Civil society and community self-organizations

Contemporary society is confronted with unprecedented challenges, such as natural disasters, pandemic diseases, financial crises, and conflicts. At the same time, public services are weakened due to austerity. These challenges require public, nonprofit and private organizations to collaborate as they are unable to solve these kinds of complex issues in isolation. Recent decades have witnessed a shift in public organizations to the New Public Governance paradigm, increasing collaboration and coordination between public and civil society actors, and giving more responsibilities to civil society, citizens and community self-organizations such as voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSEs) in (co-)creating and (co-)producing public services.

Our SIG seeks to advance research on the (co-)production of public services by citizens, civil society and community self-organizations (e.g. VSCEs), to critically address key issues like: under what conditions public value should be pursued in co-production with citizens and communities, and when it should be avoided in order to protect public value in communities; how governments should be organized in order to be able to facilitate public participation, co-production and self-organization within civil society and community self-organizations; what challenges VCSEs face to manage hybrid social and economic aims, how they respond/behave to these challenges and how these organisations can deliver services more effectively; what the determinants are for legitimate and effective (co-)production processes between VCSEs and the state; and so forth. We aim to inspire members to undertake empirical and conceptual studies to address current research deficits and strive for excellence in theory, methods and original contributions to this field and broader public management research. This SIG will continue our previous efforts, delivered since 2018, as a regular IRSPM panel on civil society and community self-organization.

Our SIG aims to provide a collaborative platform for junior and senior researchers to exchange expert knowledge, network for co-authorship and develop new research ideas for grant applications. We plan to facilitate regular seminars, workshops and roundtables (virtually and in person), within and outside the IRSPM’s annual conferences, to build up and strengthen a research community.

How to join our SIG

New members are welcome to join the group by contacting any of the co-convenors.  There is no specific application process. We encourage our members to participate in the IRSPM annual conference and present their research at the SIG panel. We also aim to organise seminars, workshops and roundtables outside the IRSPM annual conferences, to build up and strengthen a research community for our members.