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This study aims to examine and understand South Korea’s (S. Korea) COVID-19 response operations, a notable case for other countries to emulate, and suggest some practical implications for other countries struggling with coping with the current pandemic.

To examine the case, the authors propose a new theoretical framework based on concepts of the whole community approach in the emergency management field and on co-production in public administration studies, and use the theoretical framework to analyze the details of S. Korea’s whole community co-production for COVID-19 response.

The findings demonstrate that the successful pandemic response in S. Korea is attributable to a nationwide whole community co-production among multiple actors, including government, various industries, sectors, jurisdictions and even individual citizens, within and across relevant public service and public policy domains.

This study suggests a new theoretical framework, whole community co-production, which contributes to the conceptual advancement of co-production in the field of public administration and a whole community approach in the field of emergency and crisis management. The framework also suggests practical implications for other countries to integrate whole community coproduction that may transform current response operations to cope with COVID-19.

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings from reflexive data collection on the evolving co-production research relationship between the two “worlds” of community and academia: people with lived experience and their community intermediaries and academic researchers. It reports analysis of reflections on experience as the different partners explore and evaluate their own experiences of co-productive research within the context of substance use recovery co-production research.

The research uses reflexive data from perspectives of an intermediary community partner, academic partners, and community researchers on experiences of a series of co-productive research projects. The aim is to identify thematic features of the co-productive experiences from different positions and through the process of adaptation to a co-productive relationship.

This paper outlines what has been learnt from the experience of co-production and what has “worked” for community and academic partners; around the nature of co-production, barriers to performance, and its value to participants and the wider recovery research agenda.

This paper reports a unique perspective on a developing methodology in health and social care, contributing to a growing body of knowledge pertaining to experiences of co-production research.

The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the evolution in the provision of public services’ delivery, with a specific focus on housing policies. New practices are being implemented, thanks to the cooperation of the public sector, private, and nonprofit actors. Rather than just providing assistance to households with income levels falling below specific thresholds, social housing addresses the broader and more complex areas of vulnerability that affect several categories, such as single parents, young students and professionals, and temporarily unemployed people. Co-production also comes into the picture, since many social housing projects require that beneficiaries contribute to the implementation of the project itself, for example by managing the buildings and common areas or by creating communities.

The chapter will start from considerations on the emergence of new housing needs. It will then review the literature on the concept of co-production of public services and provide a definition of social housing. Then, examples of social housing will be analyzed based on specific criteria derived from the literature and the theoretical framework. The methodology is qualitative and based on descriptive case analysis.

The chapter analyzes the evolution of public housing policies by taking into account the social and economic changes that have determined greater and more complex areas for public intervention, adopting a twofold approach of partnership and collaboration between the three sectors, and of co-production of public services by directly engaging the users.

Co-production is becoming a more widely used term in mental health care in England, but it is not always clear what this means nor what the evidence base is behind particular uses of the concept. The purpose of this paper is to set some of this discussion into a historical context and examine some of the relevant evidence base to begin to highlight the challenges with operationalising more co-production. This is by way of setting the scene for the other articles in this special edition of the journal. The paper then provides an overview of the other articles on co-production in this edition.

The paper is a short review and discussion of some key issues and evidence relevant to co-production in mental health.

Some key historical insights from other moves to transform mental health care are discussed, recognising that these developments can take a long time to reach maturity in services and practice across the whole country. The discussion of some pertinent research and of the other articles in this special edition helps to highlight what foundations the author have in place for greater co-production in mental health care, and what remains as some of the challenges and gaps in the knowledge.

The paper provides a historical overview of some key issues, evidence and lessons pertaining to moves to develop more co-production in mental health.

This paper explores the perceptions of a small cohort of participants in the “Involving People” programme. This 35-week course recruited staff from across statutory, voluntary and charity sectors who aimed to lead and develop change initiatives within their respective organisations. The study captured staff views on the extent to which their training in co-production enabled them to deliver sustainable service improvement within their organisations.

This was a small scale, qualitative study, using a purposive sampling approach. Of the 18 staff participants, 5 agreed to participate in face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Through a process of free text analysis, several themes and sub-themes were identified.

Several barriers and opportunities were highlighted coupled with suggestions on changes to public service delivery based on equal and reciprocal relationships between professionals, service users and their families. Organisational structures and silo working still act as an inhibiter for real change.

Additionally, it was demonstrated that training in the area of co-production can act as a catalyst for wider service improvements. It can enhance staff confidence to profile the importance of service user involvement, persuading their colleagues of its benefits and challenging practice where co-production is not happening. However, a collective leadership and a shared language on co-production are still needed to develop inclusive organisational cultures.

This was the first study of its kind in Northern Ireland which highlighted that there was a need for a collective leadership and a shared language on co-production to develop inclusive organisational cultures.

This chapter argues for the development of a model of tutor/student interaction, applying experiential theory and using a learning community framework to improve the student learning experience and to enhance the quality of course curriculum and content. A further value is the opportunity for students, to ‘find’ potential solutions to workplace problems and, as public sector managers, to challenge and change workplace practices and attitudes.

