Co-Design in co-production processes: jointly articulating and appropriating infrastructuring and commoning with civil servants

Abstract

The public sector, increasingly acknowledging a need for change but strongly influenced by market logics, is experimenting with new forms of co-production of public services based on collaborations between public providers, citizens and societal actors. At the same time, Co-design researchers, are using approaches of infrastructuring and commoning to navigate questions of participation and collaboration in co-production. By discussing the case of ReTuren, a co-produced service for waste handling and prevention, this article presents how infrastructuring and commoning can offer guidance to civil servants engaging in co-production. In the case, civil servants on an operational level and an ‘embedded’ Co-Design researcher worked side-by-side in the co-production of the service, jointly articulating and appropriating approaches of infrastructuring and commoning. The case reveals that the joint appropriation and articulation of these Co-Design approaches can lead to the development of new ways of operating and perspectives in the public sector. However, it also highlights that this joint effort needs to involve people across organisational levels in order to minimise possible contextual and worldview breakdowns within public organisations.

Keywords:

• Commoning
• co-production
• infrastructuring
• public sector
• waste prevention
• ‘embedded’ Co-Design researcher

Acknowledgments

This article discusses insights that have been developed with Savita Upadhyaya and Anna Strannegård, the project leader and coordinator of ReTuren. We are extremely thankful for our joint efforts in designing, making and reflecting together. We would also like to thank the Malmö waste department and particularly Ebba Sellberg and Annika Sevrell for their time and insights. Special thanks to Mashaal Alsalmy and all the people and organisations who engaged in infrastructuring and commoning around ReTuren. Further thanks to Vinnova and the JPI Urban Europe project Urb@EXP for financing our participation. Special thanks also to the reviewers for their insightful comments.

Notes

1. This is not a new approach in Co-Design. It has previously been framed both as a matter of striving towards change from within public organisations (Lenskjold, Olander, and Halse 2015), and as a matter of exploring the co-designers’ role in engaging not just with the design but also the implementation of co-production initiatives (Seravalli 2014).

2. The project leader is employed at the waste department and was the main initiator of ReTuren.

3. This information has been collected from interviews with waste department employees.

4. Makers are non-professionals that engage in making, repairing, upcycling things by sharing knowledge, tools, materials and by collaborating.They are e.i. driven by curiosity (exploring technology possibilities), ethical/political interests (e.g. criticizing mass-consumption and the actual production system) but also just by the fulfillment generated by making something together with others (Seravalli 2014).

5. ‘Core team’ refers to the project leader, the coordinator and the ‘embedded’ Co-Design researcher.

6. https://malmo.lokaltidningen.se/det-ar-sa-typiskt-att-man-gor-sa-har-mot-var-typ-av-omrade-/20160916/artikler/709219937