Visit by Professor John Alford
Visit by Professor John Alford
Last week from, April 23- April 25, the CBS Public-Private Platform had the pleasure of a visit by Australian Professor of Government John Alford.
During his stay Alford amongst others gave a public lecture, held a teaching session at the Master of Public Governance program and visited Falck, as case-inspiration for some of Alford’s current research.
The public lecture took place on April 24 at CBS. By the title 'Engaging Public Sector Clients: From Service-Delivery to Co-production' Alford discussed and elaborated on five key-questions when talking about co-production:
- What is co-production?
- Whom do we serve?
- Who are the co-producers?
- When should co-production be utilised?
- How can co-production be elicited from citizens?
When taking the concept of co-production into practice it is important to take notion of the difference between deciding to do it and actually doing it stressed Alford and argued that co-production is talking about doing it together, not necessarily doing it. Professor Alford’s work analyzes when it makes sense for public agencies to try and harness clients’ co-production. It also suggests how organizations can make use of client co-production. In the process it challenges many of our assumptions about how government can relate to the public it serves.
Download his presentation:coprodn_slides_copenhagen_25_april_2014_circ_2.pdf
John Alford is Professor of Public Sector Management at the Australian and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) and at the Melbourne Business School (MBS, University of Melbourne. Areas of expertise are: public management, client-organization relationships and inter-organizational relationships. His two most recent books are: Engaging Public Sector Clients: From Service Delivery to Co-Production (Palgrave MacMillan 2009) and Rethinking Public Service Delivery. Managing with External Providers. (with Janine O’Flynn) (Palgave MacMillan 2012). See more on his website at ANZSOG. See also his blog entry on co-production in Australia.