Taco Brandsen

Co-production is viewed as a solution to deal with societal issues. For instance, citizens are encouraged to propose solutions and work together with the government to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. We have a solid understanding of the initial phase of co-production and the factors that influence this phase, such as motivation, resources, social capital, and a supportive culture. There is consensus in the literature that co-production initially exists between the state and the community. However, we still know relatively little about the connection between these factors and the development and the orientation of co-production. This narrative review examines the current understanding of shifts in co-production orientation. This study employs an analysis and synthesis of data derived from 76 peer-reviewed articles sourced from academic databases. The objective is to present a comprehensive conceptual model. We argue that these factors shape how co-production develops after the initial phase, potentially shifting its position between the domains of state, community, and market. Factors tend to push the orientation of co-production in the direction of the community, but not exclusively so. To better understand these dynamics, qualitative longitudinal research should be conducted to trace the interactions between and within the factors that influence co-production orientation.

Research on the Third Sector has been informed by many theories of the development of the Third Sector and its relationship to government and the citizenry. This chapter will review the major theories of the Third Sector, but pay special attention to the major comparative conceptual framework of the third sector, the social origins theory, proposed by Salamon and Anheier (1998). Overall, the chapter will place the different theoretical frameworks in context and highlight key issues for scholars of the Third Sector to consider in their future research, especially given the hybridization of the Third Sector and major shifts in public policy towards the third sector.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there were many instances of co-production where citizens and professionals joined forces to deal with the emergency. In this chapter, we explore the importance of co-production during the pandemic, why co-production emerged so widely, and how these experiences have influenced our understanding of co-production. We focus especially on the sustainability of co-production initiatives that emerged during the pandemic. We argue that three conditions are essential for co-production to be sustained over time: (1) the provision of a supportive regulatory framework and the structural allocation of funds, (2) complementarity and (3) a sense of urgency among all those concerned. Areas of public life where there could be a more lasting effect are those where the basic conditions for successful co-production are already in place and where one powerful push is enough for co-production to take off.

The digital transformation of society raises high hopes for the improvement of the design and implementation of coproduction processes, which may lead to higher levels of acceptance, satisfaction, and trust with respect to public services. Yet and despite a growing number of studies on the role of digital technology on coproduction, our knowledge on how to assess the quality of digital coproduction is still very limited. The difficulty of defining quality indicators relates to three issues: the complexity of defining quality in public services, the lack of a clear understanding of quality in a coproduction process and the tendency to evaluate coproduction using the same approach as with other digitalised services. In this article, we adopt an interdisciplinary perspective to develop a conceptual model that builds on and bridges theoretical approaches commonly used to assess the quality of digital services, while adding elements that are specific to coproduction.