Co-production in Italy is a paradox because there is this trade-off between its bureaucracy, notoriously static, featured by the lack of public engagement and late compared to European countries, versus , reality that shows dynamic and effective activities even if heterogeneus in the North and the South .
This study offers analytical insight into different processes of co-production in Italy, Angels of Beauty in Florence, Ci.vi.vo (We live here)in Rimini, Lungomare liberato (Freed seafront) in Catania, providing some examples of active participation as defined within the 2001 Ocse Report “Citizens as Partners. Information, Consultation and Public Participation in policy Making” in which information, consultation and active participation represent three different levels of citizen engagement.
Much literature analyses performance measurements as an method to cut expenses , however, this case study focuses on volunteer participation and collaboration with local authority employees working together to enhance the city through community involvement. Different regional contexts/factors/issues are reflected in the difference in regional activity/initiatives. There is a strong relationship between context, social indicator and level of development of coproduction.
Principal questions explore the reasons why the co-production initiatives were developed, their main objectives, and beneficiaries before going on to analyse their methods for citizen and municipal engagement and the owners of this process.
An important aspect of the investigation explores how co-production could add value for citizens, improving and enhancing social cohesion based on interviews with key project stakeholders and on a review of the material published on websites.
Questions arising from the investigation therefore may not only facilitate discussion on the usual performance indicators and measurement methods of coproduction schemes but suggest new ways to understand the actual processes, the context and the environmental conditions . Reality shows that best practices of coproduction have common features but also many variables.
Proposed content
In Florence the Angels of Beauty Foundation’s key objective is to improve the urban environment and strengthen the civic sense of ownership of historical sites through volunteer participation in partnership with public services and private companies.
In Rimini, since 2011, the Municipality has been collaborating and co-producing new services with its citizens in a project called CI.VI.VO. (CIvico.VIcino.VOlontario-Civic.Near.Volunteer, where the acronym CI.VI.VO. means “I live here”). The aim of this initiative is to stimulate a sense of civic belonging through volunteer participation in improving the city environment. Rimini Municipality's objective through this initiative is to manage and activate a civic network of volunteers.
More of 1000 of Catania’s citizens in the 2014, subsigned an on line petition. They used the social media and created a page of Facebook, called Lungomare liberato. Their vision has been to return an important part of the city to the citizens, imagining the future of Catania, where it is possible to remark the low level of life’s quality and sustainable mobility, without car and moto on Sunday.
These examples could provide useful models for other cities that invest in a sustainable and inclusive development.
Value co-creation, co-design and co-production in public services
case_study_coproduction_in_italy_between_paradox_and_reality_2.pdf 