This article critically examines the optimistic assumptions common in co-creation and collaborative innovation literature, widely promoted in public sector reforms. We contribute with an empirical analysis of co-creation experiments in Norwegian municipalities, and show that municipal actors often resist or reinterpret co-creation when it challenges established democratic structures. Our findings reveal a mismatch between theory and practice: co-creation theory underestimates the role of political dynamics, overstates the alignment of actors, and lacks sensitivity to the embedded institutional contexts. We conclude that without addressing these tensions, co-creation remains a normative ideal disconnected from how public organizations function.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14719037.2025.2604103
