Abstract

Co-design experiences between public administration and non-profit associations can be considered – at the same time – as an administrative procedure and a social practice. They represent places from which to observe and reconstruct the main institutional changes that have occurred in recent decades. This contribution intends to broaden the theoretical framework and intercept the conceptual connections between the emergence of participatory methods of planning social services and certain institutional conditions, which in the current debate often remain «off camera». I refer, in particular, to changes in public administration: from the bureaucratic paradigm, to the new public management and public governance. The paper is also aimed at reconstructing a co-design process. Through the empirical analysis it will be possible to visualize the growing spaces of autonomy of the public administration in defining social services with related issues and opportunities.