LIST OF WORKSHOPS

Governing societal activities, institutions and work has always been ubiquitous but never self-explanatory. With respect to addressing global problems and pursuing important societal aims, such as combating climate change, easing up urban congestion, advancing welfare or providing education, it is difficult to disentangle public policies and agencies from private efforts, economic institutions and civic activities (Johanson and Vakkuri 2017; Pekkola et  al. 2020). Recent developments in commissioning public services, welfare mixes, corporate social responsibility and global rise in social enterprises signify the fluidity of institutional boundaries. Societies have learnt that both evolutionary adaptation and institutional design occur at multiple levels of society, which produces impacts that remain undetected by our current policy instruments.

We propose three main questions for the panel:

1)     How are public policies influenced by hybridity and hybrid forms of governance?

2)     To what extent and via what mechanisms do governments influence (foster or hamper) hybridity?

3)     How does hybridity shape the agenda-setting, implementation and evaluation of public policies?

An interesting aspect is the extent to which hybridity shapes the design of governmental structures and arrangements. In this way we would be able to bridge the gap between public policy and public administration scholars in discussing hybridity, rather than contributing to the divide between these two fields. The policies of the nation states are often labeled as “public” primarily due to the dominant role of governments in instigating political agendas and social change in their territories. Therefore, it is also commonplace to understand the multiplicity of policy rationalities that affect people and societies via “public sector” outcomes. However, policies often include several aspects of public-private linkages and collaboration between governments and business corporations, as well as public-private-civil societal relationships (Erkkilä 2012).

There is no definite theory of rationality regarding how the necessary activities of societies should be governed and what should be the roles of governments, business firms or non-profits (Williamson 1999; Kooiman 2003). Nevertheless, it has been assumed that mixing “public” and “private” creates contaminated institutions, moral abyss and dysfunctional modes of organizations (Jacobs 1992; Ménard 2004). The side effects of specialization of scientific disciplines have contributed to the assumption of monstrous hybridity, which is assumed to both compromise the neutrality of government and distort the efficiency of business operations (Vakkuri and Johanson, 2020). Accordingly, the governance solutions of societies have been based on a narrow understanding of institutional mixtures. We adopt a more balanced approach where hybridity appears equally as deliberate design of institutions and policies, and as an intended or unintended outcome of an evolutionary social process. Hybridity over time may have evolved both “by design” and “by default” (Johanson and Vakkuri 2017).

This panel invites both conceptual and empirical contributions that explore various facets of the policies on hybridity and hybridisation of societies, in view of their implications on public policy analysis.

Papers may address (among other possibilities) the following issues and questions:

What is the impact of public policies on hybridity? Do public policies increase hybrid forms of governance? Why? How?
Empirical approaches to assessing the way in which policies approach hybridity: How is it different from governing public agencies or private enterprises? Are there differences in governing or regulating hybrids across policy fields?
How does the existing literature on governing hybrids enable us to see hybrids as a novel subject for public policies?
A comparison of the perspectives on ‘hybridization’ vs. ‘policies on hybridity’ adopted by policy relevant research and practical policy action: What new aspects does hybridity impose on the shaping of the agenda-setting and policy formation?

How do different types of hybrids (e.g. state-owned enterprises, social enterprises, universities) adapt to public policies? How do community self- and co-regulating practices in tandem with corporate social responsibility and entrepreneurial self-regulation influence public policies? What is the significance of the different perspectives?
To what extent do the emerging modes of governance centred on the role of users (co-production and co-creation) affect hybrid arrangements in the design of policy solutions?
A global and transnational perspective on hybridity: Are there differences between hybrid formation across countries? Are there differences in the configuration of different forms of hybridity (i.e. between public private and community developments)? Are there different trajectories that lead to the hybridisation of nation states and development of global formation of hybrids?

What lessons have we learnt on how hybridity shapes policy design and resilience in the context of wicked problems and global crisis like COVID-19?
The objective of the panel is to initiate either a special issue or an edited volume on the topic of “Public policies for hybrid governance”. Moreover, this panel continues the work that we started in the prior session at ICPP5 conference, in July 2021. In that session, the need and interest for a common special issue or edited book on the topic was systematically emphasized.

The session chairs are: Tero Erkkilä, jan-Erik Johanson, Romulo Pinheiro and Jarmo Vakkuri

This panel “Policies for hybrid governance”, investigates the dynamic and complex relationship, rationalities (implicit and/or explicit) and tensions and dilemmas among public, private and civic domains contributing to policy outcomes. While all these domains have a role in how intended aims of public policies ultimately transpire, governments have fundamental problems with understanding why, how and with what impacts this occurs. The problem is even more pronounced with the interplay between these domains that we conceptualize as hybridity. By hybridity we refer to the interaction among public, private and civil society via distinct modes of ownership, parallel but often competing institutional logics, diverse funding bases and various forms of social and institutional control (Skelcher and Smith 2015; Grossi et al. 2017, Vakkuri & Johanson 2020).

