Practice Of Co-production Research Articles

Interventions to improve system-level coproduction in the Cystic Fibrosis Learning Network

BackgroundCoproduction is defined as patients and clinicians collaborating equally and reciprocally in healthcare and is a crucial concept for quality improvement (QI) of health services. Learning Health Networks (LHNs) provide...

"We all see things through a different lens based on our life experiences": co-production of a web-based implementation toolkit with stakeholders across the health and social care system.

Implementing new innovations across the health and social care system is complex, involving many factors that in recent years have been compounded by Covid-19. While a plethora of implementation tools and frameworks are available, there are limitations in terms of their design and accessibility. Co-production is a valuable mechanism for developing tools that have utility and accessibility for those tasked with using them in health and social care organisations and there is growing acknowledgement of increasing the role of co-production in implementation science. This paper provides novel insight into co-production practices and relevance to implementation science by reporting findings from a study to co-produce a web-based implementation toolkit (WIT) that is accessible, usable and designed to support adaptive implementation across health and social care systems. Key themes relating to the process of co-production are outlined and the value of using co-production in implementation processes are discussed. A web-based survey (n = 36) was conducted with a range of stakeholders across health and social care. Findings identified a need for WIT. Survey respondents were invited to express interest in becoming part of a co-production group and to take part in three online interactive workshops to co-produce WIT. Workshops took place with the group (n = 12) and focused on key developmental stages of WIT. Online co-production workshops were integral to the development and refinement of WIT. Benefits of using this process identified three interrelated themes: (i) Co-designing key features of the toolkit, (ii) Co-producing a toolkit with utility for users across health and social care settings, (iii) Co-producing a toolkit to support the implementation journey. Our approach of undertaking co-production as a dialogic process enabled generation of these themes. To illuminate discussion of these themes we draw upon iterative co-development of the "active ingredients" of key components (e.g., interactive Implementation Wheel) and functions (e.g., interactive "pop-up" definitions of keyword) and features (e.g., case studies) of WIT. Using a co-production approach with a range of end-users across health and social care systems, highlights the benefits of understanding implementation processes for users in these settings. User-centred design and processes for ensuring accessibility readily support the translation of implementation into rapidly changing health and social care systems to benefit outcomes for patients, their families, carers, service users and practitioners.

Enriching Cultural Heritage Communities: New Tools and Technologies

Abstract This paper explores ways in which scholarly skill and expertise might be embodied in tools and sustainable practices that enable communities to create and manage their own digital archives. We focus particularly on tools and practices related to the recording and annotation of digitized materials. The paper is based on co-production practice in two very different kinds of community. Although the communities are different we find that tools designed for a specific community are valuable for others, thus offering the promise of general tools to support community-centred digitization and potentially also traditional archival practice.

Focusing on Actors, Scaling-Up, and Networks to Understand Co-Production Practices: Reporting From Berlin and Santiago

In different policy agendas, such as the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, co-production is introduced as a desirable urban planning practice to validate the engagement and inclusion of diverse actors/networks. Nevertheless, some scholars argue (e.g., Watson, Robinson) that the Western planning approach faces difficulties incorporating rationalities beyond the Global North–South division. In this context based on the research project DFG-KOPRO Int for the German Research Foundation on Chilean and German cases and the local context, this article seeks to explore how local groups are undertaking co-production, which means of legitimacy are used, and which socio-spatial results develop. In doing so, the research focuses firstly on the negotiation processes (governance) between stakeholders by undertaking network analysis and, secondly, on understanding the impulse for urban development by analysing the project’s socio-spatial material patterns. Chile’s neoliberal context and the case studies showcase diverse cooperative forms that try to close governance gaps within strong political struggles. In the German context, actors from different areas, such as cultural institutions, universities, and private actors undertake diverse mandates for testing regulatory, persuasive, or financial instruments. As different as local realities are, the overall results show that co-production occurs mostly in highly contested fields such as housing projects and highlights a three-part constellation of actors—state, private, and civil society—in urban development. However, negotiation processes take place, ranging from conflictive to cooperative. Hence, co-production challenges prevailing social and political structures by providing an arena for new forms of collective and pluralistic governance.

