Rolf Rønning

Creating public value in global wicked problems

ABSTRACT This essay seeks to explore in which way Public Value Theory (PVT) would be useful in guiding analysis and action with respect to global wicked issues like forced migration. We found that (1) PVT enables envisioning global, collective, public value as well as value for individuals, communities and states by including voices of ‘all affected interests’ even when discourses prove to be extremely conflicting; (2) PVT enables acknowledging collaborative innovation as a possible means of facilitating cross-sectoral and local – global (transnational) connections which might help reframing wicked global issues and delivering results; (3) When PVT is applied to global wicked issues it offers an opportunity to explore which kind of institutional innovation is required to convene an appropriate authorizing structure in the ‘institutional void’ at the transnational level. Requisite adjustments to PVT are identified.

In defence of care: The importance of care as a positive concept

This article is about the implications of the different uses of the concept of care in the research and debate on home care. It can be read as a comment on the British debate, seen with Norwegian eyes, and from a starting point where care is a positively loaded concept. The article begins with a definition of care, in order to try to identify some core elements, and then proceeds to examine two main lines of attack on care in the British debate. A distinction between care as an ideal and as practice is introduced, and the article tries to demonstrate how the outcome of caring can be seen as a result both of political attitudes and of different forms of organisation. The article concludes by discussing why we need to save ‘care’ as a positive concept in the evaluation of formal systems providing care as a social service.

On innovation patterns and value-tensions in public services

In the innovation studies literature, innovation patterns have been described, such as science-based and practice-based innovation, that vary among industrial sectors. As a consequence, firms become distinguished with respect to their typical innovation pattern. Less attention has been paid to the possibility of intertwined innovation patterns. Focusing on public sector services, this paper argues that intertwined innovation patterns emerge within public services as a response to value-tensions. Values can be defined as measures for beneficial behaviour that guide innovation. Value-tensions in public services include tensions between the political, economic, communal, aesthetic and intellectual values. The contribution of the paper to service innovation research is the emphasis on the concept of intertwined innovation patterns, such as the intertwinement of science-driven and task-driven innovation. Furthermore, the paper contributes by pinpointing how varied values guide innovation in public services.

Innovation in Social Welfare and Human Services

1. Innovation in Social Welfare and Human Services: Introduction 2. What is Innovation? 3. Social Innovations: A Diffuse Concept? 4. Innovations in Public Service 5. Public Innovation: A Question of Power? 6. Levels of Innovation 7. Obstacles to Innovation 8. Innovating: Not Easy, but it is Imperative