In Norway, work and education are regarded as highly central arenas of society, and the ability to participate in these arenas is valued so highly that non-participation can lead to social exclusion.
Youth exclusion is a topic that receives significant attention today, and many actors, both public and private, are actively working to find good solutions. Nevertheless, this remains a major challenge in Norway.
"My dissertation contributes a service perspective to this challenge, more specifically a co-creation perspective", says Marie Rønshaugen, stipendiat på ph.d.-programmet Innovation in Services in the Public and Private Sectors (INSEPP).
Co-creation, very simply put, refers to service providers and users creating services together, or to different services coming together to exchange knowledge and resources.
One of the main contributions of Rønshaugen's thesis is that it provides insight into how challenging it is to succeed with co-creation due to power imbalances, both in the interactions between young adults and Nav, and between Nav and collaborating external services.
"The dissertation contributes to a deeper understanding of co-creation within and between services for service users in highly vulnerable life situations. The young adults who participated in my study faced various challenges in their lives, making them vulnerable in their encounters with work and education", says Marie Rønshaugen.
In conversations with employees in the services, both in Nav and others, Marie Rønshaugen experienced that co-creation as a concept led to meaningful and useful discussion.
"Many interesting and important questions have emerged in these conversations: Who decides what is valuable in a public service? How much influence should users’ interests and individual needs have? And how much risk should a frontline employee in Nav be allowed to take in order to test different solutions?"
Rønshaugen thesis is titled "Work inclusion of young adults in vulnerable life situations from a co-creation perspective.".
The main findings of the doctoral thesis:
- The dissertation provides insight into how challenging it is to succeed with co-creation due to power imbalances, both in the interactions between young adults and Nav, and in the collaboration between Nav and external services. This imbalance in power emerges as a central barrier to co-creation.
- Another main finding of the dissertation concerns the young adults’ experiences of uncertainty and insecurity in their interactions with Nav. The findings show that, due to fear of making mistakes, the young adults are hesitant to open up about their life situations, their activities, and their goals in meetings with Nav. They are uncertain about what information they should share and what they should not. Many also fear providing incorrect information when filling out application forms, for example, regarding housing, travel allowances, social assistance, or work assessment benefits. Additionally, they fear negative consequences if they miss scheduled meetings or make mistakes during mandatory activities, such as work training. This fear is largely motivated by concern about potential negative consequences from Nav, particularly the reduction or loss of financial support, as well as other consequences, such as legal reporting. This constitutes a significant barrier to co-creation.