Ethics challenges in public service co-creation

Abstract

The public sector is facing significant challenges regarding public services provision, including declination of users’ trust and limited resources. One way of addressing such issues is by implementing co-creation, which, although extensively discussed in the literature, is more limited in public sector organisations and empirical research. The H2020 project (anonymous) addresses these issues by studying the implementation of co-creation pilots in 4 European countries. The project funder requires the conduct of research to follow ethical research guidelines, thus raising the issue of ethics challenges in public service creation, particularly when using digital tools. This ongoing research represents a first theoretical evaluation about ethics in co-creation. All in all, this paper contributes to the existing literature as it is an interdisciplinary conceptual approach in the ethical perceptions of co-creation, being presented by scientists with diverse backgrounds, including information systems, public administration, and philosophy.