Constructing the “Cocreative Citizen”: Innovation Subjects, Statehood and the Common Good in Hybrid Public–Private Settings

“Cocreation” has emerged as a prominent discourse and set of participatory practices in innovation that aims to engage diverse actors in supposedly inclusive, egalitarian, and empowering ways to jointly produce better innovation outcomes. In this article, we explore how such cocreation practices shape subjectivity—producing what we call a mode of “cocreative citizenship”—by linking technological innovation to an implied duty for citizens to participate in innovation processes and ensure that said innovation will contribute to the common good. Building on recent literature and an in-depth case study of a participatory smart lighting initiative in the Netherlands, we show how cocreation practices constrain the available range of relationships between citizens and the common good by assigning specific roles and responsibilities within narrowly conceived and often technosolutionist innovation purposes. Our findings suggest a need for a wider debate about how to articulate citizenship–state relations and visions of the common good in the innovation-centric societies, underscoring the limits of participatory processes as a form of responsible stewardship.