Co-designing public value: Collective ownership of outcomes in the public sphere

Abstract

Design principles and practices have contributed substantially to the discipline of public management, particularly over the last decade. Service design, design for policy, and design for social innovation demonstrate the increasing degree of convergence between design and public management. This paper considers the concept of ‘creating public value’, at a strategic level beyond specific policies and services, from a co-design perspective. The paper explores opportunities for co-design principles and methods to contribute to the creation of public value-via policy design and enactment-through the examination of public value and co-design literature. Implications for co-designers and policymakers are considered in shaping processes of what the paper describes as collective ‘co-valuing’ between actors in the public sphere. The paper recognises the contribution designers can make outside the predetermined parameters of specific services and policies, and proposes a model within which this activity can take place. Further research is recommended in an empirical environment.