Year: 2024
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The transformation of the welfare state, fueled by global challenges like climate change, pandemics, and migration, has intensified the need for innovative dialogue among academia, business, governance bodies, and citizens. Amid these challenges, co-production has been suggested as a strategy for democratic engagement and enhancing public service delivery while advocating for equitable outcomes. Despite its potential, co-production has also faced criticism, with concerns about increased transaction costs, potential loss of democratic accountability, and risks of superficial participation. It often benefits policymakers more than service users, highlighting the need for greater focus on inclusion and equitable engagement. The most significant theoretical contribution of this dissertation resides in co-production research through the introduction of a rather underexplored research avenue and paradigm: the design of co-production. This paradigm first recognises co-production as a complex phenomenon aimed at creating open systems. Second, it acknowledges the necessity of design prior to design time in co-production. Third, it calls for co-production research as a form of design science, wherein the processes of becoming are key elements of interest. Accordingly, the current dissertation is devoted to advancing our understanding of the process approach and design science within co-production research, where a key challenge has been enhancing our comprehension of co-production processes, their design, and management. Aiming to provide a cohesive depiction of how co-production can be systematically enhanced by design, this doctoral research has focused on the meta-design underlying and inherent in a co-production process. The study proposes meta-design principles applied across various levels of the public service ecosystem to enable agency, redistribute power, and enhance legitimacy. The dissertation introduces a theoretical framework for meta-design in co-production, emphasizing the importance of inclusivity at every level—from micro to macro—within the public service ecosystem. The practical implications of this research highlight the need for a design-oriented approach in public services that encourages inclusion and flexibility. Embedding meta-design principles into co-production may help public administrators to become more responsive to the citizen’s needs and capable of adapting to changing circumstances. This study underscores the necessity for public administrators to foster environments that support continuous improvement. In essence, this dissertation contributes to the discourse on co-production by proposing meta-design as an analytical tool for the systematic enhancement of co-production.
Source: Osuva (University of Vaasa)
Author: Perikangas, Sofi
Institution: University of Vaasa
Language: English
Subfield: Public Administration
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6996958461