The complexity of leadership in coproduction practices: a guiding framework based on a systematic literature review

BackgroundAs coproduction in public services increases, understanding the role of leadership in this context is essential to the tasks of establishing relational partnerships and addressing power differentials among groups. The aims of this review are to explore models of coproduction leadership and the processes involved in leading coproduction as well as, based on that exploration, to develop a guiding framework for coproduction practices.MethodsA systematic review that synthesizes the evidence reported by 73 papers related to coproduction of health and welfare.ResultsDespite the fact that models of coleadership and collective leadership exhibit a better fit with the relational character of coproduction, the majority of the articles included in this review employed a leader-centric underlying theory. The practice of coproduction leadership is a complex activity pertaining to interactions among people, encompassing nine essential practices: initiating, power-sharing, training, supporting, establishing trust, communicating, networking, orchestration, and implementation.ConclusionsThis paper proposes a novel framework for coproduction leadership practices based on a systematic review of the literature and a set of reflective questions. This framework aims to help coproduction leaders and participants understand the complexity, diversity, and flexibility of coproduction leadership and to challenge and enhance their capacity to collaborate effectively.

Embedded and exterior practices of cross-sector co-production: the impact of fields – CORRIGENDUM

Embedded and exterior practices of cross-sector co-production: the impact of fields – CORRIGENDUM

Embedded and exterior practices of cross-sector co-production: the impact of fields

Abstract Cross-sector co-production involving voluntary organisations in the production and delivery of social services has been adopted across many welfare states. Economic and demographic changes have led to increased involvement of volunteer initiatives in different welfare policy fields. How different field properties enable, constrain, and shape co-production practices remains, however, under researched. In this article, we address this shortcoming in a comparative case design exploring the practices of co-production within the two fields of elderly services and refugee services. We develop a conceptual framework and demonstrate that differential distribution of resources leads to diverging outcomes and perspectives for co-production. Based on a two-year in-depth study of one large Danish municipality, we find two forms of co-production practices, which reflect different field conditions. In the field of elderly services, co-production takes the form of ‘embedded’ practices, and in the field of refugee services co-production takes the form of ‘exterior’ practices. We demonstrate that each of these co-production forms entail ambiguous outcomes and antagonistic positions for voluntary and public sector actors, depending on the policy field.

Understanding mechanisms of knowledge co-production in peace research projects supported by international cooperation

ABSTRACT Although critical studies on peace and conflict studies have addressed the topic of knowledge production and peacebuilding, this is not a highly discussed issue in the literature. There is no unique or unambiguous conceptual framework to analyze this topic. This article shows conceptual elements that must be considered to understand the interaction between local and scientific knowledge in research projects on peace and peacebuilding; and reflects on what types of problems emerge when local and expert knowledge interact within the context of international cooperation projects. Based on the evidence collected during one workshop with Colombian researchers and the analysis of fifty research proposals funded by the German Colombian Peace Institute (CAPAZ) between 2017 and 2021, this article identifies topics, methodologies and products that suggest the existence of hybridization and co-production practices of knowledge when research on peacebuilding and conflict is designed and conceived.

The Pitfalls of a Popular Concept: Co-Production in Times of Individualization, Marketization, and De-Politicization

Co-production between public administrators and citizens has attracted renewed interest in recent years. Co-production is predominantly perceived as something desirable and is claimed to improve service efficiency and outcome and user satisfaction, at the same time as addressing democratic ideals. Drawing from interviews with public administrators and patients in a Swedish healthcare context, this paper seeks to nuance the often overly positive notion of co-production by understanding these micro-level practices as being embedded in a macro-level societal context. Theorizing the empirical material based on three features of contemporary society – individualization, marketization, and de-politicization – we argue that co-production risks placing a burden and responsibility on individual users and creating a (welfare)market in which better-off people are recruited and benefitted. In this sense, co-production may consolidate or reinforce inequalities. Through de-politicization, political issues may appear as value-free; however, as long as market-logics prevail, the welfare system and practices of co-production will, in some respects, be impotent to address crucial societal issues. Co-production as a collective practice targeting democratic standards is called for, rather than an efficiency focus, preferably by taking the recruitment of those in the greatest need seriously – scaffolded by a revitalized public service ethos of public administrators and their organizations.

