Call for papers: Co-production of public services and outcomes

Public Money & ManagementCall for Papers

Themed Issue: Co-production of public services and outcomes

Deadline: 1 November 2017

Co-production has become a major buzzword in the public sector in recent years. However, with increasing popularity the concept has also become rather fuzzy. The more recent debate on co-creation of value has added further to the confusion. 

It is perhaps no coincidence that this interest became more intense after the onset of the recent financial crisis, bringing prolonged austerity in the public sector. In the UK, for example, the Cabinet Office released a report on co-production in 2009 and this has been followed up by many reports by governments, local authorities, academics, think tanks and consultants. Co-production has reinvigorated a debate that was started by the Ostroms and the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University, Bloomington in the 1970s. Now, the concept is on the verge of becoming conventional wisdom, with many public agencies proclaiming that making the most of co-production is embedded within their policies and practices.

However, the research base of co-production has been thinner in the public sector than in the private sector, where the concept of co-production has played an important role in services marketing since the 1970s. While many case studies have been published by scholars in recent years, generally using qualitative methodologies, there has been a shortage both of well-evidenced evaluations of the results achieved when co-production of public services is managed more systematically and of conceptual development in the theory of co-production. In particular, the concept of ‘value co-creation’ has been discussed but with little clarity on either what ‘co-creation’ or ‘value’ entails in this context. 

This theme issue is therefore specifically seeking contributions which focus on
rigorously demonstrated results (positive and negative) from systematic initiatives and strategic approaches to improve outcomes through effective forms of user- and community-led co-production, using both quantitative and qualitative analysis. 

All papers will be expected to set out clearly (if only briefly) their stance on the definition of co-production and how it differs from other forms of citizen engagement and to locate the co-production initiatives in their study within the general range of co-creation, co-governance, co-management, co-design and co-delivery approaches. 

Furthermore, we will especially welcome contributions which address the specific questions:

• What are the main determinants of the results achieved in strategies and initiatives to make the most of co-production?
• Which outcomes are especially likely, and especially unlikely, to be achieved through an enhanced co-production strategy?
• How does co-production between citizens and public service providers and commissioners relate to the principles of public governance? For example, what are the effects on social inclusion and accountability?
• What is implied by the ‘co-creation of value’ through co-production and how might it be conceptualised and evaluated?
• How does the potential contribution of more systematic approaches to co-production vary across services, across communities and across service user groups? 
• What are the mechanisms by which co-production works (e.g. what is the theory of change, what are the pathways to outcomes)?
• How does co-production work in complex adaptive systems, where models of cause-and-effect chains are not feasible?
• What role does learning play both in enabling co-production and in impacting upon public policy and public service delivery?
• What tools for implementing co-production are likely to be especially fruitful or unsuccessful (e.g. personalisation, asset-based community development, peer group support, etc.)?
• What are the unintended consequences of an enhanced co-production strategy in public organisations and how might this ‘dark side’ be addressed?
• What are the discrepancies between co-production as a planned strategy by public sector organisations and the way it is actually implemented

Submission instructions

The deadline for submission of papers for consideration is 1 November 2017; publication will follow in September 2018. Papers will be refereed by both an academic and a practitioner. See http://www.tandfonline.com/rpmm for PMM’s instructions for authors.

More:http://explore.tandfonline.com/cfp/bes/rpmm-co-production

Submissions should be sent to the guest editors: T.Bovaird@bham.ac.uk; Sophie.Flemig@ed.ac.uk; elke.loeffler@govint.org; and Stephen.Osborne@ed.ac.uk.

Editorial information

• Guest Editor: Tony Bovaird (T.Bovaird@bham.ac.uk)
• Guest Editor: Sophie Flemig (Sophie.Flemig@ed.ac.uk)
• Guest Editor: Elke Loeffler (Sophie.Flemig@ed.ac.uk)
• Guest Editor: Stephen P. Osborne (Stephen.Osborne@ed.ac.uk)