AbstractsSociology

The active inclusion of the customer segment in the planning and production of services and goods (known as co­production) has become progressively more popular in the last decades. This paper will analyze two different cases of co­production in social enterprises working in the food sector, in Denmark and in Germany. The foregoing cases are initiatives started by users groups in the interest of local communities, where users participate in the planning, managing and delivering of the service. The investigation will focus on the challenges posed by co­production as an organizational model in regards of (1) participatory democracy, (2) efficiency of operations, and (3) user engagement in relation to growth of the social enterprise.