Social interactions in every domain of human activity are transformed through the use of new media. This study provides a preliminary assessment of the value of new media for co-production between government and (communities of) citizens. This article analyzes innovative practices in the Netherlands of new media usage to support the coproduction of safety and to facilitate the coproduction public service support. The results of the qualitative research show that both forms of coproduction provide value to governments and citizens but they differ in their value for strengthening citizen communities. Individualized and community coproduction are identified as different outcomes of socio-technological trajectories.

This article compares results from a study of service quality in cooperative and municipal preschools. The parent cooperative and municipal childcare represents two different schools of thought with regard to service quality. The municipal services have a strong tradition of professionalism in which user participation is not allowed to interfere with the qualified work performed by trained professionals. The parent cooperatives have another tradition in which service quality is developed in a dialogue between users and staff while they co-produce the services together. The former tradition is the dominant one in the Swedish welfare state while the latter is an exception. The conclusion of the article is that service quality is better in the parent cooperative childcare in spite of the widespread assumption in Sweden that service quality is close to synonymous with professionalism.