Co-production, the third sector and the delivery of public services

TLDR

Public management research increasingly focuses on the third sector’s role in delivering public services, yet empirical understanding remains limited. This collection seeks to deepen empirical knowledge of third sector participation in public service provision through new studies. The authors introduce co‑production, co‑management, and co‑governance as a conceptual framework to better understand these developments.

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, public management research has paid increasing attention to the third sector, especially to its role in the provision of public services. Evidence of this is the rising number of publications on the topic, as well as a growing number of sessions and papers on the topic in academic conferences of the EGPA and IRSPM. However, much of the discussion on its role is motivated at least as much by ideology as by fact. We still lack a comprehensive empirical understanding of what happens when the third sector is drawn into public service provision. In this collection on Co-Production: The Third Sector and the Delivery of Public Services, we will try to enhance this understanding by presenting several new studies on the subject. We also introduce the concepts of co-production, co-management and co-governance as a conceptual framework that enables us to better understand such developments.