton and Bradford, the Dying 2 Talk (D2T) project aimed to build young people’s future resilience around this challenging topic. We recruited over 20 young people as project ambassadors to co-produce resources that would encourage talk about death, dying and bereavement. The resources were used as the basis of ‘Festivals of the Dead’ which were taken to schools to engage wider audiences of young people (aged 11 +). The project aimed to use alternative ‘ways in’ to open discussion, beginning with archaeology, and ultimately using gaming, dance, creative writing and other creative outputs to facilitate discussion, encourage compassionate relationships and build resilience. The resources succeeded in engaging young people from ages 11–19 years, facilitating a comfortable and supportive environment for these vital conversations. Project evaluations and observations revealed that the Festivals, and the activities co-created by the young ambassadors helped to facilitate spontaneous conversations about death, dying and bereavement amongst young people by providing a comfortable and supportive environment. The project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/V008609/1), building on a pilot project funded by the Higher Education Innovation Fund at the University of Bradford.
Article
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Urban governance innovation is being framed as an imperative to address complex urban and global challenges, triggering the adoption of novel institutional forms, approaches and techniques. Urban political geographers are still some way off fully apprehending the dynamics of these innovations and their potential to reconfigure the composition and politics of urban governance. This paper suggests dialogue between urban political geography and public sector innovation literatures as a productive way forward. We build from this engagement to suggest a critical research agenda to drive systematic analysis of innovatory urban governance, its heterogeneous formation, politics and possibilities.
Article
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Co-production refers to a reciprocal process of exchange between diverse stakeholders, in order to generate outcomes that are only possible because of this deliberate intersection of difference. Whilst the concept of co-production appeals within and for futures studies, foresight and anticipatory politics, its conceptual messiness has been widely critiqued. Drawing upon an integrative literature review of co-production and concept formation in the social sciences, we identify three approaches that scholars of co-production have sought to mobilise in order to address this critique. Each approach offers a different perspective on what makes a ‘good’ social scientific concept: clarification, elucidation and provocation. Our analysis illuminates the value of holding different approaches to conceptualisation in tension, as a means of developing a richer and more contingent understanding of co-production to future studies’ debates. In doing so, we open up new conceptual imaginaries for co-production and its prefigurative value within futures studies, offering more pluralistic ways of knowing in a context of radical uncertainty
Chapter
To capture the many complexities, we adopt a broad approach to urban governance, encompassing the diverse combinations of formal, informal and/or customary/traditional institutions and practices in urban areas of the Global South. The broad arguments are illustrated with appropriate examples and boxed case studies to illustrate important dimensions of diversity but also the scope for generalisation. In many contexts, inclusion of urban ecology, biodiversity, and green–blue infrastructure within urban governance is quite novel, thus presenting challenges to often rigid and outdated systems in times of unprecedented change. Hence, the chapter addresses key aspects needing change, including guidelines and examples of how this has been and can be achieved. A comprehensive and holistic approach is vital to provide a logical context for prioritisation and integration. This will facilitate joined-up action to achieve multiple co-benefits through targeted interventions rather than a scatter gun approach. Novel approaches that prioritise transdisciplinary co-design or co-production over conventional adversarial and top-down expert-led mechanisms have considerable potential in this regard. These are examined across relevant spatial scales, from key global agreements and conventions, to national initiatives, local authorities and the potential of transnational municipal networks.
Article
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The aim of this study is to investigate how multiple values in non-profit hybrid organisations influence the adoption of management accounting practices. The empirical analysis centres on hybrid organisations established as co-production and co-management initiatives in social care. Pragmatic constructivism, centred on the role of values, informs the empirical analysis. This research shows that management accounting practices can develop without conflicts when only some actors are interested in management and their values predominate, despite the coexistence of multiple and conflicting values. However, in this situation, where conflicts are eliminated, the validity of accounting is compromised, as it does not represent all values. The evidence of this lack of validity is clear when considering the poor development of management accounting practices and the inability to develop some relevant measures, such as outcome measures. When only some values predominate, the opportunity provided by the multiplicity of values to the development of management accounting practices is lost, and possible inefficiencies may emerge. The use of pragmatic constructivism shows that this lack of validity, determined by the non integration of values, would be reduced by increasing the discussion among conflicting actors’ values. Findings suggest that the presence of conflicting values, that at first glance may be interpreted as an impediment, would, on the contrary, be useful to support accounting validity, when stimulating discussion. In this respect, conflicting values should work alongside communication, to include dimensions of reality.
Article
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This article asks why institutional designs for urban governance are so often incomplete and what a critical perspective on incompleteness may offer. We develop a novel conceptual framework distinguishing between incompleteness as description (a deficit to be ‘designed-out’), action (‘good enough’ design to be worked with and around), and prescription (an asset to be ‘designed-in’). An extended worked example of city regional devolution in England illuminates the three types of incompleteness in practice, whilst also identifying hybrid forms and cross-cutting considerations of power, time and space. Perceiving institutional incompleteness as a design logic in its own right, held in tension with completeness, could help augment institutional design repertoires and even enhance democratic values.
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