LIST OF PANELS

In the world of policy today, the challenges are huge, complex and intertwined and they require insight gained through alliances of diverse expertise and know-how. It requires bringing together partners in industry, the community sector and the public service. Collaboration between partners – the people who make, implement and receive public policy – can help to better understand problems in their context and find workable sustainable solutions. Collaboration is here seen as condition for the way policy solutions are found in today’s world. Collaboration is “the new normal” (Sullivan 2014). Many pressing matters of public concern are no longer seen as amenable to being solved in terms of a traditional divide between public and private actor. Whether the focus is on environmental and financial crises, healthcare, educational modernization or the efficient, effective and equitable delivery of core public services, these issues are increasingly seen as simply too complex to be solved by single agencies. There is a need to find novel solutions to these problems that mobilize the capacities of all sectors and actors. Public policy making can be made more robust through enhancing discussion, debate and knowledge sharing. A core objective of the panel is to assist in this endeavor through interdisciplinary public policy research. This panel will invite papers that specifically address the relationship between politics, policy and business. The panel focuses on how novel partnership and collaboration modes of governance work out in theory and practice. The key issues that papers may address include the following: ·         Collaboration “as the new normal”/a state-of-play for public policy today ·         Public governance changes and the role of “the office” in today’s policy environment ·         Public-private partnerships for infrastructure and for addressing new policy challenges ·         Urban governance, the rise of the “smart cities” and the role of firms and NGOs ·         Policy, governance and performance issues that involve all three sectors ·         Policy on how and why to govern markets, and to focus on how corporations can be “good”. ·         Policy on “big data” and digital governance that involves government, businesses and NGOs    

In the world of policy today, the challenges are huge, complex and intertwined and they require insight gained through alliances of diverse expertise and know-how. It requires bringing together partners in industry, the community sector and the public service. Collaboration between partners – the people who make, implement and receive public policy – can help to better understand problems in their context and find workable sustainable solutions. Collaboration is here seen as condition for the way policy solutions are found in today’s world. Collaboration is “the new normal” (Sullivan 2014). Many pressing matters of public concern are no longer seen as amenable to being solved in terms of a traditional divide between public and private actor. Whether the focus is on environmental and financial crises, healthcare, educational modernization or the efficient, effective and equitable delivery of core public services, these issues are increasingly seen as simply too complex to be solved by single agencies. There is a need to find novel solutions to these problems that mobilize the capacities of all sectors and actors. Public policy making can be made more robust through enhancing discussion, debate and knowledge sharing. A core objective of the panel is to assist in this endeavor through interdisciplinary public policy research. The public policy challenges are particularly pertinent on key topical issues such as the role of the traditional Weberian “office” in this new policy world, the role of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in shaping new infrastructure solutions, the focus on smart cities and urban governance solutions, the performance movement and the urge to quantify and set up performance metrics in public policy, the rising issue of how to govern markets and large corporations in policy related matters and the new internet economy that has seen new types corporate actors in public policy making who try to benefit from the development in “big data”. In most of these areas, new actors from the business world and from NGOs are crucial in public policy processes. This panel will invite papers that specifically address the relationship between politics, policy and business. The panel focuses on how novel partnership and collaboration modes of governance work out in theory and practice. The key issues that papers may address include the following: ·         Collaboration “as the new normal”/a state-of-play for public policy today ·         Public governance changes and the role of “the office” in today’s policy environment ·         Public-private partnerships for infrastructure and for addressing new policy challenges ·         Urban governance, the rise of the “smart cities” and the role of firms and NGOs ·         Policy, governance and performance issues that involve all three sectors ·         Policy on how and why to govern markets, and to focus on how corporations can be “good”. ·         Policy on “big data” and digital governance that involves government, businesses and NGOs