Introduction: Co-creation and the ‘sandcastle’ problem

This chapter sets out the premise of the book, which describes the current landscape of co-creation in the context of public services and refers to citizens’ contribution to implementing and shaping the services that affect them. We set out to show how co-creation is grounded in practical service dilemmas and lived experience, from a diverse range of settings and policy domains across Europe. Despite the notable achievements of many initiatives, we recognise that pilots, experiments, demonstrators and the like rarely appear to sustain or expand their promised outcomes. Because of this we have come to characterise this as the ‘sandcastles’ approach – washed away by the next tide or kicked over by an incoming political administration, leaving little trace of previous efforts.