Authors: Barbara Goličnik Marušić, Ina Šuklje Erjavec, Vita Žlender
Despite the agreement in the academic literature that co-creation is a collective creative endeavour (Arnstein, 1969), we believe that the role of citizens and that of professionals differ.
With regard to the roles of citizens, Goličnik Marušić and Šuklje Erjavec (in press) elaborate on three diverse roles of the citizens as co-implementers, co-designers, and co-initiators, of which, only the co-initiator is highly involved in various steps of the contemporary planning process.
With regard to the roles of professionals, scholars use different terms to denote them, ranging from the role of initiator, metadesigner, negotiator, involver and enthusiast (see e.g. Eggertsen Teder, 2019; Vandael et al., 2018).
These roles might overlap with those identified in other literature as facilitator (e.g. Vandael et al., 2018) or a mediator (Goličnik Marušić & Šuklje Erjavec, in press). Different terms used might be a reason for the confusion and the uncomprehensive overview of roles.
Nevertheless, it is clear that the co-creation process needs structure and clearly defined roles, yet it should also remain open to individual suggestions and approaches to enhance the creativity of all parties involved and facilitate constructive problem solving.
We elaborated on the roles in Figure 2.
References:
- Žlender, V, Šuklje Erjavec, I & Goličnik Marušić, B (2020). Digitally Supported Co-creation within Public Open Space Development Process: Experiences from the C3Places Project and Potential for Future Urban Practice. Planning Practice and Research. DOI: 10.1080/02697459.2020.1829286.
- Goličnik Marušić, B., & Šuklje Erjavec, I. (2020) Understanding co-creation within urban open space development process, in: C. Smaniotto Costa, M. Mačiulienė, M. Menezes, & B. Goličnik Marušić. (Eds) Co-Creation of Public Open Places. Practice—Reflection—Learning. C3Places Project Lisbon: Lusófona University Press. ISBN 978-989-757-125-1. DOI https://doi.org/10.24140/2020-sct-vol.4-1.1.