P07 SIG Local Governance

Corresponding chair

Reto Steiner, ZHAW School of Management and Law, CH, Email: reto.steiner@zhaw.ch

Review group chair

Denita Cepiku, University of Rome Tor Vergata, IT.

SIG Chairs

Filippo Giordano, LUMSA, Rome and Bocconi University, IT.

Enrico Guarini, University of Milano-Bicocca, IT.

Sabine Kuhlmann, University of Potsdam, DE.

Carmen Navarro, Universidad Autonóma de Madrid, ES.

Christopher Tapscott, University of Western Cape - School of Government, ZA.

 

For the 2025 annual IRSPM conference, the Local Governance SIG will be organized in two panels: a general panel focused on LG-civil society collaboration and a special panel on the topic of boundary spanning for collaboration in public governance. Description of both panels is provided below.

General panel: Collaboration of Local Governments and Civil Society

Globally, local authorities are significant players in the design of public policies and the provision of services. The local tier is close to the citizens. Therefore, developments such as societal, economical, technological, and ecological changes and challenges have a direct and high impact on what policies and services are needed at the local tier of government, and the way these are being provided. Within this perspective, local tier governments are critical for translating upstream goals and targets on sustainable development (SDGs) into actions at the community level.

Many local governments have increased the engagement of civil society organizations and the private sector in the decision making and in the delivery process as well.

The aim of this panel is to discuss the future of policy making and service delivery at the local tier of government with a special emphasis on the role local governments play bringing civil society, private sector, and government together in order to strengthen input and output legitimacy and to improve civic engagement and social capital. Do local governments close the gap between citizens, the private sector and governments and increase trust? Do collaborative approaches have a positive impact on social equity and environmental sustainability? Potential topics might include the following:

• What do citizens, civil society organizations and the private sector expect from their municipalities? Have the expectations changed over time? How can this be measured?
• What role does civil society and the private sector play in delivering public services?
• How can citizens and other stakeholders participate in the decision-making process? Do technologies support the inclusion of different stakeholders’ expectations?
• How are new technologies changing the government-private sector-citizen interaction?
• How do municipalities increase trust?
• How do municipalities interact with different stakeholders and handle heterogenous expectations?
• Do managerial reforms improve service delivery at the local level?
• What is the impact of digital transformation on decision making and local service delivery?
• How can local authorities become more responsive?
• What services can be made smart and what does this mean for the service delivery?
• How can local governments promote and effectively manage civic engagement?
• Which strategies and inter-institutional collaboration mechanisms create enabling conditions for multi-stakeholder engagement and SDG achievement?
• How can we measure the impact of local policies and services on social capital, social equity and environmental sustainability?

We invite scholars studying public administration and management at the local tier of government to reflect theoretically and share empirical research. We especially expect papers presenting comparative studies that for example compare local service delivery across different policy fields or tiers of government, organizational contexts or countries. A focus on the contribution of digital transformation on the local tier of government is highly appreciated.

Special 2025 panel: Spanning Boundaries for Collaboration in Public Governance

Corresponding Panel Chair:   Dr. Ingmar van Meerkerk

Co-chairs:                               Dr. Annika Agger, Department of Social sciences and                                                                   Business, Roskilde University

Prof. Dr. Jurian Edelenbos, Department of Public Administration and Sociology, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Dr. Anka Kekez, Faculty of Political Science, Zagreb University

Due to the increasing complex nature of public issues and relationships between citizens, their communities and public administration, effective collaborations across public, private and societal boundaries have become a key challenge in today’s public governance (O’Flynn et al., 2014; Van Meerkerk & Edelenbos, 2018). Wicked societal issues necessitate collaboration across organizational, domain, and sector boundaries to find legitimate, efficient, and effective solutions to complex problems. Moreover, community-based initiatives as well as increasing calls for involving affected citizens in designing and co-producing public services have further stimulated cross-boundary working in public governance (Edelenbos and Van Meerkerk, 2016; Kekez et al., 2019). At the same time, public organizations and institutions are simultaneously influenced by different logics causing not only barriers and tensions but also a number of dilemmas and paradoxes bringing cross-boundary collaboration into practice. Professionals working across boundaries must increasingly navigate conflicting demands, practices, and role expectations facilitating cross-boundary collaboration or engagement (Agger & Tortzen, 2023; Nederhand et al., 2018).

This panel explores the experiences, challenges, conditions, and impact of boundary spanning across public, private, knowledge, and/or societal actors and domains. Given the complex relationships between citizens, their communities and public administration and services, professionals engaged in spanning boundaries play an increasingly vital role. In the scholarly literature, public professionals with capabilities in spanning boundaries are known under various terms including boundary spanners, bridgers, facilitators, intermediaries, best persons and exemplary practitioners (Van Hulst et al., 2011; Van Meerkerk and Edelenbos, 2018; Escobar, 2019; Durose et al., 2016). These professionals have different organizational positions and institutional backgrounds, and do often work as frontline workers, street-level managers, district managers, or community builders. What is common for the different ‘denominations’ is that these professionals are able to coordinate their eorts horizontally and vertically (Edelenbos and Teisman, 2011) and thereby mobilize different forms of bonding, bridging and linking social capital (Igalla et al., 2020).

This panel aims to bring together the growing research on boundary spanning in various forms and levels of governance. In bringing the literature on this theme further, it particularly focuses on professionals’ roles, challenges, coping mechanisms, facilitating conditions, and impact of their behavior. Leading questions of potential contributions, which can be both empirical and theoretical and show methodological rigor, to this panel could be oriented at:

• How is boundary spanning across sectors exercised on the ground? What are the features, modes, or routines in daily work, behaviors, and day-to-day decisions that comprise boundary spanning work?
• What are the key challenges of boundary spanning and role tensions in collaborative practices and how do various professionals cope with them?
• What skills and capacities sustain boundary work in public organizations, and how can they enhance readiness for governance boundary spanning? What organizational and contextual factors affect the effectiveness and legitimacy of boundary spanning in public governance?
• What is the impact of various kinds of boundary spanning practices on collaboration and performance of public governance?

 

References
Agger, A., & Tortzen, A. (2023). ‘Co-production on the inside’–public professionals negotiating interaction between municipal actors and local citizens. Local Government Studies, 49(4), 801-820.

Blijleven, W., & van Hulst, M. (2021). Encounters with the organisation: how local civil servants experience and handle tensions in public engagement. Local Government Studies, 1-25.

Edelenbos, J. & van Meerkerk, I. (Eds.). (2016) Critical reflections on interactive governance: Self-organization and participation in public governance. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Escobar, O. (2019) Facilitators: The micro-politics of public participation and deliberation. In: Escobar, O. & Elstub, S. (ed.). Handbook of democratic innovation and governance. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Kekez, A., Howlett, M., & Ramesh, M. (2019). Collaboration in public service delivery: what, when and how. In Collaboration in public service delivery (pp. 2-19). Edward Elgar Publishing.

O'Flynn, J., Blackman, D., & Halligan, J. (Eds.). (2014). Crossing boundaries in public management and policy: The international experience. Routledge, London.

Van Hulst, M., De Graaf, L., & Van den Brink, G. (2011). Exemplary practitioners: A review of actors who make a difference in governing. Administrative theory & praxis, 33(1), 120- 143.

Van Meerkerk, I. & Edelenbos, J. (2018) Boundary spanners in public management and governance: An interdisciplinary assessment. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

The SIG chairs and the special panel chairs will seek publication opportunities for the best papers in international academic journals.