Co-creation of public services implies new roles and responsibilities that, at least potentially, change the balance of control. In this way, it aligns closely with democratic renewal. This paper draws on the outcomes of a collaborative innovation project Co-creation of Service Innovation in Europe (CoSIE) funded under Horizon 2020. CoSIE built upon the idea that public sector innovations can be best achieved by creating collaborative partnerships between service providers (public sector agencies, third sector organisations, private companies) and citizens who receive services directly or indirectly. CoSIE was implemented through ten real-life innovation pilots in different public services across Europe. Results showed how co-creative methods could promote democratic dimensions, increasing the civic participation of marginalised and often voiceless population groups (residents of depleted urban neighbourhoods, disabled people in remote rural areas, citizens adrift from the world of work, and non-EU migrants). Some CoSIE pilots were more successful than others in extending impact beyond their immediate localities and service contexts. The paper highlights common factors that helped share learning and evolve project innovations into the ‘modus operandi’ of institutions and societies.

The co-creation/co-production paradigm received significant attention in the last decades from Public Administration managers, officials, and scholars as a viable tool to overcome the limits of the New Public Management framework. Some scholars recognise that co-creation can be the basis for building an alternative administration model called New Public Governance. Other research found that co-creation is an innovative practice in the social investment policy frame. A more recent EU research project examines the idea and practice of co-creation in public services informed by lived experience pilots in 10 European countries. This paper presents the Italian case as an example of an institutional configuration open to the citizens’ participation in the co-design of public services. The paper is organised as follows. In the first paragraph, we illustrate the recent development of the legislation concerning the participation of citizens and civil society organisations in designing and delivering public services and/or management of common goods. The second paragraph deals with a deep analysis of “grey material” and scientific publications concerning the history, evolution and future perspectives of the “Shared Administration” procedures. The third paragraph presents a case study of collaboration between citizens, Third Sector/Civil Society Organisations (TSO/CSO) and public administration at the local level (Municipality of Bologna). The conclusive paragraph summarises the key findings of our study.

The paper is based on the observation of the process of reviving the forgotten culture of household economy, horticulture and livestock farming in disadvantaged rural areas and, through this, to develop a new service model for rural communities to strengthen the role of grassroots initiatives and enhancing the mechanisms of the co-operative model of local economy and democracy. Our research has shown that bottom-up models have several barriers to local governments in rural areas. The change in the political and governmental model of the last ten years has resulted in the restraint of local government autonomy and the vacancy of the role of local governments as public service providers. In this system, we can observe the strengthening of administrative dependence, the devaluation of the local elected political leadership (mayors) and the emergence of new rules of local power. In small settlements with less than 2,000 inhabitants, central state and political dependence intensified. Attempts to strengthen local communities have proved to be a major challenge in a highly centralised model of government. The present study gathers the factors that hinder the success of co-creative approaches in the local context and shows how the public service innovations organised by local governments are determined by the political and economic culture prevailing at the national level.