Why Do We Need It? Co- <scp>P</scp> roduction in Elderly Care According to Local Actors in Norway

Introduction: Co-production in Norwegian national political documents and reports is presented as a means to improve welfare state sustainability and cost-effectiveness, restrict public expenditure, and address reduced trust in democracy. We are interested in how this national perspective is understood and implemented at the local level in Norwegian municipalities: Why is co-production necessary, and what is it, according to local actors? Method: Our analysis rests on documents and interviews with main stakeholders within elderly care, including at the municipal political level and in municipal administration and service provision, voluntary organizations, non-profits, as well as user and next-of-kin organizations and councils. We investigate what these actors understand by co-production and explore the reasons they provide for why co-production is necessary. Result: We find greater emphasis on the concept of co-production in municipal documents than in interviews. Co-production is understood as collaboration between voluntary and public actors. Similar to national political documents, reasons given for why co-production is necessary include more quality services, citizen inclusion, budget constraints and scarce resources. Overall, in both documents and interviews, co-production is presented positively and considered necessary. Discussion: In our cases, what is being co-produced is mostly supplementary services, i.e., services that municipalities are not legally obliged to offer citizens. However, there may also be grey zones where the border between public and voluntary activities and responsibilities is not clear cut. Our analysis adds a critical perspective to accounts of co-production by identifying possible challenges associated with voluntary work within elderly care, partly related to grey zones, as well as by identifying the strong, underlying, and unquestioned premise of austerity.