6. Organising in Self-Organising Ecosystems

This chapter explores issues associated with organising and public services: whereas organisation relates to top-down hierarchy, organising emphasises top-down and bottom-up activity. Our central arguments are firstly that reform and renewal in Europe and building public services in developing countries is best guided by organising rather than organisation: by adopting the sort of problem-solving, processual approach to personalised needs we discussed in Chap. 2. This can be enabled by building on information processes, digitalisation, and information technology (IT) and now artificial intelligence (AI). Secondly, public services are necessarily on-demand and servicing some user who are vulnerable. These are arguments for a public service ethos populating services with highly-qualified and empowered professionals capable of making sense of individual needs and the best integrated service processes. Thirdly, and related to these points, the position of public services in society needs to be based on trust not transactionality as a basis of efficiency (contrasted with expensive market healthcare in the USA), equity, and access. Public services should be one of the bonds binding societies together not a signal of inequality. Finally, we argue that many of the radicals promoting innovative ideas in problem-solving occupy middling roles, without power, in public organisations and instead inspire change by the power of their ideas and unbridled curiosity.