To what extent is the municipality of Hengelo involved in interactive policy-making and can the co-creation formula play a role in the desire for more interactive policy-making in the municipality of Hengelo?

Field: Social Sciences (Social Sciences)

The municipality of Hengelo has come to realise the need for a different approach. The municipality is already working interactively, yet it wants to take a step further towards co-creation. It wants to do more together with society for society. Co-creation services are relatively unknown territory for the municipality of Hengelo, for civil servants, citizens, and organisations alike. Co-creation requires a different approach, in which the attitudes and behaviours of officials, citizens, and organisations will have to change.
The purpose of this research is to create more clarity about the amount of use of interactive policy-making at present and how the shift towards more interactive policy can be realised. The central question of this research is: To what extent is the municipality of Hengelo involved in interactive policy-making, and can the co-creation formula play a role in the desire for more interactive policy-making in the municipality of Hengelo? To answer this question, a literature study, desk research, and interviews were conducted.
Research has shown that in the municipality of Hengelo has some level of interaction, mainly 85% at an advisory level. The other 15% indirectly involves society in the policy process of the policy paper by inviting experts and stakeholders to fill in the content of the policy paper and to go through the process together. The main reason for wanting an interactive process is to create support from society for the policy paper. From Hengelo’s experience, support for a policy paper from stakeholders is the most important element for a policy paper; without support, the policy paper is impossible to realise. This experience is in line with the literature. Namely, support is one of the three main arguments for applying interactive policy-making. In addition, the implementation of the co-creation formula within the municipality of Hengelo has not been entirely successful. In the past four years, only one process has used the co-creation formula, which leads to the conclusion that the co-creation formula is not popular among policymakers.
This research shows there is a large gap between what the municipal organisation has in mind, namely the use of the co-creation formula, and what the policymakers have in mind for the processes of making policy. This research has indicated that the use of the co-creation formula in the future will be minor. Civil servants are not convinced of co-creation because they think it is a step too far. Within abstract topics, stakeholders can be quickly lost, so policy officers are convinced that the responsibility of an invoice lies with the municipality itself, not with society. Finally, they have indicated that they fear that the interests of the stakeholders will be chosen for the public interest if they are given the freedom to fill in the invoice themselves. In total, 15% have indicated that they will approach the toolbox and see what value the formula and instruments have added to the process of a policy paper. Finally, a further 8% have indicated that they are convinced of the power of the formula, so they would use it again in the future.