O.3.3-10 The why and how of co-production between professionals and volunteers: a qualitative study of community-based healthcare in Denmark

Abstract Purpose The purpose of the present study was to explore co-production in practice by examining how public health service and voluntary sports clubs collaborate to support people with chronic illness to participate in physical activity in a Danish community setting. Specifically, our research asked the following questions: Which institutional logics guide the practice of co-production in municipalities and voluntary sports clubs? And how do the involved stakeholders co-produce community-based healthcare? The study adopted a critical perspective on the use of co-production to promote physical activity by linking public health service and voluntary sports clubs. Methods The study used a critical case study approach to examine the practice of co-production. The analysis was built on qualitative data from nine semi-structured interviews, two information interviews and project documents. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and coded drawing on the theory of institutional logics. Results The findings document how the interplay between professionals and volunteers has implications in their everyday practice and offer three central insights into the practice of co-production: Firstly, in the process of co-production the interplay between different and sometimes contradictory logics may lead to conflict, dilemmas, feelings of conflicting pressures and unfulfilled expectations amongst the involved stakeholders. Secondly, the study offers examples of how different logics can be combined and balanced. Here, the stakeholders especially draw on strategies based on the network logic, which facilitates mutual understanding and matching of expectations. Thirdly, the study highlights context-specific variation, where co-production emerged as highly contingent, reflecting the dynamic interaction between logics and the context-specific management by the involved professionals and the sports club volunteers. Conclusions This study makes an original contribution to the conceptual understanding of co-production in healthcare service, thus emphasising the benefit of paying attention to the network logic when building bridges between public healthcare service and voluntary sports clubs to promote physical activity – and to unite the seemingly contradictory “why” and “how” of co-production in practice. Support/Funding Source No funding to declare. Published in Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 2022, Vol. 43 No. 1/2, pp. 197-213. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-01-2022-0027

Reconceptualising coproduction as activism together

AbstractThe COVID‐19 pandemic disrupted life across the world in multiple ways and those already minoritised and disenfranchised, like care‐experienced young people, bore the brunt of losses and mental health difficulties. This article reports on the findings of ‘Feeling Well, Feeling Cared For’ an innovative knowledge exchange project on care experience and mental health in Scotland that was seriously disrupted by the pandemic. The article explores how these disruptions created new opportunities for deepening and slowing down coproductive practices, allowing relationships between collaborators to become stronger. Three finding areas are presented and discussed through the lenses of coproduction and quiet activism. These include lessons developed through the process of carrying out this project during a pandemic, the findings from our discussions with young people about mental health, and our reflections on the meanings of activism in the context of a coproductive knowledge exchange process. The discussion highlights how learning from this project might benefit coproductive practices in the future, especially as global interest in coproduction continues to grow across a range of disciplines.

Sensing the State: The Importance of Making the Researcher’s Citizen-State Relationship Explicit within Qualitative Research

In this article, I challenge the tendency towards underreported engagement with one’s own positionality vis-à-vis the state and note that qualitative manuscripts offer a unique opportunity to engage in liberatory practices by articulating this specific aspect of positionality on the page. To provide empirical evidence of the value of identifying and reckoning with the scholar’s relationship with the state, I use an autoethnographic approach to articulate the explanatory power of considering of my own state relationship within the research analysis and writing processes. I show that early findings from a qualitative research endeavor led me to view citizen coproduction practices that targeted homeless individuals as overly deterministic rather than distinctively malicious and tied to systems of state violence. In writing the manuscript that was relevant to this research endeavor, I engaged with my positionality vis-à-vis the state directly within the document which enhanced the validity of my final findings. As the qualitative research process is particularly suited for this liberatory practice, I conclude with some loose guidance for other researchers seeking out ways to identify their own relationship with the state and place it within the manuscript.

