Abstract

With the approval of the Italian third sector reform, new collaborative tools were introduced between public agencies and third sector organizations. The article analyses in particular the application of so-called «co-progettazione» (co-design). «Co-progettazione» is an innovative tool that provides for sharing resources and responsibilities between public agencies and the third sector. The expectations towards «co-progettazione» are to promote the development of new ideas and the mobilization of new resources and to overcome the competitive logic that has characterised the last decade. The article aims to verify under what conditions the «co-progettazione» can be used effectively and the role public resources have in supporting the spread of the tool. With these aims, the results of the first national research are presented, highlighting both the advantages and the limits of the «co-progettazione» in a welfare policy framework still dominated by austerity and contraction of public social expenditure.