Tero Erkkilä is Professor of Political Science at the University of Helsinki. His research interests include transnational governance, public institutions, and collective identities. His previous book publications include Government Transparency (Palgrave 2012), Global University Rankings (Palgrave 2013), Public Administration (Routledge 2015, together with B. Guy Peters and Patrick von Maravic), Rankings and Global Knowledge Governance (Palgrave 2018, with Ossi Piironen) and Ombudsman as a Global Institution (Palgrave 2020). He has also published in various peer reviewed journals and acted as a co-editor of two journal special issues.

Jan-Erik Johanson, is a Professor and director of research group of Administrative Science at Tampere University, Finland.  His latest publication Strategic management: Public sector view appears in Handbook of Theories of Public Administration and Management, by E.Elgar. He has co-edited and co-authored books Hybrid governance, organisations and society and Governing hybrid organisations both by Routledge. Johanson has also compiled a book Strategy formation and policy making in government, by Palgrave. He is also one of the coordinators of the international Special Interest Group on “Governing and managing hybridity”, in International Research Society for Public Management (IRSPM).In addition to being passionate with hybrid governance and strategic management his interests include team-based organisations, public policy, and social network analysis.

Rómulo Pinheiro is Professor of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Agder (UiA), Norway, where he is Deputy Head of Department. He is a member of the research group on Public Governance and Leadership (GOLEP), a track co-coordinator at the Center for Digital Transformation (CeDiT), and an active member of the Advanced Studies in Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS), and the Jean Monet’s Center of Excellence ‘Laboratories of Differentiated Integration in a Post-Brexit Europe’, all based at UiA. Rómulo’s research interests are located at the intersection of public policy and administration, organisational theory, economic geography, innovation and higher education studies. His work has been published (about 130 publications) in major scientific journals. He is currently involved with several comparative projects on topics like Resilience, Digital Transformation, Globalisation and Inequality, the Effects of COVID-19 on the public sector, etc.

Recent publications:

Iakovleva, T., Thomas, E., Berg, L. N., Benneworth, P., & Pinheiro, R. (2022). Universities and Regional Engagement: From the exceptional to the everyday. London: Routledge.

Giske, M., & Pinheiro, R. (2022). Resiliency. In R. Brinkmann (Ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Global Sustainability. New York and London: Palgrave.

Trondal, J., Keast, R., Noble, D., & Pinheiro, P. (2022). Governing Complexity in Times of Turbulence. Cheltenham and Northampton: Edward Elgar.

Pinheiro, R, Frigotto, L., & Young, M. (2022). Towards Resilience Organisations and Societies: A Cross-Sectoral and Multi-Disciplinary Perspective. London: Palgrave.

Trondal, J., & Pinheiro, R. (2021). Public organisations and the study of contemporary politics. In R. Pinheiro & J. Trondal (Eds.), Organising and Governing Governmental Institutions (pp. 31-51). Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

Pinheiro, R., & Trondal, J. (2021). Organising and Governing Governmental Institutions. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

Pekkola, E., Pinheiro, R., Geschwind, L., Siekkinen, T., Carvalho, T., & Pulkkinen, K. (2021). ‘Nested hybridity and value definition in public higher education’. In J. Vakkuri & J.-E. Johanson (Eds.), Hybrid Governance, Organisations and Society: Value Creation Perspectives (pp. 59-80). London: Routledge.

Jarmo Vakkuri is Professor at the Faculty of Management and Business at Tampere University, and the director of the research group on Public Financial Management. His research concentrates on hybrid governance and organizations, performance measurement and management in public administration, urban policy-making, institutional theory and change in public sector reforms, and bounded rationality of decision-making. Vakkuri is the co-author of the book “Governing hybrid organisations” (Routledge), and an editor of the book “Hybrid governance, organisations and society - value creation perspectives” (Routledge). He is the director, partner and researcher in several research projects, including “Performance measurement for hybrid governnance” (HYPER), funded by the Academy of Finland. Vakkuri has been a Guest editor of several special issues in journals, such as Financial Accountability and Management, NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy, Public Performance and Management Review, Public Money & Management, Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management, and Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal. He is also one of the coordinators of the international Special Interest Group on “Governing and managing hybridity”, in International Research Society for Public Management (IRSPM).