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Abstract

This thesis is about the examination of resource effecientcy and innovation in relation to cocreation. In the fall of 2015, the local council in the municipality of Gentofte decided to change the political way of working. The municipality of Gentofte wanted to develop policies and strategies in collaboration with its citizens, local companies and other stakeholders. Therefore, it was decided by the local board that temporary task forces consisting of politicians, citizens, and other stakeholders should collaborate on the political development within the municipality. This initiative was launched under the name “New political way of working in the municipality of Gentofte”. It was the intention to turn the political process on its head in an effort to ensure that citizens, stakeholders, and local politicians first develop policies and strategies together after which they’re processed by the local board. The goal was to strengthen the political leadership. Furthermore, it was the expectation that this would result in decisions in harmony with the needs and wishes of the citizens while creating new and innovative solutions and effective use of resources. There’s an increased focus on innovation both in research and in the public sector. Innovation in the public sector has made its way to the top of the political agenda nationally and internationally. This is because innovation plays a vital role in efforts to tackle global challenges, for example regarding environment and climate, but also in strengthening competitiveness. The public sector is under pressure in economic and demographic terms, where it sees an increasing demand for public services. In connection with this, innovation and resource efficiency are necessary if the public sector is to solve these challenges. The jury is still out on the efficacy of cocreation, its results and their effects, and more research is needed in this area. Therefore, it is the focus of this thesis to determine to what extent cocreation leads to its desired results. The effort to answer this question is made by analyzing two outputs from a temporary task force whose focus was the integration of fugitives. The task force gave its recommendations and launched an initiative with the aim to secure employment for the fugitives. These outputs have been analyzed with this goal in mind to determine their innovative value and resource efficiency. The analysis showed that the majority of the recommendations made by the task force could not be characterized as innovative, while a few of them could. Furthermore, the analysis determined that the initiative in general terms could not be chracterized as innovative, whereas a few of its elements could be characterized as innovative. The costs of this initiative were in line with previous initiatives, but with more positive results regarding securing employment for the fugitives for the first group that participated. The results for the remaining groups were in line with previous initiatives.