Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity

The four Visegrad states — Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia (until 1993 Czechoslovakia) and Hungary — form a compact area between Germany and Austria in the west and the states of the former USSR in the east. They are bounded by the Baltic in the north and the Danube river in the south. They are cut by the Sudeten and Carpathian mountain ranges, which divide Poland off from the other states. Poland is an extension of the North European plain and like the latter is drained by rivers that flow from south to north west — the Oder, the Vlatava and the Elbe, the Vistula and the Bug. The Danube is the great exception, flowing from its source eastward, turning through two 90-degree turns to end up in the Black Sea, forming the barrier and often the political frontier between central Europe and the Balkans. Hungary to the east of the Danube is also an open plain. The region is historically and culturally part of western Europe, but its eastern Marches now represents a vital strategic zone between Germany and the core of the European Union to the west and the Russian zone to the east.

Economy and Society

Social Psychology of Organizations

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Public Management Reform. A Comparative Analysis

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.

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

Coproduction of public services means that services are not only delivered by professional and managerial staff in public agencies but also coproduced by citizens and communities. Although recent research on this topic has advanced the debate considerably, there is still no consensus on precisely what coproduction means. This article argues that rather than trying to determine one encompassing definition of the concept, several different types of coproduction can be distinguished. Starting from the classical definitions of Elinor Ostrom and Roger Parks, the article draws on the literature on professionalism, volunteering, and public management to identify the distinctive nature of coproduction and identify basic dimensions on which a typology of coproduction can be constructed. Recognizing different types of coproduction more systematically is a critical step in making research on this phenomenon more comparable and more cumulative.

Distinguishing Different Types of Coproduction: A Conceptual Analysis Based on the Classical Definitions

In this introductory article to the thematic issue, our aim is to discuss the state of the art in research on co-production of public services We define co-production, for the purpose of this article rather narrowly, as the involvement of individual citizens and groups in public service delivery We discuss the concept along three main research lines that emerge from the literature: what are the motives for co-production? How can co-production be organized effectively? What are the effects of co-production? Secondly, we also critically assess the state of the art and discuss some conceptual and methodological issues that are still open to debate Thirdly, we propose some directions for future research: greater methodological diversity and the need for empirical and comparative research with a specific attention for theoretical advancement in co-production research

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Co-production: The State of the Art in Research and the Future Agenda

The term “third sector” is increasingly used, but it is also increasingly difficult to define. It is characterized by fragmentation, fuzziness, and constant change. Furthermore, the bordering domains of community, market, and state are equally difficult to define and are becoming more blurred. One may have to accept that hybridity and change are permanent features of the organizations and arrangements involved. They could be classified not with reference to the structural characteristics of abstract domains but on the basis of how they cope with conditions of hybridity and change. The search for a valid empirical definition of the third sector, however modestly ambitious, must focus on the fringes of the domain where the “hard cases” can be found—the phenomena that are most difficult to identify and therefore most likely to reveal what is essential to the different domains.

Griffins or Chameleons? Hybridity as a Permanent and Inevitable Characteristic of the Third Sector

1. Co-Production as a Maturing Concept Taco Brandsen, Victor Pestoff and Bram Verschuere Part 1: What Is Co-Production? Conceptual and Theoretical Perspectives 2. Co-Production and Third Sector Social Services in Europe: Some Crucial Conceptual Issues Victor Pestoff 3. From Engagement to Co-Production: How Users and Communities Contribute To Public Services Tony Bovaird and Elke Loeffler 4. Co-Production: Contested Meanings and Challenges for User Organizations Benjamin Ewert and Adalbert Evers 5. Third Sector and the Co-Construction of Canadian Public Policy Yves Vaillancourt 6. From Co-Production to Co-Governance John M. Ackerman Part 2: How Does Co-Production Work? 7. Co-Production from a Normative Perspective Edgar S. Cahn and Christine Gray 8. Co-Production and Network Structures in Public Education David O. Porter 9. The Conditions for Successful Co-Production in Housing: A Case Study of German Housing Cooperatives Taco Brandsen and Jan-Kees Helderman 10. Co-Production in an Information Age Albert Meijer Part 3: How Does Co-Management Work? 11. Co-Management to Solve Homelessness: Wicked Solutions for Wicked Problems Kerry Brown, Robyn Keast, Jennifer Waterhouse, Glen Murphy and Myrna Mandell 12. Co-Management in Urban Regeneration: New Perspectives on Transferable Collaborative Practice Hans Schlappa 13. 'Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds You?' On The Partnerships between Private Citizen Initiatives and Local Government Karolien Dezeure and Filip De Rynck 14. Co-Producing Safety or Participative Window Dressing? Regulation Partnerships in German Local Governance Arrangements Matthias Freise 15. The Potential of Nonprofit-Government Partnerships for Promoting Citizen Involvement Ichiro Tsukamoto Part 4: Effects Of Co-Production: Service Quality, Accountability and Democracy 16. Co-Production and Service Quality: A New Perspective for the Swedish Welfare State Johan Vamstad 17. Co-Production: An Alternative to the Partial Privatization Processes in Italy and Norway Andrea Calabro 18. The Challenges of Co-Management for Public Accountability: Lessons From Flemish Childcare Diederik Vancoppenolle and Bram Verschuere 19. New Public Governance, Co-Production and Third Sector Social Services in Europe: Crowding In and Crowding Out Victor Pestoff 20. Conclusion: Taking Research on Co-Production a Step Further Taco Brandsen, Bram Verschuere and Victor Pestoff

Taco Brandsen

Papers

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

Distinguishing Different Types of Coproduction: A Conceptual Analysis Based on the Classical Definitions

Co-production: The State of the Art in Research and the Future Agenda

Griffins or Chameleons? Hybridity as a Permanent and Inevitable Characteristic of the Third Sector

New public governance, the third sector and co-production