- Joachim Lindflaten
- Martin Richter Christensen
4. term, Public Administration and Social Science (Master Programme)
In the last ten years co-production has come onto the municipal agenda in Denmark. In this Master’s thesis co-production is analyzed in a local community context within the municipality of Mariagerfjord. The local community of Hvornum is the center of attention with two efforts of co-production in “Project Citizen-driven Initiatives” being analyzed and planned by the municipality of Mariagerfjord. The two efforts in question are “Changing the school district” and “A trail between the villages of Hvornum and Klejtrup”. The overall design of this Master’s thesis is conducted as a theoretical interpreted single case study.
This Master’s thesis tries to map different types of co-production in the planned co-production process and different types of co-production in the ongoing co-production process of Hvornum. In order to answer which types of co-production that have been identified in the planned co-production process, we have conducted a document analysis of two central documents. In order to answer which types of co-production that have been identified in the ongoing co-production process of Hvornum, we have conducted three semi-structured interviews with citizens and civil servants, from the unit of Culture and Leisure in the municipality of Mariagerfjord. Furthermore our ambition is to link and synthesise the Policy Life Cycle theory (Parsons 1995) to the typology of co-production (Brandsen & Honingh 2015) in order to examine which stages of the Policy Life Cycle, citizens from two working groups of Hvornum are involved in. Lastly we want to examine which factors have affected the ongoing co-production process of Hvornum.
The analysis found that both the planned and the on-going co-production processes consist of the type “co-production in design and implementation”, regarding both efforts in the overall co-production but without any findings of implementation. In the effort “A trail between the villages of Hvornum and Klejtrup”, we found that the planned co-production process was the same as the on-going co-production process of Hvornum, also without any findings of implementation. In the effort “Changing the school district” we found that this effort is not a co-production effort in the Master’s thesis theoretical perspective, even though it takes place as a co-production effort. The reason that it cannot be a co-production effort is a result of one of our findings that the effort “Changing the school district” requires political decision-making within the city-councils of the municipalities of Mariagerfjord and Viborg. According to the Policy Life Cycle theory, we found that the citizens in the two working groups of Hvornum were involved in the first three stages of the Policy Life Cycle. The reason why we do not have findings of the remaining stages are a result of limitations in our case, since the co-production process remains in the design and planned phases. Partly our case and the overall process is also affected and delayed because of the COVID-19 situation.
This brings us further to the factors that have affected the on-going co-production process of Hvornum.
There are three primary factors that have affected changes in the co-production process and both efforts. Firstly the efforts cross the border of two municipalities, which means that for the efforts to succeed, the municipalities need to cooperate. For instance by entering into a formel cooperative agreement as proposed by the civil servants and citizens in the interviews. Secondly in the effort “Changing the school district” should not have been a part of the co-production process in “Project Citizen-driven Initiatives”, since it requires decision-making within political-administrative contexts, which citizens are excluded from. Thirdly, in the effort “A trail between the villages of Hvornum and Klejtrup” there is a landowner issue. This issue seems to be an on-going challenge in order to carry out a trail between the two villages.
If the municipality of Mariagerfjord agrees to co-produce in a place where co-production is not relevant, it can potentially affect the trust between the citizens of Hvornum and the municipality of Mariagerfjord. If the municipality of Mariagerfjord succeeds by changing the school district with the municipality of Viborg it should not be a problem, because the citizens then experience involvement and commitment.
The conclusion is that we cannot determine whether the trail is going to be a success or not, since this effort is not completed yet, but the citizens of Hvornum have fought for a trail in the last twenty years or so. Therefore they acknowledge that they need any kind of help from the municipality of Mariagerfjord in this matter.
Language | Danish |
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Publication date | 26 May 2021 |
Number of pages | 57 |
External collaborator | Mariagerfjord Kommune Konsulent Jens Lykke jelyk@mariagerfjord.dk Information group |