Implementing and Managing Co-Production

Abstract

This chapter focused on the management of coproduction, and addressed the many challenges to collaboration between professionals and lay actors. Collaboration management is not supposed to contradict ‘organically grown’ coproduction approaches and can be organised by both sides of the collaboration. The way coproduction is managed directly affects the sustainability and quality of interaction, and indirectly affects the final outcomes for the coproducers, the service and the community as a whole. The literature on coproduction management is reviewed and organised around seven levers: institutional arrangements, planning, communication strategies, management of lay actors, management of professionals, leadership, and accountability. Gaps in the literature are noted, and the coproduction literature is compared with the theories of collaborative governance.