Understanding Public Value – Why Does It Matter?

This introduction to the special issue looks back at the debates over public value and public values. It suggests that a focus on recognising public value provides a way to bring the different streams together. Drawing on papers from a workshop conducted in July 2019, it sets out three issues critical to understanding the concept: the need for better definition of the core concepts, its contribution to understanding the nature of institutions and the policy process, and ways to bring back the critical issues of power and heterogeneity into our consideration of public value. The special issue aims to expand our understanding of ‘public value’ and in so doing, better understand how it contributes to public policy research and practice.