LIST OF PANELS

The aim of this roundtable is to discuss the differences and similarities between diverse relational approaches for studying public policy and administration. It will allow leading scholars to compare notes and reflect on what the distinct nature, value and identity of relational public policy is and what dividing lines exist and which need to be traversed. We will, for example, have a conversation about what constitutes the relational as compared to relationalism, differences between critical-interpretivist and (post-)positivist approaches, the role of teleological and ontological assumptions. Do scholars from different sub-disciplines (public policy, public administration, political science) appropriate and employ the concept of relationality in different ways, and why? Can there be a conversation with social network scholars who see the relational from a positivist lens? 

The panel will consist of short, 10-15 minute presentations by individual panellists, followed by an extended roundtable discussion among panellists, ending with an open conversation including all in the audience. The chairs have an interest in featuring panellists from a diversity of scholarly fields. Proposals for presenters would describe what topics the panellist would cover in her/his presentation, touching on the following questions: 

What is my particular construction of the concept of the relational and the particular ways that my work is relational in nature? 

How do I position this work vis-a-vis how I see the rest of the field defining and appropriating the idea of the relational. 

How do I see relational/relationalist scholarship in my particular field evolving? 

Contributors:

Hannah Hesselgreaves (Manchester Metropolitan University),- in person

Hannah is currently Professor of Public Service Reform, and Director of Policy Evaluation and Research Unit (PERU) at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her background is in organisational development, applied to healthcare education and her current work focuses on developing complexity-informed evaluation and building learning and evaluative capacity in public sector organisations as a learning partner. She is also developing innovations in much needed complexity-informed approaches to public service reform, which are helping to build capacity in many parts of social reform.

Jeannine Love (Roosevelt University), - online

Jeannine M. Love (she/her) is a Professor of Public Administration and Director of the Political Science and Social Justice Studies programs at Roosevelt University in Chicago. Her research focuses on integrative processes that foster racial, social, and economic justice through radical democracy—in governance, social movements, organizations, and the classroom.

Peeter Selg (Tallinn University),  - online

Peeter Selg, PhD, is a Full Professor of Governance and Political Analysis in the School of Governance, Law and Society at Tallinn University, Tallinn Estonia. His research interests include relational sociology, political semiotics, wicked problems, political theory, and theories of power. His recent monographs include Introducing Relational Political Analysis: Political Semiotics as a Theory and Method (with Andreas Ventsel, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) and A Relational Approach to Governing Wicked Problems: From Governance Failure to Failure Governance (with Georg Sootla and Benjamin Klasche, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023). He is the editor (with Nick Crossley) of the book series "Palgrave Studies in Relational Sociology".

Margaret Stout (West Virginia University), - online

Margaret Stout is Professor Emerita of West Virginia University’s John D. Rockefeller IV School of Policy & Politics. Her research explores the role of public and nonprofit practitioners and civic leaders in achieving social justice, economic equity, and environmental sustainability. She is best known for exploring the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of public administration theory and praxis, as well as the importance of participatory democracy and relational practice. She has been an innovator who brought relational process ontology into the field’s conversation.

Hendrik Wagenaar (University of Vienna) - in person

Hendrik Wagenaar is a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Vienna. He is a leading scholar in interpretive policy analysis. His books Deliberative Policy Analysis (Cambridge, 2003) and Meaning in Action (Routledge, 2011) are seminal texts and his research on participatory democracy, sex work, commons, and practice theory offers important advances within and beyond interpretive policy analysis. Underpinned by relational thinking, his work across these areas has shaped research, policy, and practice to co-create a more democratic and socially just world.