Oct 11
Thanks to the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis and NASPAA for the 2018 Award for Best Comparative Pedagogy Project, for the Strategies for Governing course that I taught within the School of Public Policy last summer. Left: Professor Nadia Rubaii presents the award. More information about the course here.
Sep 22
I’ll talk about my “Strategies for Governing” course during the JPCA-NASPAA workshop on comparative perspectives in teaching, to be held in Atlanta on October 10. Details about the workshop here.
This file provides background material for my presentation: including an explanation of the approach, the syllabus, course webpages, samples of completed assignments, and the course evaluation.
This video provided a short introduction to the course.
Powerpoint slides for my presentation to the workshop.
I chaired a panel discussion that examines the question, “Can open government promote good governance?” at the School of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers Newark, on September 28, 2018.
I’ll give a talk at the South Asia Institute of the University of Heidelberg on October 22. The working title is “India and the age of superstates.” Abstract: “The world is entering the age of superstates: an era in which the global order will be dominated by states of unprecedented scale and internal complexity. The US is the vanguard superstate; India and China are rising superstates; and the European Union is an aspiring superstate. Superstates have features in common with ordinary states, empires, and superpowers, but are distinct in important ways from all of these other political forms. This presentation will discuss the governance challenges shared by all superstates, but which are presently addressed in radically different ways. These include the creation of effective systems of leadership; maintenance of internal cohesion; economic regulation; promotion of justice; and management of external demand for resources and markets.” Details about event. Powerpoint here.
I’ll chair a panel discussion at NASPAA on October 11 on “preparing leaders for a turbulent world.” Panelists are Lan Xue (Tsinghua University); Jennifer Brinkerhoff (George Washington University); Tina Nabatchi (Syracuse University, Maxwell School); and Jennifer Murtazashvili (University of Pittsburgh GSPIA).
The preliminary conference program can be downloaded here. This session will be held from 10:45AM to 11:45AM on Thursday, October 11.
Full panel description: “We live in a turbulent world. This is not news. In 1971, Professor Donald Schön observed that the age of the ‘stable state’ was past, and that public servants should learn how to ‘understand, guide, influence and manage . . . continuing processes of transformation.’ But have we met that challenge? Do professional programs in public service provide the theory and skills needed to anticipate and respond properly to large-scale societal changes? This panel will offer perspectives from different parts of the domain of public service education. Each panelist will consider whether the curriculum in their part of the domain is adequate in preparing students for service in turbulent world, and how it could be improved.”
Participants have also prepared brief notes to accompany their presentations:
I’m looking forward to giving a public lecture as part of the Baden-Württemberg Seminar at the Heidelberg Center for American Studies on October 23, 2018. The title: “America’s decade of confusion: The political consequences of financial crisis.” PPT slides here.
I’m looking forward to giving the keynote address at the annual conference of the Public Administration Theory Network in Denver on May 31, 2019. Title for my talk: “Why we should question the system.” More details here.
I’m looking forward to giving a keynote talk at the 2018 Northeast Conference on Public Administration in Baltimore on November 3. More info here. The theme for the conference is “Blind spots in public administration.”
The title for my talk: The Biggest Blind Spot of All. Abstract: “In the United States, the field of public administration began with a bold vision. The aim was not just to make programs and bureaus work more efficiently. Rather, the goals were to overhaul the creaking American state and demonstrate to the world that liberal democracy was a viable system of government. This bold vision has been lost over the last four decades and should be recovered. Once again, the American state needs renovation – and the world needs proof that democracy works. We must develop the conceptual tools and confidence to address these ‘macro-level’ questions of public administration.” Powerpoint here.
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I’ve written a short comment tied to the fiftieth anniversary of the Minnowbrook Conference on the state of public administration. Read it here.
On the website Le Grand Continent, Lorenzo Castellani discusses my 2010 book The Logic of Discipline. Read the article.
