Visual governance, value co-destruction, and the limits of care: an autoethnographic governance framework for university–community co‑design

This study examines how university design teams, positioned as boundary‑spanning resource nodes in Taiwan’s University Social Responsibility (USR) ecosystem, shape value co‑creation and co‑destruction through visual governance and boundary work. Using an analytic autoethnographic, comparative case study of two long‑term branding collaborations, the study analyzes critical incidents in which goodwill‑driven ‘exceptions’ to funding rules, shifting psychological contracts, institutional accountability requirements, and the symbolic afterlife of logos jointly produced either dependency and rupture (Case A) or sustained reciprocity (Case B). Synthesizing these narratives with service‑ecosystem, value co‑destruction, Conservation of Resources, and visual‑governance literatures, the article develops a Resilient Co‑design Governance Framework with four dimensions – graded boundaries, psychological contracts, institutional rhythms, and visual governance – articulated through propositions. The framework repositions professional restraint, exception management, and the design of exit and closure as core co‑design practices, and highlights the ‘afterlife’ of visual artefacts as a key site for studying long‑term visual governance.