Co-governance and co-management as preliminary conditions for social justice in co-creation

A just process of co-creation needs to provide for the activation of the beneficiaries, giving them the opportunities to participate and raise their voices throughout the whole process. Building on the existing definitions of social justice which are based on the dimensions of inclusion and participation, this chapter underlines the urgency for scholars and practitioners to address the issue of social justice in co-creation. However, while much research focuses on the co-production of the service, we emphasise the necessity to organize the inclusion and participation of stakeholders in the earlier stages of co-governance and co-management. The analysis of the Italian CoSIE pilot reflects on the constitution of collective responsibility and the exercise of capabilities by each stakeholder participating in the process. Eventually, the chapter proposes a framework resulting from the combination of the two conditions for social justice – inclusion and participation – which can be used to analyse all processes of co-creation in order to achieve the most socially just co-creation process, characterised by deciding inclusiveness.