Co-creating public services in social hackathons: adapting the original hackathon concept

IMPACT

The co-creation method highlighted in this article provides public sector managers with the knowledge and tools to help them design and plan innovative solutions for local services. The article analyses the characteristics of social hackathons and how they can be used in improving public services. The authors shows how social hackathons can bring the public sector and the community together around problems and lay the ground for collaborative relationships. Such relationships reinforce value for the partnerships and increase mutual understanding in designing public services.

ABSTRACT

This article analyses social hackathons as a tool for co-creation of innovative services in the public arena. The objective is to have a better understanding of the process, elements, outcomes and other characteristics of social hackathons. They are events where public sector representatives, community members, end-users and other stakeholders are involved in co-creating solutions for challenges at the local level. The authors report on action research, combined with elements of design research in piloting the concept of social hackathons in a rural area of Estonia. This article adds to the evidence base about the characteristics of social hackathons as co-creation platforms and the requirements of using them for public service creation.

KEYWORDS:

• Co-creation
• Estonia
• public sector innovation
• social hackathon
• social innovation

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This research for this article was funded by a project on Co-creation of Service Innovations in Europe, whic was part of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the grant agreement No. 770492. The content reflects the authors’ views.