Reaching hard-to-reach people through digital means – Citizens as initiators of co-creation in public services

Abstract

PurposeThis paper considers the potential of social media for developing public services. The paper approaches social media as a context that can provide information that might otherwise be unattainable. The focus of analysis is on a special hard-to-reach group of marginalized youths who appear to have isolated themselves from society.Design/methodology/approachThe authors answer the question: How can the experiences of socially withdrawn youth as shared on social media be used to enrich the knowledge base relating to the initiation phase of co-creation of public services? The data retrieved from the Finnish discussion forum are analyzed using the combination of unsupervised machine learning and discourse analysis.FindingsThe paper contributes by outlining a method that can be applied to identify expertise-by-experience from digital stories shared by marginalized youths. To overcome the challenges of making socially withdrawn youths real contributors to the co-creation of public services, this paper suggests several theoretical and managerial implications.Originality/valueCo-creation assumes an interactive and dynamic relationship where value is created at the nexus of interaction. However, the evidence base for successful co-creation, particularly with digital technology, is limited. This paper fills the gap by providing findings from a case study that investigated how social media discussions can be a stimulus to enrich the knowledge base of the co-creation of public services.

Public Innovation and Digital Transformation

“…That being so, we favour the analysis of socio-technological factors and the dynamics within complex systems that lead to failures. Jalonen et al (2021) have suggested that optimal value co-creation builds on a dynamic balance between exploitation and exploration activities. Exploitation is characterized as refining, selecting, implementing, and executing operations, whereas exploration is an organizational activity based on searching, risk-taking, playing, experimenting, discovering, and innovating (March 1991).…”

“…Social media can also be a useful context for co-creation, and Driss et al (2019) suggest that social media's capacity to enable citizens to create, share, and comment on issues in an uncontrollable way could accelerate citizens becoming policymakers. Similarly, Jalonen et al (2021) found that social media can enrich the knowledge base relating to the initiation phase of the co-creation of public services. The last study advises that social media discussion dealing with the availability, access, and quality of public services -even if acrimonious -can be testimonials that enable a public organization to identify bottlenecks in the service delivery process.…”

“…AI was used to analyze messages published on Hikikomero, an anonymous chat room that is part of a discussion forum (see more Jalonen et al 2021). The forum covers topics from all walks of life, including users' assessments of the quality or lack of public services.…”

Public servants’ political activity online in an institutional environment of caution: the role of personality traits

“…On the one hand, social media platforms offer citizens a remarkable opportunity to gather political information, discuss public affairs and interact with public officials (Zavattaro and Brainard, 2019;Jha and Kodila-Tedika, 2020;Jalonen et al, 2021). Yet on the other hand, given the speed and breadth with which social media content can be shared throughout a vast audience (Woodley and Silverstri, 2014), the online political activity of citizens who are public servants, has been perceived as a potential threat to the reputed impartiality of the public service.…”

“…On the one hand, social media platforms offer citizens a remarkable opportunity to gather political information, discuss public affairs and interact with public officials (Zavattaro and Brainard, 2019; Jha and Kodila-Tedika, 2020; Jalonen et al. , 2021).…”