Alliances, allyship and activism: The value of international partnerships for co-producing just cities

This paper provides a distinctive analysis of the value of international intermediation alliances for co-production, based on the way they operate in practice. While much attention is paid to ideal or normative models of co-production, there is less understanding of the complexities that pervade co-production practices in specific contexts or how this shapes outcomes. Despite longstanding critiques and reflection, international partnerships can reinforce unequal power dynamics embedded in already unequal global research and knowledge production circuits. However, such partnerships, despite their structural problems, can also give rise to more informal relations wherein the long-term value of international co-production inheres. We call for a re-examination of these complex sets of informal relations, beyond the structures of partnerships, that enable co-production across local and global divides. Drawing on comparative international evidence, we propose a framework for understanding and action based on the concepts of alliances, allyship and activism. These three characteristics of international co-production partnerships can constitute socio-material infrastructures that help maintain relationships of solidarity and care over time beyond the remit of individual projects. While this is relevant in any co-production context it becomes particularly important in international research projects so that they do not paradoxically reproduce colonising structures of knowledge production in the search for more just cities.

Coproduction with Service Users in Adult Social Work: A Study of Service Users’ and Social Workers’ Experiences in Northern Ireland

Abstract Involving service users, in the delivery of health and social care, is a focal point in social policy discourse. Coproduction has become synonymous with anti-oppressive practice and service user empowerment. This article reports on a qualitative study carried out in Northern Ireland which explored service user involvement in adult social care practice and policy development. Semi-structured interviews were completed with service users (n = 6) and social workers (n = 7); thematic analysis was applied to the resultant data. The study was coproduced with service users who informed the research design and were actively involved throughout each phase of the study. Findings suggest that service users are motivated to participate in coproduction and can feel valued in these roles, but meaningful coproduction is a challenge in the current practice environment. Close working relationships, with clear and consistent communication are difficult to maintain amid the current trend of bureaucratisation in our profession. Findings point towards the need for a service-user/social worker alliance which can challenge problematic organisational cultures. Remuneration for service users, engaged in coproduction, is encouraged, alongside organisational recognition of the time and resource necessary for effective coproduction. A procedural and ethical framework for coproduction practices would also be timely.

Financing marine conservation from restructured debt: a case study of the Seychelles

In the face of the threats posed to the oceans by a changing climate, the need for marine conservation programs grows rapidly. Scaling with this need demands sufficient funding to support ambitious conservation projects. This funding must be obtained from increasingly varied and innovative sources since private grants and government allocated funds has proved insufficient. Debt-for-nature swaps are a financial mechanism seeking to improve debt burden while setting up environmental programs. This method of debt restructuring has existed for decades, but is seeing a resurgence of use and interest in recent years. Here we present an exploratory case study of a Seychelles debt-for-nature swap which examines this financial mechanism’s ability to fund impactful conservation projects, particularly in marine Economic Exclusion Zones (EEZ) of Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The Seychelles finalized a conversion of their sovereign debt with Paris Club creditors and The Nature Conservancy as a broker in 2015 with the goal of creating a robust marine spatial plan (MSP). They received notable recognition for multiple novel aspects of this deal as well as the sheer scale of the marine space protected (400,000 sq. km), and thus serves as a robust case study to analyze if debt-for-nature swaps have evolved since its theoretical conception in 1984. Our research favors qualitative data by employing a case study approach which draws on semi-structured interviews with key informants, content analysis of online resources, and a literature review. This research suggests that while the model has yet to be cemented, the Seychelles case study is representative of a coming evolution in debt-for-nature swap practices. By examining the critical governance factors that were employed in the Seychelles, this research reveals key takeaways for future implementation and establishing national candidacy. The findings highlight debt status relative to the economy, political willpower, funding streams utilized, and the use of co-production practices. We show how the Seychelles case study demonstrates marked progress from the historical standard regarding sovereignty concerns and governance, but not concerning timescales and low converted sum. However, we note that this innovative debt-for-nature swap suggests that a new standard is possible and provides a new framework and set of best practices. In doing so, the Seychelles MSP can potentially lead the way for additional marine debt-for-nature swaps.