This chapter explores the practice of using course participants’ own experiences to inform course content and increase the currency and value of teaching and initiates development of what could eventually become a real co-production process.

The chapter applies an experiential approach to education and learning, contending that this could lead to a potential co-production process. It argues that this combined approach is a useful model by which to examine current workplace issues using the professional experiences of course participants.

The chapter advances the argument put forward in ‘Another Look at Research’ (Oldfield, 2016) by placing experiential learning within the context of a co-production approach to the delivery of education and learning and delineating a distinctive pedagogical approach to mid-career education.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the emergence, operation and features of the time banks that were created during the recent financial crisis in Greece as grass-roots initiatives of different communities, and to examine their relation to the concept of “co-production” and possible relevance to foresight. Time banks are particularly interesting for the future of services: they address all sorts of services while the time-bank “value” of these different types of services does not necessarily reflect their actual value in the free market; impacts may spread from the mere coverage of people’s needs, to increased social capital and community empowerment; and some scholars consider them as flexible forms of co-production, or even as enablers of wider social change. The purpose of the paper is to examine the emergence, and features of the time banks created during the recent financial crisis in Greece as grass-roots initiatives.

Primary information and data were gathered through eight extensive face-to-face interviews with key members of the four time banks based on a semi-structured questionnaire. The methodology also included desk research and review of the information included in time banks’ websites. The selection of these four time banks was based on the fact that they are the most active ones in Athens, which is the capital of the country gathering around 40 per cent of the Greek population and presenting the severest consequences of the financial crises in terms of unemployment, poverty, shutdown of businesses, share of people with no insurance, etc.

Based on a specific analytical framework summarising the available literature, the Greek time banks are compared with each other but also in relation to the findings in the literature, where some interesting differences emerge. The paper also explores the role that foresight can plan in the development of alternative initiatives like time banks. The interesting conclusion is that foresight can help time banks as much as time banks can help foresight in upgrading its processes to deal with challenges of the twenty-first century.

The research focuses on the four most active time banks in Athens. While this selection is justified, future research would be good to include all the time banks in Greece.

The paper explores how time banks in Greece emerged as well as how they can further develop. This is of direct relevance to society as time banks are by default a community initiative.

Time banks in Greece have not been previously studied. Second, time banks in general were never linked to approaches like foresight. This becomes increasingly important in examining possible approaches toward more sustainable and resilient societies.

Citizen engagement and public service co-production have been identified as essential ingredients of the recipe for public services’ quality improvement. However, the process of citizens’ involvement has rarely been investigated in the scientific literature. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on this issue, examining the expectations and perspectives of people involved in an ongoing process of collective public service co-production implemented in Val Brembilla, a small-sized municipality located in North-Western Italy.

A mixed research strategy was designed. First, seven focus groups involving both citizens and entrepreneurs participating in public service co-production were established. Second, a semi-structured survey was administered to 463 co-producers (including both citizens and entrepreneurs), in order to elicit their perceptions and expectations.

An institutional trigger, namely, the decision of the municipality’s board to purchase the Kuwait Expo 2015 pavilion, initiated the process of public service co-production. Although citizens did not fully agree with the decision to buy the pavilion, due to its negative implications on the municipality’s finances, they were found to be willing to participate in public value co-creation. The opportunity to promote territorial identity through public value co-creation represented the main driver for citizens and entrepreneurs’ involvement.

Collective public service co-production is a sustainable and effective way to enhance the provision of public services. Several barriers are thought to prevent citizens’ engagement in collective public service co-production. First, people expect to be engaged from the initial steps of the process; second, the distinguishing role of territorial identity in influencing citizens’ behaviors and expectations should be recognized and properly addressed to avoid shortcomings in citizens’ engagement.

This paper investigates an ongoing collective public service co-production experience; moreover, it highlights the role of public service co-production in enhancing the public sector entities’ ability to recognize the evolving needs of the community.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the design and methodology of the REC-CONNECT project and to determine whether a co-produced approach to research in this area between those with lived experience, those delivering recovery support, and those investigating recovery evidence, generated greater project impact.

A co-productive approach was taken during project planning, training delivery, data collection and community connecting activity. Workshop evaluations were collected at each training session that provided data on worker/peer volunteer wellbeing, workshop efficacy and organisational factors. Community connectors used REC-CAP for evaluating improvements in clients’ community engagement.

Whilst co-production as a research approach broke down barriers between theory and practice and delivered a wider community asset map, a number of hurdles emerged: buy-in of all participants; culture/competing agendas; overcoming sense of disenfranchisement of people in recovery; and resources, tools and timescales of research requirements.

This is a small study in Sheffield. As such, data are limited. However, the implications spread to other vulnerable groups in other areas are evidenced, and the principles offer sustainability and partnership that go beyond time-limited projects.

Co-production as an approach to research in the substance misuse field has a meaningful impact on the “end-user” of people in recovery through empowerment, better connected recovery pathways and evidence-to-practice-based support models.

The project advanced the emerging principle of reciprocal asset-based community development and designed a co-produced model to create a team of professional, volunteer and peer community connectors to engage and connect new individuals to recovery with existing community assets, and who themselves emerged as a community asset through the project.