The Potential of the Co-Creation Approach to Create Innovation to Better Meet the Needs of Communities

Who deals with social problems is changing. For example, in many European countries, including Finland, the church was traditionally the institution that provided support for poor people. Today, it is difficult for only one institution to deal with social problems because of their complexity and the financial burden. Collective approaches to cope with social challenges are increasingly understood as an effective alternative to the conventional assigned roles in which one particular institution is responsible for a social problem. Co-creation with various stakeholders, for example, residents in the community, municipal staff, academics, and companies, has the potential to create holistic and practical benefits for societies. In this chapter, challenges and potentials of co-creation as a collective approach to develop solutions to social challenges in communities are discussed referring to economic theories, mainly innovation theories. Because of the variety in the backgrounds of the participants, co-creation has the potential to develop creative knowledge and solutions embedded in the community. Interaction in depth between the participants is essential for success in co-creation. To overcome the difficulties arising from diversity in a team and to develop the project under high levels of uncertainty, “entrepreneurial” (in the broader sense of “change maker”) participation is helpful.