ABSTRACT
Co-production and co-creation are based on relations between professional staff and service users. This chapter focuses on the professional side of co-production and co-creation, that is, the regular producer who can be a single professional or, in a networked environment, a group of professionals. The different public administration regimes provide an interesting window to the changing professional-citizen relations. The professional-client relation changes from a top-down, one-directional relationship to a collaborative relationship based on user empowerment and interdependence. Professionals are ascribed a specific role in supporting co-creation and co-production through shaping the institutional context in which co-production happens, creating conditions for better interaction with individual co-producers, but also keeping an eye on creating public value going beyond individual interactions. As for the literature that examines the motivational side of professionals, it would be critical to study how different professions cope with co-production, and whether there are some crucially different understandings about co-production and co-creation between different professions.
