Creating the Public In Order To Create Public Value?

Abstract

This paper extends and develops both the theory and the application of the notion of Public Value developed in Moore (1997) Creating Public Value, Harvard University Press, and transposes them into an alternative framework which starts with the public sphere and the collective as the primary units of analysis, rather than with the private market and the individual. The article addresses basic questions about public value, how, by whom and where is it produced, and how can it be measured. It argues that PV often depends upon processes of co-creation with citizens and users at the front-line. It also argues that public value is a contested concept which depends upon a deliberative process within which competing interests and perspectives can be debated. This requires the creation of a well informed “public” with the consciousness and the capability to engage actively in this kind of democratic dialogue.