Short description of the project
Ageing and immigration present two of the most significant challenges to the welfare state in the years to come. It is therefore essential to rethink current models and institutions in these fields. To meet this challenge this project study, how co-creation between the public sector and the civil society can improve and change welfare benefits and activities among elderly people and immigrants.
Co-creation is a term used to describe the equal and mutual collaboration between voluntary and public participants for the purpose of performing welfare services. Co-creation challenges participants to bridge the practises, logics and values of both sectors – a challenge containing both potential synergy and conflict.
On this basis, the project intends to develop knowledge-based models of co-creation bridging the practises and values between the public sector and the civil society. The key question to be addressed is therefore how to establish viable and optimal models of co-creation capable of combining the qualities of both sectors in a respectful, productive and constructive compromise – of benefit to all concerned; including volunteers, employees and users. To gain knowledge in this field the project first studies the character of existing models of co-creation. This is done to investigate how conflicts are addressed and potentials are realised, when the public sector and volunteers from the civil society collaborate on welfare services. The project seeks to answer these questions both at the organisational and the practical level.
By investigating both ageing and immigration the project engages two very important and very different fields of welfare policy. The fields differ in regards to institutional circumstances as well as the different roles played by the public sector and the civil society, respectively. The diversity of the chosen fields potentially ensures that the results of the project may be applicable within a wider range of welfare policy fields.
The project is managed by Aalborg University and is a collaboration between researchers, civil society and municipality. The project participants are Aalborg Kommune, Røde Kors, Dansk Flygtningehjælp, Ældre Sagen, KORA and Aalborg University. The VELUX Foundation has granted approx. DKK 3,3 million to realise the project as a part of The VELUX Foundation’s interdisciplinary programme.
Do you need a further description of the project – see the project description (in danish).
