Navigating the Kafkaesque: Tracing public service coproduction from three disciplines

This article traces the evolution of public service coproduction from three disciplines: economics, urban theory, and public administration, highlighting the influence of the Ostroms. In addressing the three disciplines, the article explains what broadly united the coproduction literature and the differences that hindered the early development of the concept, providing a synthesization of the scholarship. In doing so, the synthesis emphasizes external outcomes and internal processes of coproduction scholarship by comparing and contrasting the disciplines. The article highlights how the concept is used today. It concludes by suggesting how future research might treat the concept, partitioning coproduction into its “co” and “production” components and the stages of interaction, with a call to urban scholars to revisit the concept.