Understanding co-production with vulnerable populations: challenges, enablers and outcomes

Co-production emerged to engage users in public services as an intrinsic source of value and a democratic right, generating empowerment and social capital. This normative promise is undermined by an equity problem: vulnerable populations face barriers to full participation and are systematically excluded from co-productive processes despite having the greatest need for public services. Although attention to this issue has grown, the literature lacks a comprehensive cross-sector, cross-population analysis. A systematic literature review combining bibliometric mapping with qualitative narrative synthesis is conducted, placing vulnerability and its consequences for the co-production process at the centre of inquiry. This article contributes to co-production theory by highlighting the limits of standard assumptions for vulnerable populations, and offers practical implications for designing inclusive co-production processes.