5 - The Complex and Dynamic Process of Co-creating Public Value

Summary

This chapter aims to open the black box of co-creation, look at its constituent parts and inner mechanics, identify the drivers of and barriers to different parts of the process, and highlight the tools that may support and facilitate the co-creation of public value. Hence, to provide a baseline for subsequent analysis, it establishes an analytical framework for studying processes of co-creation. While recognizing that the dynamic processes of co-creation are often extremely complex and full of gaps, overlaps, jumps, feedback loops, and iterations, it makes sense for heuristic reasons to speak of four phases in the process of co-creating public solutions: 1) initiation; 2) design; 3) implementation; and 4) consolidation, upscaling, and diffusion. Each of these phases can be broken down into three interlacing sub-phases. This chapter carefully elaborates what goes on in the different phases and sub-phases of co-creation and identifies relevant drivers and barriers that may affect the internal dynamics of these phases and sub-phases.