The potential impacts of digital technologies on co-production and co-creation

Despite growing interest in the potential of digital technologies to enhance co-production and co-creation in public services, there is a lack of hard evidence on their actual impact. Conceptual fuzziness and tech-optimism stand in the way of collecting such evidence. The article suggests an analytical framework that distinguishes between the impacts of different technologies on different elements of co-production and co-creation, and illustrates this in three different areas. It argues that there is no reason to assume that digital technologies will always encourage co-production or co-creation. In fact, they can also be used to bypass interaction with citizens.