Digitalisation and Developing a Participatory Culture: Participation, Co-production, Co-destruction

Although governments and public sector organisations are known for being bureaucratic and hierarchic, they are being encouraged to move to models of digital and more participatory governance. This involves the use of digital tools and methods that are able to support active citizen roles, stakeholder participation and co-production. Whilst the focus is on positive outcomes of participation and co-production, the phenomenon of co-destruction is less the focus of research. This chapter therefore presents on the one hand a review of scholarly literature on digital participation and co-production in public sector organisations and how these topics contribute to the development of participatory culture as defined by Jenkins et al. (2015) and, on the other hand, considers the disruptions, errors and mistakes that may arise through participation and collaboration. The themes presented here provide an analysis of participation, co-production and co-destruction in the context of digital governance and highlight the importance of these themes as part of a research agenda as developed by Charalabidis and Lachana (2020).