From co-creation to public value through collaborative platforms-the case of Norwegian kindergartens

IMPACT Making sure that citizens and users are key actors in public value co-creation is a challenge. A particular difficulty is how to include marginalized citizens and users to give them a voice in deliberating public value. This article discusses how kindergartens can be used as a platform for co-created policy-making. The authors provide practical advice on how to facilitate socially-inclusive public encounters with relevant policy stakeholders. By using a universal welfare institution as the platform, the article shows how public participation in co-creation can be more socially-inclusive and fair. ABSTRACT This article explores collaborative 'platforms' to transform individual experiences of dis/value into socially-inclusive community development. By connecting a participatory action research process to processes of policy-making in Norwegian local government, the article studies how social inclusion can be negotiated, formulated and co-created as a public value based in kindergartens as platforms for co-created policy-making. Norwegian kindergartens, embedded in the national welfare regime, have unique properties for deepening the participation of parents, especially socially marginalized parents. This article contributes to deepening our understanding of public institutions as co-creation platforms and the processual dynamics of socially-inclusive policy-making.