Co-producing Public Welfare Services with Vulnerable Citizens: A Case Study of a Danish-Somali Women’s Association Co-producing Crime Prevention with the Local Authorities

Abstract

Including vulnerable citizens in public co-production can have a huge bearing on the quality and equity of the services on which they depend. This study explores the influence of bonding, bridging, and linking social capital networks and the inherent notion of trust on co-production with vulnerable citizens. The study has found the formation of social capital to be a significant influencer on enabling co-production with vulnerable citizens. This is particularly so when engaging the citizens at earlier stages in the public service cycle than the implementation phase. Being engaged at these stages positively influences the motivation to participate. The end-user as co-designer, or co-initiator of public services, is rarely found in the literature. This study contributes to fill this gap. Furthermore, calculus-based trust is identified as a main factor influencing the willingness of potential co-production partners to engage in co-production. The findings are based on observations, documents, and interviews from an extreme case where a group of Danish-Somali women, (this particular group being among the most vulnerable in Danish society), changed from being dismissive potential co-implementers to becoming co-initiators of co-production aimed at preventing crime among Danish-Somali youth.