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

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.