Preconference Workshops

PhD workshop: Life after a PhD – Navigating the (international) job market (morning)

The theme of this PhD workshop is the different career paths one can take after obtaining a PhD degree. The aim is to highlight that there is not such a thing as ‘the best post-PhD career path’, but that there are many different forms a successful career with a PhD degree can have. We will discuss several challenges related to how to deal with the PhD job market, including issues like discrimination, moving across countries as well as moving outside of academia. The first part of this workshop will consist of a keynote by Joyce Sylvester followed by a Q&A session. Joyce has a wide range of experience, both in academia (she obtained a PhD and is currently an academic fellow of Utrecht University School of Governance) as well as in public service (she was a mayor and a member of parliament and is currently the is the chair of a water board). In the second part of this workshop, a panel discussion will take place among scholars and professionals with varying career paths. The session will be open to all PhD students attending PMRC.

Positive public administration (morning)
Chairs: Paul ‘t Hart, Tina Nabatchi

Positive Public Administration is an approach to research and scholarship that examines the degree to which, the manner in which, and the conditions under which public policies, organizations, networks, and partnerships thrive, advance important democratic values, and produce widely valued societal outcomes. It self-consciously applies the logic of appreciative inquiry to the work of public policymakers and public managers, and to the performance of public institution: looking for positives, understanding how they come about, and based on these insights generate appetite and avenues for learning. In this half-day pre-conference workshop we partly draw on work in progress from an ongoing international collaborative effort to ‘do PPA’ to both demonstrate and debate its promises, accomplishments and pitfalls. We are open to contributions in any shape or form – posters, papers, pitches.

PhD workshop: Unmasking the Secrets of the Academy: A Pre-Conference Workshop for Historically Excluded Students (afternoon)
Chairs: Norma Riccucci, Tia Sheree Gaynor, Brandi Blessett, James Wright II, Prentiss Dantzler

This pre-conference workshop is designed to offer insight and guidance for graduate public administration students with identities that have been historically excluded from the academy. Panelists will curate inclusive spaces that explore a variety of topics designed to support students navigating varying aspects of the academy and professoriate. Series organizers offer information designed to facilitate positive and inclusive experiences in the transition from graduate student to faculty member. Workshop topics include: Negotiating the Job Market, Arriving Authentically in the Academy, Mentors, Sponsors, & Champions, and Pedagogical Imperatives for Equity.

The Law and Public Management/Policy Nexus: Assessing Neglect and Articulating a Future Agenda (afternoon)
Chairs: Rob Christensen & 12 others

Our objective is to bring an international group of scholars together to raise law’s prominence (research, teaching, practice) in Public Administration and Policy. We also aspire to articulate future agenda to end/diminish law’s neglect in our field. Deliverables would include collaborative papers, future conferences and relevant “law and PA” topics include, but are not limited to: social equity and representation, ethics, comparative approaches, regulatory law, judges as public managers, executive law, HR, ethics, etc.

How to attract, communicate, and manage relationships with partners to conduct field experiments (afternoon)
Chairs: Florian Keppeler, Rosanna Nagtegaal, Sebastian Jilke, Lars Tummers

The workshop organizers will share their vast experiences from working together with external partners, including private sector organizations,nonprofits, local governments, and federal agencies. The goal of this workshop is to share experiences of how to attract and manage external partners to conduct field experiments.

Algorithmic decision-making in the public sector: How do algorithms transform the nature of public management? (afternoon)
Chairs: Albert Meijer, Ines Mergel, Lukas Lorenz, Esther Nieuwenhuizen

This workshop aspires to bring together different perspective on the topic of algorithms in the public sector. We invite both practitioners who interact with or design algorithms in public organizations and scholars who use qualitative and quantitative methods to study a broad range of empirical and normative issues related to the role, use, and effects of algorithms in a variety of contexts and areas of public management. On the basis of their diverse expertise and experiences, we aim to engage in an inclusive debate on algorithmic systems and practice, their opportunities, challenges, and effects in a public management context. In this way, we hope to assess to what extent algorithms really are transformative for public management and to advance the emergent academic field of algorithmic decision-making in public management and administration.

Fuel the future and benefit from the past: strategic interventions for overcoming short-termism to fuel transitions in public space (afternoon)
Chairs: Wieke Pot, Peter Pelzer, Jorren Scherpenisse

This pre-conference workshop aims to discuss the strategies, techniques, and reforms that help to overcome short-termism and stimulates long-term and strategic planning within the public domain. This workshop is jointly organized by scientists and practitioners and will focus on conversations within and between public and private sector organizations that collaborate on grand sustainability challenges. The workshop will contribute to public management, because it connects to the themes of strategic management, public-private sector collaborations and
evidence-based decision making within the public sector. The workshop discusses how organizations can strategize in a world full of uncertainties and how they can anticipate and prepare for the long-term despite short-term public management incentives and policy cycles.

Reviving Implementation Research in Public Administration (afternoon)
Chairs: Simon Calmar Andersen, Morten Hjortskov, Jesper Asring Jessen Hansen

In this pre-conference workshop, we invite all scholars that share our ambition in reviving the implementation research agenda to present and discuss their newest research. Presentations may range from new research ideas to new theories of implementation and to empirical studies of various aspects of the implementation process. The pre-conference workshop will thereby also serve as a new network for scholars of implementation. With an increased acknowledgement of the separate challenge of implementing interventions that have proven successful at small scale (List 2022), reviving implementation research would be valuable within and beyond public administration.

Multilevel and collaborative governance (high level practitioner panel) (afternoon)
Chair: Mirko Noordegraaf

Challenges from the transition to clean energy to housing new generations require governments to collaborate closely across levels and with many external partners and stakeholders. These challenges will be discussed in a roundtable with high-level practitioners and academic experts. Experts from the national government, the Province of Utrecht and the City of Utrecht will present their challenges and react to academic insights.