Mainstreaming Co-production: from pilot to practice

Abstract

Many co-production projects take place as short-term initiatives, limiting their ability to create lasting change across public service organizations. In this paper, we develop a model of organizational learning and co-production mainstreaming, which considers how co-production can be institutionalized from ad hoc facilitation, pilot projects, projects, programs and finally mainstreamed co-production culture. This is done through embedding learning processes throughout organizational structures, cultures, and processes and spreading learning beyond individual services or projects. We contribute to theories about the sustainability of co-production, bringing in organizational theories to elaborate and discuss how mainstreaming of co-production actions can be supported.