Resistance Comes First: Pirate TV as Postmedia Activism

Resistance Comes First:Pirate TV as Postmedia Activism Joseph Sannicandro (bio) HACKED TRANSMISSIONS: TECHNOLOGY AND CONNECTIVE ACTIVISM IN ITALY BY ALESSANDRA RENZI University of Minnesota Press, 2020 HACKED TRANSMISSIONS: TECHNOLOGY AND CONNECTIVE ACTIVISM IN ITALY BY ALESSANDRA RENZI University of Minnesota Press, 2020 A brash "self-made" billionaire with no previous political experience is elected to the nation's highest office, buoyed by a rising tide of populism. Sophisticated manipulation of the media stokes xenophobia and resentment toward elites. The chattering classes decry declining press freedom and the hyperpolarization of society, while supporters seem happy to toss a monkey wrench into national politics as usual. While this farce may now be familiar to American readers, the tragedy began for Italians in 1994, when Silvio Berlusconi first took office as prime minister. Berlusconi continued to dominate Italian politics through 2011 and whose specter still hangs over Italy even now, always seemingly one clever joke and a smile away from the news cycle. More important than Forza Italia, the center-right political party he founded prior to his first election, is Berlusconi's control of Mediaset, Italy's largest mass media company. The Economist calculated that, while in office, Berlusconi had "wielded influence over some 90% of Italy's broadcast media," the primary source of news for a majority of Italians.1 Berlusconi took advantage of the media liberalization that followed the widespread popularity of pirate radio during the 1970s, epitomizing the appropriation of resistance that would characterize his political career. But the politicization of the media in Italy certainly [End Page 194] did not begin with Berlusconi's conflicts of interest. Already in 1967, Umberto Eco recognized that "a country belongs to the person who controls communications,"2 and Italian activists have never ceased to make media production a prime terrain of contestation.3 In Hacked Transmissions, Alessandra Renzi provides a timely reflection on how activists challenged Berlusconi's media dominance. Through an immersive and historically thorough (auto)ethnography, Renzi explores the case of Telestreet, a decentralized network of pirate micro-TV stations that turned television into a collaborative epistemological practice with those marginalized by the media—not "representing" everyday life but incubating and organizing resistance through connective practices of coproduction. Renzi's genealogy of Telestreet finds its roots in the pirate radio movement of the 1970s, stretching through twenty-first-century digital television and social media. Telestreet intentionally describes its practice as connective rather than collective, making for a clever means of continuity that downplays what could otherwise become a technologically deterministic narrative. Renzi's intervention is not guided by the novelty of new media, but she instead carefully emphasizes "how people come together, work together, and change with technology" (4). The interrogation of connectivity extends to the study's method, as well as to its form. Hacked Transmissions "lays out a collaborative research methodology that puts processes of subjectivation at the center and attends to an ethics of connection and care" (2). One might not be surprised to find such language in an ethnography drawing upon fifteen years of participation, yet the conditions of activist research present unique challenges that necessitate such deep imbrication. Hacked Transmissions consists of an introduction, eight article-length chapters, and a short epilogue, a perhaps unconventional structure linked by what Renzi terms a "social movement energetics" (14). Coursing through multiple terrains of struggle, this focus on energy offers Renzi a way into the narrative that centers on neither specific individuals nor technologies. Renzi makes significant theoretical and methodological contributions to the study of activist media, while those not already predisposed to Continental philosophy will still find much of interest in her qualitative research. Her method of co-research benefits from the use of anecdote, personal stories, and a plethora of heterogeneous voices. The history of Telestreet's transformation from [End Page 195] "Indymedia-style to social-media-based production" has many commonalities to the experiences of other transnational media activists, while bringing to bear the unique contributions of Italian theory to the study of media, which Renzi articulates as connective activism, composition, and hacking (4). Many have argued that Italy is a political laboratory whose developments often anticipate those elsewhere in Europe and beyond...

