Creating public value, a joint task

By Juan Felipe López, partner and Director of Transformation at Unit

As a professional, my career has been focused on public management, working with governments, city halls, NGOs and multilateral organisms for over 18 years. Pursuing this area was a conscious decision, since I am interested in knowing what happens to people when they interact in the city; in seeing how they use spaces and how they engage with policies and services. I’m very observant. I am curious about how people live and what habits they have. This is why I usually get around by bicycle. I feel that one acquires a different vision, from new angles and perspectives.

My definition of the public domain has precisely to do with everyday life. To me, the public domain is everything associated with people’s development in shared and common spaces. It is the way in which we inhabit the city.

However, it may not mean the same thing to everyone. People often mistakenly believe that only state-run organisations can contribute to the creation of public value, when in reality, it is a shared effort between the State, private businesses, NGOs, and academia. Understood in this way, the concept is expanded, and every institution that previously failed to feel convoked may now participate in this effort.

This mistaken idea that ties the public domain to the State is no coincidence. As a society, we are heirs to a tradition that, for centuries, has thought that the public domain is the unique responsibility of the State. However, since the mid-18th century, the public space and opinion began to be conceptualised as grounds for sociability, with a pointed critique towards the power of the State. One could say that these were the first manifestations of the creation of public value in broader terms. The French historian Roger Chartier states in Espacio Público: Crítica y Desacralización en el siglo XVIII, (whose inspiration can be found in Historia y Crítica de la Opinión Pública, by the German philosopher and sociologist, Jürgen Habermas), that this public space that differed from the state’s domain spawned from the French Revolution’s cultural origins, in which people started talking about citizens that held opinions, were critical of the ruling power, and generated social and cultural value without being mediated by the State.

In recent years, new theories related to the public domain have begun to emerge, although for diverse reasons, this knowledge has been limited, for the most part, to the academic world. At a social level, this concept has been slow to acquire its new meaning and be understood from this point of view.

As a consequence, there are few private businesses that feel that they generate public value, precisely because they still hold on to this old notion.

However, there are initiatives that seek to bring this idea closer to citizens. Perhaps one of the most recent and interesting initiatives is 3xi, founded by five organisations that –brought together by the need to generate gatherings amongst professionals of diverse areas– seeks to build a new dialogue in order to improve foundations of trust amongst people. The common thread running through them is to inspire, include, and innovate. Another initiative worth pointing out is Tenemos que Hablar de Chile, a project powered by Universidad Católica and Universidad de Chile. This citizens’ advocacy platform has the objective of promoting conversations amongst different tiers so as to draw a roadmap for the country’s future and development.

I find it interesting to see how both have generated spaces for dialogue, especially in the business world, as they understand that they have a relevant role to play in the creation of public value. And that they have the potential to make a contribution in this area.

Currently, there is a growing number of organisations that feel the same way. Many of them have a strong commitment towards the public domain, and despite having products that are treated in the market, they are providing more and more services that have an impact on people’s quality of life.

Breaking away and putting an end to this conservative fragmentation between private and public spheres is key, especially within a post-pandemic context with new economic and geopolitical movements. It’s that to contribute to social well-being, it is essential to do so from various fronts. Although the State and private businesses know how to provide determined services, these particularities require supplements that neither one of them have in themselves.

For this reason, it is unthinkable to believe that this well-being can be generated from one single tier of society. Public well-being requires interaction amongst businesses, the public sector, NGOs, civil society, and academia. This is what collaboration is about: learning to interact in order to create experiences amongst diverse actors and organisations that would be impossible to create separately. Only in this way can new and original ideas emerge to satisfy people’s needs.