Constructing co-design: public servants' perspectives on the purpose and practice of collaborative service design

Abstract

his thesis examines how Australian public servants conceptualise and practice co-design, a form of citizen/government collaboration. Using qualitative interview data, the thesis offers a case study on the Australian Government’s Department of Human Services (DHS), as it grapples with the introduction and use of co-design in its service design and delivery. The thesis examines how public servants think about co-design differently, seeing it mobilised toward different goals. Some conceptualise it as a way for the DHS to engage service users so that they can better understand citizens’ preferences and, through this, make services workable/desirable. Others see it as a way to give citizens their deserved stake in governmental processes, by driving innovation and promoting holistic thinking of the service and the social context in which it operates. Accompanying exploration of these conceptualisations of co-design is an investigation of how DHS public servants responded to the implementation of co-design in their department. These responses ranged from thinking about co-design as ‘nice to have’ (but not essential), ‘interesting’ (but not as robust as other design methods) or as a challenge to how public servants perceive their own role and work. The thesis demonstrates that any normative assumptions that could be ascribed to the value or use of co-design are not necessarily borne out in the daily work of those tasked with facilitating it. While reform to government–citizen relations is never expected to be simple or linear, the thesis shows it is especially complex when there is variation and tension in the ways public servants ascribe purpose, utility and benefit to collaboration of this kind.