Co-Production of Research Methods Knowledge in Criminology and Criminal Justice

Co-production is the involvement of citizens in the production of public services. In education, this involves students working with instructors to jointly produce the knowledge that stems from the education process. This paper describes our approach to co-production of knowledge through a semester’s undergraduate courses on research methods in criminology/criminal justice. Our co-production efforts involved: (a) Instructors provided initial instruction on research methods, as well as a description of their research project, which was used to illustrate several course topics during lectures; (b) Students practiced their developing expertise and experiences to produce their own research proposals; and (c) Students contributed to their instructors’ research project through their feedback on research design. We present reflections on how co-production practice inspired teaching and learning of research methods, classroom environment, and the development of our research project. Findings suggest that co-production can be an effective tool for improved learning in research methods.

Overcoming the limitations to co-production in shrinking cities: insights from Latvia, France, and the Netherlands

ABSTRACT Co-production often appears as a virtue in academic research and planning practice, particularly in shrinking cities, which struggle to develop effective policies and provide sufficient level of public services. In this paper, we argue that the urban shrinkage context imposes significant limitations to co-production practices, that we urge should not be neglected. Drawing on three contrasting projects in Riga (Latvia), Nevers (France), and Heerlen (the Netherlands), we explore existing limitations and consider possibilities to overcome them. The analyses show that the efficacy of co-production practices is impaired due to a reduced level of trust towards public authorities; selective outmigration; weakened social capital; and political prioritizing of private sector interests over civil society. To overcome these, we discuss the role of several tools, namely mediating actors, independent funding, civic empowerment, and the willingness of public authorities to regenerate power relations.

Relationships between Levels of Bureaucracy and their Effects on the Co-production of Public Health Services

Research objective: This research analyzes how relationships between different levels of local bureaucracy (top, mid, and street-level) – and the context of rules and values in which they operate – affect the practices of co-production of public health services. Theoretical Framework: The study is based on two distinct theoretical concepts rarely associated in the literature: the co-production of public services and levels of bureaucracy. Methodology: It is a qualitative research examining the family health strategy in three medium-sized Brazilian municipalities. Results: The six co-production arrangements identified showed that co-production practices materialize in different ways, sharing more or less power with users, depending on the different patterns of relationship between levels of bureaucracy and the bureaucracy and citizens. Originality: Few studies analyze co-production from the state’s point of view. Therefore, this research explores a gap in the literature, focusing on the relationships between levels of bureaucracy and their influence on public service co-production practices. Theoretical and practical contributions: The results raised four points to be theoretically developed, points that also deserve the attention of practitioners operating in co-production: (1) Any level of bureaucracy can offer resistance or openness to co-production, and this is not hierarchically determined; (2) A structure of support and incentive for co-production by the top and mid-level bureaucracy does not guaranteethe engagement of street-level bureaucracy; (3) The collaboration of top and mid-level bureaucracy is essential to expand co-production results; (4) Different relationship patterns between levels of bureaucracy and between the bureaucracy and citizens. Keywords:Co-production, Levels of bureaucracy, Co-production arrangements, Co-production of public health services.

Optimization of coal-to-liquid processes; A way forward towards carbon neutrality, high economic returns and effective resource utilization. Evidences from China

As the world's largest consumer of coal, China is committed to developing a carbon–neutral coal industry. For this purpose, upgrading the carbon emission-intensive coal-chemical industries, such as coal-to-liquids (CTL) is imperative. This study develops a technical–economic framework to model and test four promising CTL upgrading processes. First and second processes involve low-temperature Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis practices with larger gasifiers and air-separating units than the current level. Third, the process combines olefin and fuel co-production practices that utilize low- and high-temperature FT synthesis processes. Finally, the process produces both electricity and fuel by sending the tail gas of the synthesis process to an integrated cycle. Aspen Plus® is used to simulate the chemical processes, and the financial cost accounting model of the American Association of Cost Engineers is utilized to estimate the financial costs accurately. The results show that the upgraded processes can achieve an energy efficiency of more than 48 %, which is 6 % higher than the existing coal-to-oil process. Additionally, the break-even point is 2 %–14.45 % lower than the actual process, reducing carbon emissions by 2.78 %–10.34 %. According to these findings, the upgrade can help China reach its carbon neutrality targets and significantly contribute to global climate change and sustainable development goals.