LIST OF PANELS

Co-production is a policy tool involving the enhanced engagement of citizens and their associations  in goods and service delivery, offsetting the use of other instruments such as public organizations or private contracts (Hood, 1984). This particular aspect of co-production has intrigued scholars of instrument choice for several decades (see Salamon 1981 and 2001). Since there are costs to the use of citizen’s time and limits to the extent to which a largely untrained, often voluntary  group of actors can replace professional experts and administrators (Pestoff, Brandsen and Verschuere 2012), the circumstances surrounding its use and management are of great interest to students of policy tools. Various management challenges exist in co-production design and use, however. At the system level, co-production implies managerial activities through which government creates space for discretion of other actors while evoking joint responsibility (Hill and Hupe, 2014).  These activities include invitation and selection of participants, creation and maintenance of network of organisations that will act as service providers and development of ways to manage strategic and operational complexity that comes with collaborative arrangements (Agranoff and McGuirre, 2003).  While at the level of organization co-production management is focused nurturing partnership, at the individual level emphasis is placed upon ensuring professionalization in management of internal contacts and adoption of user-centred approach in managing external contacts (Hill and Hupe, 2014).  This  includes engagement of citizens in production of their own services in full or in part with public service professionals (Pestoff, Osborne and Brandsen, 2006). Papers addressing these and other similar issues in co-production design are encouraged.

Co-production is a policy tool involving the enhanced engagement of citizens and their associations  in goods and service delivery, offsetting the use of other instruments such as public organizations or private contracts (Hood, 1984). This particular aspect of co-production has intrigued scholars of instrument choice for several decades (see Salamon 1981 and 2001). Since there are costs to the use of citizen’s time and limits to the extent to which a largely untrained, often voluntary  group of actors can replace professional experts and administrators (Pestoff, Brandsen and Verschuere 2012), the circumstances surrounding its use and management are of great interest to students of policy tools. Various management challenges exist in co-production design and use, however. At the system level, co-production implies managerial activities through which government creates space for discretion of other actors while evoking joint responsibility (Hill and Hupe, 2014).  These activities include invitation and selection of participants, creation and maintenance of network of organisations that will act as service providers and development of ways to manage strategic and operational complexity that comes with collaborative arrangements (Agranoff and McGuirre, 2003).  While at the level of organization co-production management is focused nurturing partnership, at the individual level emphasis is placed upon ensuring professionalization in management of internal contacts and adoption of user-centred approach in managing external contacts (Hill and Hupe, 2014).  This  includes engagement of citizens in production of their own services in full or in part with public service professionals (Pestoff, Osborne and Brandsen, 2006). Each of these issues, and others, requires investigation and elucidation, something the papers on this panel will achieve   References   Agranoff, R., and M. McGuire. “Managing in Network Settings.” Policy Studies Review 16, no. 1 (1999): 18–41. Hill, Michael, and Peter L Hupe. Implementing Public Policy: An Introduction to the Study of Operational Governance. 2nd ed. Sage Publications Ltd, 2009. Hood, C. The Tools of Government. Chatham: Chatham House Publishers, 1986. Pestoff, Victor, Stephen P. Osborne, and Taco Brandsen. “Patterns of Co-Production in Public Services.” Public Management Review 8 (December 2006): 591–95. doi:10.1080/14719030601022999. Pestoff, Victor Alexis, Taco Brandsen, and Bram Verschuere. New Public Governance, the Third Sector and Co-Production. New York: Routledge, 2012. Salamon, L. M.  “Rethinking Public Management: Third-Party Government and the Changing Forms of Government Action.” Public Policy 29, no. 3* (1981): 255–75. Salamon, L. M.  “The New Governance and the Tools of Public Action: An Introduction.” Fordham Urban Law J. 28, no. 5 (2001): 1611–74.