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Improving Administrative Sciences Worldwidewww.iias-iisa.org
Call for Papers
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE
OF ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES
rue Defacqz, 1, box 11
B-1000 Brussels, Belgium
Tel : +32 2 536 08 80
Fax : +32 2 537 97 02
e-mail :info@iias-iisa.org
EUROPEAN GROUP
FOR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
f.maron@iias-iisa.org
Improving Administrative Sciences Worldwidewww.iias-iisa.org/egpa
The European Group for Public Administration (EGPA) in close collaboration with Politecnico
di Milano is organizing the 2017 EGPA Annual Conference to be held from 30 August
to 1st September in Bovisa (Milan). The event will be preceded by the PhD Symposium
on 28 and 29 August.
Call for papers 2017: Performance and Accountability
EGPA SGII Performance and Accountability in the Public Sector aims to bring together two
closely related research elds: performance and accountability.
In recent years, research on performance and research on accountability in the public sector
have both been dominated by the waves of public management reforms transforming
European bureaucracies. On the one hand, there has been a major focus on performance
and performance management systems and the enormous investments in and hopes
for improved performance in the public sector. On the other hand, the restructuring of
government and new provider models for public services relying on third parties of many
sorts (quango’s, privatization, etc.) have thwarted traditional systems of accountability. In
many studies of performance and accountability, the notion of NPM has been highly central.
But, although the practical and intellectual background of those studies was fairly similar,
studies of performance and accountability in the public sector have often been conducted in
separate strands and groups. Accountability research has had a strong focus on democratic
decits in public service provision, and accountability scholars may have overlooked the
important links, conducive as well as counter-productive, between accountability and
performance. Performance research has had a strong focus on NPM-reforms and formal
performance systems and measurement. Performance scholars may have overlooked
fundamental ethical norms and broader institutional impacts on performance.
One simple reason for bringing performance and accountability research together is that
the two are connected in practice and that societal relevance of the two steams of research
will improve if their studies, scholars and knowledge connect. A second reason is that there
have been great advances in both elds of study, so that it makes sense to expand their
horizons and connect their foci of research.
2017 EGPA Annual Conference
30 August – 1 September, Milano, Italy
Permanent Study Group II:
Performance and Accountability in the
Public Sector
Call for Papers 1
Improving Administrative Sciences Worldwidewww.iias-iisa.org/egpa
Call for Papers
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE
OF ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES
rue Defacqz, 1, box 11
B-1000 Brussels, Belgium
Tel : +32 2 536 08 80
Fax : +32 2 537 97 02
e-mail :info@iias-iisa.org
EUROPEAN GROUP
FOR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
f.maron@iias-iisa.org
We invite contributions that connect the dots between accountability and performance –
conceptually, theoretically and/or empirically. How can we conceive of fruitful – and unfruitful
– ways in which accountability and performance can connect? What can we learn from
empirical studies about the positive and negative ways in which both can interact?
We also invite contributions that expand our research focus with new methods, comparing
accountability and performance across countries or sectors, or by introducing new types
of research such as experiments, in order to delve into causal explanations. How can new
types of research help us understand the effects of accountability systems on performance,
or, conversely, the effects of performance on accountability?
We also invite papers that bring performance and accountability out of the NPM paradigm.
So far, performance and accountability scholarship(s) has been great at discrediting some
of the “great expectations” of the NPM-age, and yet, has been slow to connect to research
that explores alternative, potentially better, models of or approaches to performance
and accountability. Research will benet from joining up and expanding by connecting to
understandings of performance and accountability that are relevant to a “post-NPM” world,
and to research on stewardship/trustee relations, public value and public service motivation.
Papers that link performance and accountability will be given preference in the selection for
the group’s meeting during EGPA’s 2017 annual conference. However, we also invite papers
on three long-standing themes covered by SGII: The politics of performance, the use of
performance information, and the behavioral effects of performance management (see the
SGII’s EGPA webpage for elaboration).
Co-chairs:
Jostein Askim
University of Oslo
jostein.askim@stv.uio.no
Gerhard Hammerschmid
Hertie School of Governance, Berlin
hammerschmid@hertie-school.org
Thomas Schillemans
Utrecht University
T.Schillemans@uu.nl
Key Dates
The following are the key dates:
• Proposals should be uploaded through the submission website
http://www.egpa-conference2017.org/registration-submission/ by 10 April 2017;
• Decision on selected papers by Co-Chairs: 8 May 2017;
• Deadline for submitting the complete papers: 1 August 2017.
Call for Papers 2