Co-creation as solution for a sustainable welfare state? Challenges for the professions.

Abstract

One of the main strategies to solve the sustainability challenges of the welfare state is to involve the service users, their next of kin, volunteers and citizens in general as co-creators of care and welfare. This article focuses on two questions: Firstly, in what ways could co-creation be seen as a strategy contributing to preserving the sustainability of the welfare state? Secondly: what consequences could the co-creation discourse have for professionals in the health and care sector? What should be the professionals’ role, what kind of competence will be important, and what challenges and dilemmas must the welfare professions relate to? The article has Norway and the Norwegian welfare state as its empirical case.