Co-Design for Public Service Innovation in China: The Enabling Role of Street-Level Bureaucrats

The evolving demands and challenges in public services compel an interactive and iterative approach between providers and users, prompting a growing emphasis on the co-design approach. Though co-design has been extensively employed in practice, it received significant skeptics in whether it can deliver public service. This study explores the enabling and mediating potential of street level bureaucrats and social media, to examine whether they can effectively facilitate users' involvement in co-design. A comprehensive evaluation was conducted on two public health cases in China that were aimed at improving prognosis quality for patients with chronic gastrointestinal diseases and reducing cancer incidence. By engaging in the cases, we found that collaboration between the community worker and end-users fosters an enabling sphere, encouraging users to assume a proactive role in defining objectives and solutions. These findings extend existing knowledge of the potential of co-design in fostering user-driven innovation and collaboration within public services in varied settings.