How Place Matters? Leadership, Governance and Public Administration moving towards Covid recovery
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The PAC Annual Conference will be hosted by the Local Governance Research Centre (LGRC) and will taking place at De Montfort University Leicester on Tuesday 7th and Wednesday 8th September 2021.
In recent years, ‘place’ has taken on increasing salience in government and policy-making circles. Whether it be localism, new municipalism, innovation, co-production or the commons, policy and public administration is increasingly framed by appeals to place. Place-based policymaking has been advanced as a panacea for multiple demands and outcomes, from economic growth and resilience through to climate action and sustainability, community health and wellbeing, and empowerment and democratic renewal. Indeed, attachment to place and place identity have become something of an elusive but desired goal for policymakers; for ‘place’, it is argued, has the power to shape our everyday experiences of local service delivery, our interactions with public agencies, and our engagements with fellow citizens.
Yet, while it is widely acknowledged that ‘place’ matters, how it matters in the process of policymaking, and how we ‘make use’ of it, triggers much debate and contestation. Indeed, the understanding of the very concept of ‘place’ can be too easily taken for granted, skating over many underpinning assumptions, gaps in evidence, and still unanswered questions. How do we conceptualise the very notion of place itself? How do we capture the fluidity and fixity of ‘place’? What is place leadership and how do politicians, policymakers and communities move in and across so-called hybrid local landscapes? What are the conditions for the effective implementation of place-based policy integration or coordination? How do we move across the different scales or spaces of policy, from the local to the national and the global? Are we caught in a ‘local trap’? And how do we achieve inclusive and sustainable places?
This conference seeks to open up the dialogue on these questions. It aims to forge a space for a renewed exchange between public administration and disciplines and fields such as political geography, regional studies, democratic theory and urban studies.
Monday 6th September 2021, Pre-Conference Doctoral Workshop
Public administration-related research continues to provide a vital role in leading discussion on how we may address the challenges that currently face the public sector and more broadly, the public realm: the JUC Public Administration Committee provides a site that facilitates scholarly discussion and encourages enquiry.
We are delighted to announce that the Committee’s 8th Doctoral Workshop will take place on the 6th of September 2021 and is open to applications from doctoral students studying at membership institutions. It will offer participants opportunities to discuss, critique and share ideas on researching public administration and related areas; it will also provide opportunities to discuss the PhD experience. We invite papers from doctoral students on any theme related to the broad disciplines of public administration, management, governance and policy. The workshop will provide researchers with an opportunity to present conceptual critiques, early stage research, progress in fieldwork or a developed paper outlining emergent findings. The paper this could be a summary of your PhD project or one of your chapters or journal manuscript)
The workshop will be convened by Drs Bottom (Chair) and Eseonu (VC for Doctoral Students).
As part of the workshop, Dr Bruce McDonald (North Carolina State) will convene a session that addresses publishing as a doctoral student. Dr McDonald @academicpiracy is an associate professor of public budgeting and finance. He co-hosts podcast @AcademicsofPA and is current editor-in-chief of @journal_pa and co-editor-in-chief of @JPAEJournal.
To maximise the value of the conference and the doctoral stream, we ask that participants submit papers in advance. In return, we will undertake to read you papers and provide detailed and constructive feedback in a supportive environment.
Richard Chapman Prize
This year we will be awarding the Richard Chapman Prize to the best paper presented at the Postgraduate Conference. Further details to follow.
If you wish to attend or require more information, please email Dr Dayo Eseonu (VC for Doctoral Students) temidayo.eseonu@manchester.ac.uk with the completed pro-forma document which includes a 300 – 500 words abstract (this could be a summary of your PhD project or of one of your chapters) by midday on Friday, 25 June 2021.
Timings
The workshop will run from 9.30am to 17:30pm on Monday 6th September 2021. Participants should forward a full paper of 6-8,000 words by midday on Monday 2nd August 2021 for circulation.
Fees
Attendance at the workshop is free. Acceptance also brings with it free registration for the JUC Annual Conference which will take place online at De Montfort University on Tuesday 7th and Wednesday 8th September, 2021.
Dr Karin Bottom University of Birmingham k.a.bottom@bham.ac.uk
Dr Temidayo Eseonu University of Manchester temidayo.eseonu@manchester.ac.uk
Tuesday 7th – Wednesday 8th September 2020 – Full Conference Fee £20.00
The main Conference and registration will be on Tuesday 7th September – Wednesday 8th September 2021. The conference will be held online. Booking of tickets to attend the conference
- Registration closes Friday 27th August 2021 at midnight
- Doctoral Student Closes Friday 13th August 2021 at midnight*
- De Montfort University Staff registration closes Friday 13th August 2021 **