How do Bridging Organizations Drive the Co-Production of Public Services?——A Network Analysis Based on An Environmental Protection Organization in Sichuan
Different from the traditional concept of public service provision,co-production in public services emphasizes that the public and community organizations are not passive recipients of public services,but rather users of public services in value creation.This article takes the GB Nature Reserve of Sichuan Giant Panda National Park as a research case,and through methods such as qualitative thematic coding analysis and social network analysis(SNA),discusses the bridging function of social organizations in ecological public services,and how to promote"co-production"through mechanisms such as information dissemination,knowledge sharing,value adjustment,and power influence.In this case,the key nodes for the"bridging organization"to promote the co-production in public services include:implementing multidimensional empowerment as an institutional system embedder,carrying out institutional production as a"skilled agent",and stimulating individual motivation as a social network actor.From the perspective of social network game theory,the deep mechanisms through which bridging organizations promote co-production include:capability stacking mechanism,capital conversion mechanism and social psychological mechanism.The study found that at the macro level,social organizations need to be integrated into the institutional relationship system to jointly promote the capabilities of multiple stakeholders in public services;at the meso level,social organizations are in a unique ecological niche throughout the entire social network,to promote institutional reproduction through the circulation of resources,knowledge and information;at the micro level,co-production in public service should pay attention to the role of local knowledge and other informal institutions,activate social norms,and promote value creation from the social psychological level.