Evaluating co-creation impacts?
Read and reflect upon
What values might be expected from co-creation?
How to measure the co-creation value?
What kinds of evidence can be deployed to substantiate claims for the value of co-creation?
How to reconcile conflicting interests in co-creation evidence?
Previous research suggests that due to the lack of reported outcomes of co-creation/co-production, it is unclear whether co-creation/co-production can be considered as beneficial to the citizens (Voorberg et al. 2014). The major questions then are: What may be the expected outcomes and values of co-creation? How are those outcomes/values assessed or measured? Based on what designs, data and knowledge?
Co-creation as a new approach in service delivery and governance implies moving the public service world into a new paradigm in handling the social complexity. Co-creation has implications for evaluation not least for its strive towards a new relational norm. No relational and broader cultural changes are achieved in a twinkling of an eye but imply longer processes of reflection and learning. This has to be taken into account by designing process-based evaluations that capture changes in relations and the underlying cultures.
Co-creation puts emphasis on both participatory dimension and collaborative dimension in enhancing the value in service offerings. We might want to critically evaluate how a change in roles, responsibilities and relationships is perceived and experienced during a course of time; are we moving towards co-creative cultures and practices with piloting efforts? We might want to dwell into democratising aspects, such as participation, influence and power sharing at different ‘phases’ of co-creation (co-initiation, co-design, co-decision/determination, co-implementation), or we might look into more human sensemaking aspects and the added value of user voices (authentic lived experiences), or even the moral value of being needed, informed and involved and the enhanced meaningfulness of the services. As well as the associated harms of being deprived of influence and power. From what angle we explore co-creation depends on the adopted norms and expectations as our “glasses”.
Co-creative relations in welfare services are also intended and, as CoSIE evidences, do result in innovative changes in service delivery practices with positive (often longer-term) results for user health/well-being/control over their lives/participation in society and similar values as intended (or sometimes unintended) outcomes. From service delivery perspective, co-creation may effect significant costs savings by redesigning less adequate actions and so resolving resource demanding conflicts or activating user contributions.
The question then is how to design evaluations to grasp the values associated with co-creation.
Below yo find a conversation on how to measure co-creation.
The “how”-question of evaluation
Several ways have been suggested to better capture co-creation effects in evaluation, among them:
- Theory-led approach
- Include methods and approaches that capture experience and allow people to co-produce research
- Use of comparative approaches
Immerse yourself
- Theory-led approach
- What information and what knowledge?
- Evaluation designs: participatory approaches and comparative designs
- Reflective exercises
Indicative literature for further reading
Adelman, C. (1993) Kurt Lewin and the Origins of Action Research. Educational Action Research, 1(1), pp 7-24, https://doi.org/10.1080/0965079930010102.
Douglas, M. (2005). A history of grid and group cultural theory, manuscript available from http://projects.chass.utoronto.ca/semiotics/cyber/douglas1.pdf
Geelhoed, S. (2020) The impact of stories. How to translate stories of lived experience to the policy cycle
Pierre Rosanvallon, Counter-Democracy. Politics in an Age of Distrust. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Smith, L., Bratini, L., Chambers, D.A., Jensen, R.V. and Romero, L. (2010) Between idealism and reality: Meeting the challenges of participatory action research, Action research, 8(4): 407-425.
Trowbridge, H and Willoughby, M (forthcoming) Debate: Re-Humanising The System or: How storytelling can be used to bridge the divide between services and citizens. Public Money & Management
Voorberg, W.H. Bekkers V. J. J. M. & Tummers L. G. (2014): A Systematic Review of Co-Creation and Co-Production: Embarking on the social innovation journey, Public Management Review, DOI: 10.1080/14719037.2014.930505