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Publics and Publicness: identity, governance and public management reform (27 - 30 September 2011) New dates!

Faculty
Professor Paul du Gay, IOA & Associate Professor Anne Reff Pedersen, IOA.
Course Coordinator
Professor Paul du Gay, IOA
Prerequisite/progression of the course
Participants on this course should be researching in the broad areas of Public Management, Organization Studies, Critical Management Studies and/or the wider social sciences (especially: sociology, social anthropology, politics, and social policy). They should be interested in researching questions concerning the constitution, organization and management of the public domain, broadly conceived, using predominantly qualitative forms of methodology. Participants will be expected to submit a short written assignment that outlines elements of their own research project (research question/hypothesis/theoretical interests/methodological intent) in relation to the literature used on the course. Deadline for the paper is 5 September 2011. It is a precondition for receiving the course certificate that the student attends the whole course.
Aim of the course
The course focuses upon the changing relations between the organization and management of the public sector and the public sphere and the status of ‘the public’, of ‘publicness’, and the ‘public interest’. More specifically, the course investigates the emergence and changing status of different categories of ‘public’ persona: the ‘citizen’, the ‘consumer’, the ‘user’ , and their concomitants within public organizations, ‘the bureaucrat’, ‘the manager’, ‘the diplomat’ and so on, in relation to shifting modes of governance within contemporary western societies.
The course will cover some of the key debates within the fields of public management and the social and human sciences that have helped frame discussion of the organization and identity of the public sector and of the changing status of ‘the public’ and the dispositions and attributes of ‘publicness’. In so doing, the course will traverse a range of empirical sites where some of the most pertinent discussions of these issues have been situated, and offer an introduction to some of the key theories that have been deployed to analyse and explain the changing status and attributes of particular public ‘persona’: notably, ‘the bureaucrat’ and ‘the citizen’, ‘the manager’ and ‘the consumer’, and ‘the diplomat/networker’ and ‘the user’.
Course content, structure and teaching
The course is centred around an exposition of the connections between changing political rationalities of governance, the organization and management of the state and of the public sector, and the status and attributes of various categories of public persona: bureaucrats and managers, citizens, consumers and users, The course aims to situate it’s discussion of these changes in relation to developments in four main areas 1) The development of the modern state and its ‘core tasks’2) The main strands of contemporary ‘anti-statism’: and the conceptions and practices of publicness they articulate 3) Changing political rationalities of governance , and the narratives of publicness they express and engender for public sector employees and those they serve 4) Contemporary debates about ‘emergent publics’ and ‘object-oriented democracy’ and their implications for public governance and identity.
From Tuesday to Friday – 27 - 30 September 9.00-16.00
 Preliminary course programme
Tuesday 27 September
Wednesday 28 September
Thursday 29 September
Friday 30 September
9 – 12
 
Introduction to the Course Themes and Perspectives: States, Publics and Publicness (Paul du Gay & Anne Reff Pedersen)
 
What is the State, What is ‘the Public’? (Paul du Gay)
 
9 – 12
 
Giving Up on the State: anti-statism and alternative publics (Paul du Gay)
 
Narratives of Public Governance and the formation of Public Personae (Anne Reff Pedersen)
 
9 – 12
 
Making Things Public? Emergent Publics and Object Oriented Democracy (Paul du Gay & Anne Reff Pedersen)
Case Study; Public Sector Innovation (Anne Reff Pedersen)
 
9 – 12
 
Bringing the State Back In. No State, No Public? (Paul du Gay & Anne Reff Pedersen)
 
12 – 13
Lunch
12 – 13
Lunch
12 – 13
Lunch
12 – 13
Lunch
13 – 16
 
Discussion of student papers
13 – 16
 
Discussion of student papers
13 – 16
 
Discussion of student papers
13 – 16
 
Discussion of student papers
Learning Objectives
On completion of the course, students should be able to
  1. Display an understanding of the major debates concerning the development, contemporary constitution , and possible futures of the relations between the state, changing rationalities of governance and conceptions and practices of publicness
  2. Be able to critically analyse the core concepts and issues framing the narrative study of formation of particular public personas: including that of the citizen, consumer, user and co-creator
  3. Be able to surface and interrogate the philosophical and normative assumptions underpinning a range of discourses of publicness, both statist and anti-statist, overtly critical, and ostensibly pragmatic
  4. To develop students’ understanding of the tools and techniques used by public institutions to promote certain sorts of practices and identities, and to evaluate the effects of these on political life and state capacities
  5. To develop students skills in academic communication in both written (e.g. essay) and oral forms. Students will have to develop skills in written communication, including communicating academic arguments, critically engaging with different forms of empirical evidence, as well as relevant concepts and theories, and applying these to particular cases.
Teaching methods
The course will combine short interactive lectures by Faculty, with break-out sessions where participants discuss specific issues of theory, method and interpretation, in small groups, and in the full group, a case analysis, and student presentations with feedback from other students and faculty. Pertinent matters related to the course themes will also be explored via an examination and discussion of specific texts; these may include: a film (documentary or fiction), newspaper reports and articles, government reports etc.
Course literature
Compendium with short selected extracts from:
 
C. Pollitt & G. Bouckaert (2004) Public Management Reform OUP
R. Geuss, (2001) History and Illusion in Politics CUP
R. Geuss (2003) Public Goods, Private Goods Princeton University Press
P. Du Gay (2005) The Values of Bureaucracy OUP
P. Du Gay (2007) Organizing Identity: persons and organizations after theory Sage
N. Rose & P. Miller (2008) Governing the Present Polity Press
M. Dean (2007) Governing Societies Open University Press
J. Clarke & J. Newman (1997) The Managerial State Sage
C.Crouch (2006) Post-Democracy Polity
E. Suleiman (2005) Dismantling Democratic States Princeton University Press
B. Latour (2005) Re Assembling the Social OUP
B. Latour (2005) From Realpolitik to Dingpolitik; How to Make Things Public’, In B. Latour & P. Weibel (eds.) Making Things Public MIT Press
B. Latour (2005) How to Think Like a State
B. Latour (2009) The Making of Law Polity
Marres, N. (200) ‘Issues Spark a Public into Being’ in In B. Latour & P. Weibel (eds.) Making Things Public MIT Press
Rohr, J. (1998) Public Service, Ethics and Constitutional Practice Kansas Uni Press
I. Angus (2001) Emergent Publics Arbeiter Ring
J. Clarke & J. Newman (2009) Publics, Politics and Power Sage
D. Boje (2003) ‘Using Narrative and Telling Stories’, in D.Holman & R.Thorpe (2003) Management and Language Sage Publications
M. Hajer (2005) ‘Setting the Stage: A dramaturgy of public deliberation’, Administration adn Society 36.6
J. Powell & M.Edwards (2002) ‘Policy Narratives of Aging: The Right Way, the Third Way, or the Wrong Way?’, Electronic Journal of Sociology

Sidst opdateret af Katja Høeg Tingleff 23.08.2011