Co-production and co-creation
Co-production and co-creation

Co-production in Public Services

Duration
1 January 2018 until 1 June 2028
Project member(s)
Prof. T. Brandsen (Taco) N.J. Hoevens (Noortje) MSc Dr M.E. Honingh (Marlies) M.J. Hoppen (Menno) MSc Dr I. Radtke (Ina) , Hessel Bos , Joost Fledderus , Marieke van Geffen
Project type
Research
Organisation
Nijmegen School of Management, Institute for Management Research, Public Administration

Co-production is a specific kind of citizen participation, in which citizens take a more active and direct role in the design and delivery of public services than in other types of participation. Examples of individual co-production are clients designing their treatments in collaboration with medical personnel, or students and parents working with teachers to design lessons, while examples of collective co-production include citizens contributing to public safety through community watches or to the revitalization of their neighbourhoods. Radboud University’s Department of Public Administration has studied this topic through a series of interlinked projects and publications, making it one of the world’s leading research centres on the topic. 

This research has addressed several issues:

  • Co-production with people in a vulnerable situation, including the long-term unemployed, the homeless, and clients in mental health care. 
  • The sustainability of co-production over time. 
  • The effects of digitalisation on co-production. 
  • How to define co-production conceptually.

Results

  • Brandsen, T., Honingh, M., Kruyen, P., & van Geffen, M. (2023). Co-production with vulnerable people: an exploratory study in mental health care. Public Management Review, 1-19.
  • Radtke, I., Hoevens, N., Brandsen, T., & Honingh, M. (2023). Assessing the Quality of Digital Coproduction: An Interdisciplinary Model. Administrative Sciences, 13(3), 69.
  • Brandsen, T. (2021). Vulnerable Citizens: Will Co-production Make a Difference?. In The Palgrave Handbook of Co-Production of Public Services and Outcomes (pp. 527-539). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
  • Steen, T., & Brandsen, T. (2020). Co‐production during and after the Covid‐19 pandemic: will it last? Public Administration Review, 80(5), pp. 851-55, doi.org/10.1111/puar.13258.
  • Lember, V., T. Brandsen, and P. Tonurist. "The potential impacts of digital technologies on co-production and co-creation." Public Management Review 21 (2019): 1665-1686.
  • M. Honingh, E. Bondarouk, T. Brandsen (2020), “Co-production in primary schools: a systematic literature review, International Review of Administrative Sciences, 86(2), 222-239.
  • Brandsen T., Steen T., Verschuere, B. (2018) Co-production and co-creation: engaging citizens in public service delivery. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Brandsen, T., Honingh, M. (2016) “Distinguishing different types of co-production: a conceptual analysis based on the classical definitions”, Public Administration Review, 76(3), pp. 427–435.
  • Joost Fledderus (2016): “User Co-Production of Public Service Delivery: Effects on Trust”. Shortlisted for the G.A. Van Poelje dissertation Award.
  • Pestoff, V., T. Brandsen & B. Verschuere (eds.), New Public Governance, the Third Sector and Co-Production, Routledge, 2012. With a preface by Elinor Ostrom.

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