The paradox of co-production: how austerity and structural scarcity reshape street-level discretion and public value in Scotland’s disability support system

Original

The paradox of co-production: how austerity and structural scarcity reshape street-level discretion and public value in Scotland’s disability support system

Seemab Farooqi, Vicky Lambert

Abstract

Co-production promises empowerment , yet masks austerity's realities. Drawing on qualitative data from across Scotland's disability support services, we apply the Gioia methodology to model links between street-level discretion, public value co-contamination, and citizen adaptation. A ‘public service gap’ forces State Street Level Bureaucrats (SLBs) to ration support, locking vulnerable citizens and third-sector SLBs into forced substitution to compensate for institutional retreat. We conceptualize this as peripheral co-production:necessity-driven participation sustaining service continuity while masking systemic fragility. Extending Street-Level Bureaucracy and Public Value theories, we reframe co-production as a technical compulsion where unpaid, adaptive labour systematically co-contaminates public value.