From increased user participation to co-creation leadership: An action research case study in public specialised mental health and substance abuse services

The main aim in this thesis has been to develop a ‘user participation method’ that ensures both service user and service provider impact on service development. An action research single case study was conducted in a Norwegian mental health and substance abuse unit. Increased user participation in public service development and dialogue between stakeholders about service development were facilitated by the researcher through participative observation and in collaboration with stakeholders. Stakeholders engaged as co-researchers and participants in planning meetings and working groups and in co-researcher led multistage focus group interviews, semi-structured individual interviews and dialogue seminars. The overall research question related to the main aim was How can participation and real influence from patients and staff in service development be ensured? Three articles were produced to inform the research question and the main aim. The contribution to theory in article one is to create awareness about concurrent diagnostic culture that keeps patient voices from being heard. The findings suggest that facilitating self-empowerment among service users and providers through training, supervision and explorative dialogue may enable reciprocal empowerment between these stakeholders. In turn, this may make it possible for them to have a united voice when it comes to developing and transforming services. Article two reveals how organisational defence mechanisms hinder double-loop learning among staff. It proposes elements necessary to unlock the potential of genuine co-production relationships between service users and providers including a mutual agreement, a fixed coproduction meeting, joint training/roleplay, and spaces for group and individual reflexivity. In article three, the contribution has been identifying leadership behaviours that enable co-created organisational adaptability in PSOs. The following definition of co-creation leadership is proposed: the ability to recognise service users, providers, and formal leaders as colleagues who co-create services and value in a reciprocally empowering working alliance. Further, some specific requirements of co-creation leadership are presented: 1) enabling dialogue and adaptive spaces, 2) acknowledging that power is negotiated and relational, 3) coconstructing and connecting leadership to core tasks and functions (not just formal position), 4) recognising consultation, facilitation and delegation as key to decision commitment and collective mobilisation, and 5) ambidextrously maneuvering between participation and decisiveness, care and autonomy, and production and innovation. To explore how knowledge about a) the relationship between the articles; b) the preliminary main result, namely a co-production method; and c) conceptualisation of co-creation leadership can contribute to existing and future PSO challenges, the following synopsis research question was posed: The role of leadership. How can systematic involvement of leaders, users and providers enable organizational adaptation in public services? The three articles and experiences with the research design have informed the main result: a renamed and updated co-creation method. This method is described as both a practice and an action research method that enables a shift in organisational culture and practice towards a co-creation orientation. In this orientation, facilitating participative coproduction of existing services is just as pertinent as facilitating coinnovation of new services. Such facilitation is accomplished through the creation of communicative and adaptive spaces for stakeholders’ exploratory dialogue. Systematic integration of a co-creation practice, which is defined as the way stakeholders actually collaborate to evaluate, improve, plan, initiate and innovate services, is central. Furthermore, an understanding of co-creation leadership has been included in the cocreation method design. Multiple choices of leadership behaviours and role-migration between stakeholders are essential. The implication for practice and research is that the co-creation method has several paths to choose from and can therefore be adapted to various contexts. The co-creation method may be introduced as both a practice and a research method, and it can be utilised as a tool for service improvement, innovation and service/environmental sustainability within and outside of PSOs. Furthermore, leader presence is encouraged to root and legitimise co-creation. Conceptualisation of co-creation leadership may strengthen the co-creation of services and value potential

A participatory approach for digital documentation of Egyptian Bedouins intangible cultural heritage

The Bedouins of Egypt hold a unique intangible cultural heritage (ICH), with distinct cultural values and social practices that are rapidly changing as a consequence of having settled after having been nomadic for centuries. We present our attempt to develop a bottom-up approach to document Bedouin ICH. Grounded in participatory design practices, the project purpose was two-fold: engaging Egyptian Engineering undergraduates with culturally-distant technology users and introducing digital self-documentation of ICH to the Bedouin community. We report the design of a didactic model that deployed the students as research partners to co-design four prototypes of ICH documentation mobile applications with the community. The prototypes reflected an advanced understanding for the values to the Bedouins brought by digital documentation practices. Drawing from our experience, three recommendations were elicited for similar ICH projects. Namely, focusing on the community benefits; promoting motivation ownership, and authenticity; and pursuing a shared identity between designers and community members. These guidelines hold a strong value as they have been tested against local challenges that could have been detrimental to the project

Mediating boundaries between knowledge and knowing: ICT and R4D praxis

Research for development (R4D) praxis (theory-informed practical action) can be underpinned by the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) which, it is claimed, provide opportunities for knowledge working and sharing. Such a framing implicitly or explicitly constructs a boundary around knowledge as reified, or commodified – or at least able to be stabilized for a period of time (first order knowledge). In contrast ‘third-generation knowledge’ emphasizes the social nature of learning and knowledge-making; this reframes knowledge as a negotiated social practice, thus constructing a different system boundary. This paper offers critical reflections on the use of a wiki as a data repository and mediating technical platform as part of innovating in R4D praxis. A sustainable social learning process was sought that fostered an emergent community of practice among biophysical and social researchers acting for the first time as R4D co-researchers. Over time the technologically mediated element of the learning system was judged to have failed. This inquiry asks: How can learning system design cultivate learning opportunities and respond to learning challenges in an online environment to support R4D practice? Confining critical reflection to the online learning experience alone ignores the wider context in which knowledge work took place; therefore the institutional setting is also considered

Using seasonal climate forecasting in agriculture: a participatory decision-making approach

Farm Management,

Envisioning Digital Europe 2030: Scenarios for ICT in Future Governance and Policy Modelling

The report Envisioning Digital Europe 2030 is the result of research conducted by the Information Society Unit of IPTS as part of the CROSSROAD Project - A Participative Roadmap on ICT research on Electronic Governance and Policy Modelling (www.crossroad-eu.net ). After outlining the purpose and scope of the report and the methodological approach followed, the report presents the results of a systematic analysis of societal, policy and research trends in the governance and policy modelling domain in Europe. These analyses are considered central for understanding and roadmapping future research on ICT for governance and policy modelling. The study further illustrates the scenario design framework, analysing current and future challenges in ICT for governance and policy modelling, and identifying the key impact dimensions to be considered. It then presents the scenarios developed at the horizon 2030, including the illustrative storyboards representative of each scenario and the prospective opportunities and risks identified for each of them. The scenarios developed are internally consistent views of what the European governance and policy making system could have become by 2030 and of what the resulting implications for citizens, business and public services would be. Finally, the report draws conclusions and presents the proposed shared vision for Digital Europe 2030, offering also a summary of the main elements to be considered as an input for the future development of the research roadmap on ICT for governance and policy modelling.JRC.DDG.J.4-Information Societ