Abstract
This paper examines relational dynamics within a programmatic service design collaboration shaping public service development in Espoo, Finland. Over two years, a service design researcher collaborated with civil servants to co-create more inclusive employment practices. Drawing on iterative design interventions, observations, interviews, and informal everyday communications, reflexive analysis identifies three conditions that enabled collaborative design agency: relational alignment, infrastructuring coherence, and reflexive reconfiguration. These relational conditions highlight how civil servants actively advance design work and institutional learning. By bringing forward the concept of collaborative design agency, the study highlights how design in public services is an emergent capacity calling for greater attention to the agency, motivation, and situated expertise of civil servants. Recognising and intentionally nurturing such relational dynamics not only embeds design in everyday public administration but also contributes to the broader institutionalisation of design as a mode of governance.
Keywords
Public sector innovation, Service design, Civil servant agency, Collaborative design agency
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1285
Citation
Svanda, A., Čaić, M., and Mattelmäki, T. (2026) Weaving relational dynamics: Civil servant agency in service design collaboration, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1285
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Weaving relational dynamics: Civil servant agency in service design collaboration
This paper examines relational dynamics within a programmatic service design collaboration shaping public service development in Espoo, Finland. Over two years, a service design researcher collaborated with civil servants to co-create more inclusive employment practices. Drawing on iterative design interventions, observations, interviews, and informal everyday communications, reflexive analysis identifies three conditions that enabled collaborative design agency: relational alignment, infrastructuring coherence, and reflexive reconfiguration. These relational conditions highlight how civil servants actively advance design work and institutional learning. By bringing forward the concept of collaborative design agency, the study highlights how design in public services is an emergent capacity calling for greater attention to the agency, motivation, and situated expertise of civil servants. Recognising and intentionally nurturing such relational dynamics not only embeds design in everyday public administration but also contributes to the broader institutionalisation of design as a mode of governance.