Institutionalizing innovation in welfare local services through co-production: toward a Neo-Weberian State?

Francesca Campomori,Mattia Casula

doi:10.1017/ipo.2021.43

Abstract

AbstractInnovative practices based on the involvement of citizens as co-producers of welfare local services have been increasingly adopted by the public sector to effectively tackle emerging social problems. Despite the development in the literature on this subject, recent studies still do not clearly indicate which are the challenges for the institutionalization of such practices. By applying a governance lens to the analysis of co-production of local public services, this article aims to contribute to bridging this gap through the empirical analysis of the childcare experience in four European cities. More in detail, it debates the concepts of co-production and innovation in public service delivery within the context of the different waves of public administration reforms; and it investigates how three different sets of conditions – namely, state support and capacity; organizational cultures which support innovation; and integration with facilitative technologies – integrate to facilitate or hinder the institutionalization of co-production initiatives. The findings show that the enabling role of the state actor is a sine qua non to guarantee an institutionalization of these practices, particularly concerning the promotion of trust-building processes. Doing so, the article contributes to the international debate about the possible co-existing of the paradigms of public administration that are arising in the last decades to remedy the problems with the New Public Management; and it provides professionals working in public management and administration with key policy recommendations for the elaboration of new governance systems for the provision of social and welfare services.

Highlights

During the last few decades, political scientists engaged in welfare policies research have been showing an avid interest in the study of co-production of local public services (Steen et al, 2016; Bussu and Galanti, 2018; Sinclair et al, 2018; Polizzi and Bassoli, 2020)
In light of the first theoretical proposition advanced on the role of the state actor, research shows that a weak role of the public actor in supporting co-production practices – e.g. by facilitating the participation of local associations with less organizational strength, and by providing space and services to the experiences that arise – constitutes a very concrete barrier to the possibility of development and survival of such practices
This article has contributed to the emerging literature on co-production by empirically investigating the different challenges that can hinder the institutionalization of innovative practices based on the involvement of citizens as co-producers of welfare services

Summary

Introduction

During the last few decades, political scientists engaged in welfare policies research have been showing an avid interest in the study of co-production of local public services (Steen et al, 2016; Bussu and Galanti, 2018; Sinclair et al, 2018; Polizzi and Bassoli, 2020). Innovative practices based on the involvement of citizens as co-producers of welfare services are considered as new ideal practices that welfare systems should incorporate to effectively tackle emerging social problems (Osborne and Strokosch, 2013; Gasparre and Bassoli, 2020). Despite the undisputed interest that policymakers, practitioners, and scholars showed toward this issue in the last decade, empirical researchers on factors challenging the institutionalization process of co-production practices in the realm of social policies have been until now limited. What is more, when and where empirically investigated, these issues have been addressed only partially and unsystematically (see for instance Joshi and Moore, 2004; Pestoff, 2014)

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