Caitlin McMullin

2018–2019 BMO Postdoctoral Fellow

Université de Montréal

Dr. Caitlin McMullin recently completed her PhD at the University of Birmingham (UK), studying co-production (i.e. the collaboration in both the design and delivery of public services or projects) between citizens and professionals working in the non-profit sector in England and France. Her doctoral dissertation investigated the role of rules, practices and narratives in motivating different approaches to co-production in Sheffield and Lyon. Prior to this, she worked as a research assistant at Middlesex University researching public service social enterprises, and for Urban Forum, a membership organization of British community groups. She has published on public service innovation, the hybrid characteristics of non-profit organizations, co-production and community development.

Caitlin’s postdoctoral research project at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Montreal takes her research forward by studying community co-production in Montreal – a unique context that exhibits a coexistence between an emphasis on community that parallels the English experience, as well as notions of solidarity and co-construction that are more in line with the cases previously studied in France. In particular, the project considers how local institutions, governance arrangements and conceptualizations of participation impact day-to-day collaborative practices in community development projects, with a view to developing a three city comparative study between Montreal, Sheffield and Lyon.