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

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58235/sjpa.v27i3.14155

Keywords:

co-production, individualization, markerization, de-politicization, healtcare, Sweden

Abstract

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.

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Author Biographies

Erik Masao Eriksson, Department of Work Life and Social Welfare, University of Borås, Sweden; Department of Technology Management and Economics, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Erik (Masao) Eriksson, PhD and docent, works as an associate professor in public administration at the University of Borås, Sweden. His research concerns management, governance and organization in healthcare. Specifically, this research focuses on citizen co-production, often from an equality perspective; enabling and constraining mechanisms for inter-organizational collaboration; and consequences of management trends in the public sector.

Erik Magnus Eriksson, School of Social Work, Lund University, Sweden

Erik (Magnus) Eriksson is a qualified social worker and holds a PhD in social work. His research concerns the formation of social problems, service user involvement, and the relationship between citizens and the welfare state. Eriksson is currently appointed as associate senior lecturer at the School of Social Work at Lund University, Sweden, where he is the project manager of a research project investigating over indebtedness among young adults.

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Published

2023-09-15

How to Cite

Eriksson, E. M., & Eriksson, E. M. (2023). The Pitfalls of a Popular Concept: Co-Production in Times of Individualization, Marketization, and De-Politicization. Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration, 27(3), 87–107. https://doi.org/10.58235/sjpa.v27i3.14155

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