ABSTRACT
This is a new chapter prepared for the second edition of this book. Public sector organizations are increasingly collaborating with other public, private and not for profit organizations to create joint policies or services, especially in complex policy arenas where many different bodies from various sectors come together to generate effective solutions. Public agencies are also now seeking to collaborate ‘downwards’ with users or citizens to co-produce services or co-design public policy. The vertically integrated and ‘silo-ed’ public agency is clearly not nowadays the only unit of analysis when looking at strategy. There is a sustained growth of various partnerships, alliances and networks across the whole cycle of public services, from their design to delivery and evaluation. Local ‘whole systems’ are also becoming an important focus for policy interventions. All these developments move local public agencies away from a ‘standalone’ mode. The chapter starts (4.2) by exploring management literature on cooperative strategy in private firms. It then reviews more political science literature on post Fordism and the so called post Fordist state (4.3) and moves on to introduce more recent public management literature on co production and co creation (4.4). Worked case examples are presented in boxes.
