Exploring user co-regulation of public services: insights from the Grenoble water user committee

ABSTRACT

The co-production of public services by users and professionals has been the subject of much discussion. By contrast, we know little about how users engage in the regulation of co-produced services, a process we call co-regulation. Relying on the concept of civil regulation, our qualitative case study analysis of the Grenoble water services reveals three activities at play in co-regulation: information processing, standard-setting and modifying behaviours. Moreover, we highlight boundary conditions for co-regulation to be effective and contribute to value co-creation, namely an active civil society and strong relationships with local decision-makers.

KEYWORDS:

• co-regulation
• civil society
• user and community
• water services
• value co-creation
• civil regulation

Acknowledgement

The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. They are also grateful to Owen Wooden for proofreading the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. http://eausecours.free.fr/lettrees/index.html

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Hans-Böckler foundation under Grant S-2015-832 2.

Notes on contributors

Thomas Blanchet

Thomas Blanchet is a researcher at the nexus Institute for Cooperation Management and Interdisciplinary Research in Berlin. His work focuses on the governance of urban infrastructures, user and community co‐production, and the role of grassroots iniatives in sustainable transitions.

Olivier Berthod

Olivier Berthod is an associate professor with the Department of Organizational Behavior, ICN Business School in Berlin, Germany, and a member of the Cerefige research centre, Lorraine University, France. His current research focuses on the governance and management of cross-sector partnerships, organizational preparedness and decision making.

Carsten Herzberg

Carsten Herzberg is a research fellow and project manager on democracy and community work at ‎mitMachen e. V. He is a political scientist. Since 2011 he has been leading several research projects on infrastructure and citizen participation, such as a project on democratic control of water utilities in France and Germany (Potsdam University, 2011–2013).