The proposed paper impacts the current debate on governance system in Poland upon Europeanisation in terms of co-creation of Service Innovation. In this context, it can be a part of discussion on state-local government relations, public-value and co-production: autonomy, capacity and conflict (Panel 11). Due to its dynamic and vibrant character, the items will be discussed, which also can be implemented into the debate on citizen engagement and participation (Panel 9) and public service motivation (Panel 12).
The concept of co-creation occupies an important space in the current study of European integration. However, the starting point for the considerations contained in the proposed paper is the observation, that while it is commonly accepted that the co-creation of services with citizens and other non-governmental actors seems to be the most effective action to answer to the need for new social innovations and the growing demand for personalised services, the research agenda linked to this has investigated this aspect regarding Eastern and Central Europe not in an enough extensive way. In this regards, the paper can contribute to the field.
The proposed paper is a part of the international research performed upon the project “Co-Creation of Public Innovation in Europe” (acronym “CoSIE”) financed upon Horizon 2020. The CoSIE project develops the co-creation process in the field of public services and aims at service innovations by applying and testing a collaborative and user-oriented co-creation process. It builds on the idea that public sector innovations – whether ICT-related or not – can best be achieved by creating collaborative partnerships between service providers (i.e. public sector agencies, third sector organizations, private companies) and service beneficiaries (i.e. citizen). The goal of CoSIE is to contribute to democratic dimensions and social inclusion through co-creating public services by engaging diverse citizen groups and stakeholders in varied public services. Through several pilots, the project introduces the culture of experiments that encompasses a variety of stakeholders for co-creating service innovations.
From the perspective of Europeanisation, in the proposed paper a local case study will be discussed whereas the theory of change for co-creation of Service Innovation on the basis of senioral cohousing in Wrocław, the 4th biggest city in Poland, will be developed. In order to achieve sustainable and effective change, the paper has following aims and objectives:
- To understand the active shaping of service priorities by end users and their informal support networks (by producing and delivering a real-life pilot to co-create a set of relational public services with various combinations of public sector, civil society and commercial actors
- To understand the state of citizens engagement, especially groups often called ‘hard to reach’, in the collaborative design of public services (by applying innovative approaches appropriate to local contexts and user groups to gather the necessary user insight to co-create services).
