Co-Production in Response to COVID-19

Abstract

This article examines the implementation of co-production in strengthening urban village community resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic in Surabaya, Indonesia. Departing from the argument that limited state capacity constrained government responses to complex pandemic pressures, the study positions co-production as a critical governance mechanism through which local communities, public authorities, health workers, security actors, and volunteers jointly contributed to crisis management. Using a qualitative case study approach, the research draws on twenty semi-structured interviews with urban village actors, COVID-19 Task Force members, neighbourhood leaders, and residents, complemented by regulatory documents, government reports, field documentation, media sources, and relevant literature. The study focuses on the Kampung Tangguh Jogo Suroboyo programme as a community-based resilience initiative institutionalised through mayoral regulations and implemented at the neighbourhood level. The findings show that urban village communities were not merely passive recipients of government policy, but active co-producers involved in institutional design, participatory planning, decision-making, communication, capacity-building, implementation, and accountability. The co-production process was supported by several key elements, including legal legitimacy, flexible institutional arrangements, deliberative community meetings, WhatsApp-based coordination, volunteer training, collective leadership, social capital, and locally mobilised resources. The article demonstrates that co-production generated public value by enhancing trust, collective compliance, social solidarity, and adaptive problem-solving during the pandemic. However, it also identifies structural challenges, particularly the gap between delegated community responsibilities and limited financial support from the government. While the local government provided regulatory legitimacy and some operational support, much of the implementation depended on community self-help, voluntary labour, and informal social networks. Theoretically, the study contributes to the co-production and crisis governance literature by offering a contextualised framework for understanding how community-based co-production operates under conditions of uncertainty and constrained state capacity. Practically, it highlights the importance of volunteer empowerment, digital coordination, social capital, and adequate resource allocation for sustaining community resilience beyond emergency periods.