Co-production
Co-delivery and co-production are increasingly important in public services. But what do different people mean by the term ‘co-production’? Two major new books on the co-production of public services and outcomes cover key theoretical, empirical and practice issues, including over 70 international case studies of co-production.
The Palgrave Handbook of Co-production of Public Services and Outcomes, edited by Elke Loeffler and INLOGOV Emeritus Professor Tony Bovaird brings together an outstanding range of the world's best scholars in the field of co-production. The focus is on the theoretical and empirical debates around the co-production of public services and outcomes. Contributions highlight the evidence - and the evidence gaps - for the impact on public value of co-commissioning, co-design, co-delivery and co-assessment.
INLOGOV Associate Elke Loeffler’s book on Co-production of public services and outcomes examines user and community co-production of public services and outcomes, currently one of the most discussed topics in the field of public management and policy. It considers co-production in a wide range of public services, with particular emphasis on health, social care and community safety, illustrated through international case studies in many of the chapters. Written in a style which is easy and enjoyable to read, the book gives readers, both academics and practitioners, the opportunity to develop a creative understanding of the essence and implications of co-production.
Democratic and social innovation
Democracy at the local level has always been central to INLOGOV’s purpose and values, examining the potential and challenges of participatory governance and social innovation. A new scoping review of the literature, led by INLOGOV Associate Professor Sonia Bussu, provides an overview of recent practice in participatory governance. The authors aim to unpack whether and how efforts at institutionalisation and rapid digitalisation are facilitating deeper embedding of participatory governance within politics and policy making, by identifying and analysing innovations, new insights, and persistent barriers. They examine what efforts are being made to include disempowered people within analogue and digital spaces, how certain groups continue to be excluded, and which strategies are being adopted to deepen inclusion.
INLOGOV Associate Professor Koen Bartels’s chapter in The Palgrave Handbook of the Public Servant zooms in on ‘intermediating’ social innovation in urban governance. Frontline workers have received much praise over the past decades for their unique position and skills for making a difference in complex, changing, and power-ridden local governance systems. The recent upsurge of social innovation forces us to critically rethink their double-sided work of intermediating between informal, creative, and subversive practices and the existing institutional order. Illustrated by empirical findings from research in Liverpool, the chapter demonstrates how intermediaries tread a fine line between cooptation and transformation.