Democratizing Public Management

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Practice-Oriented Reflection on Governance

   • Marta Strumińska-Kutra

   Pages 1-14

3. Metagovernance, Governance, and Learning

   • Marta Strumińska-Kutra

   Pages 15-32

4. Governance Learning from an Institutional Perspective

   • Marta Strumińska-Kutra

   Pages 33-47

5. How Framing Transforms Governance: Public Dispute over the Closure of Three Small Schools in a Rural Community

   • Marta Strumińska-Kutra

   Pages 49-65

6. Public Administration Leaders as Institutional Entrepreneurs: Dispute over the Location of a Marketplace

   • Marta Strumińska-Kutra

   Pages 67-87

7. Institutionalization of Governance and the Transition from ‘Fake’ Learning to ‘Real’ Learning: Dispute over the Modernization of a Wastewater Treatment Plant and an Incineration Plant

   • Marta Strumińska-Kutra

   Pages 89-103

8. Governance Failure and Social Trust: Dispute over Building a Flood Prevention System

   • Marta Strumińska-Kutra

   Pages 105-120

9. Towards a Practice-Based Theory of Governance Learning and Institutionalization: A Cross-Case Analysis

   • Marta Strumińska-Kutra

   Pages 121-190

10. Making Social Sciences Matter for Public Administration and Public Policy

    • Marta Strumińska-Kutra

    Pages 191-209

11. Back Matter

    Pages 211-234

    PDF

This book argues that contemporary society in general, and public administration specifically, can benefit from more reflexive learning processes through democracy and public involvement. It identifies the most central social practices, dilemmas, and challenges for public management as well as the mechanisms needed to enact institutional change. Offering a model of reflexivity and learning in the face of public dispute, it explores phenomena such as problem solving, democratization, public learning, and uncertainty to address certain tensions in governance theory and practice.


Through a range of well-sourced case studies, this book demonstrates how institutions can manage difficult situations by not only resolving the conflict but addressing the underlying problem. It uses both theoretical and practical approaches to observe the micro foundations of political behavior and its institutional underpinnings, and will be a valuable resource for public administration researchers, practitioners, and graduate students seeking empirical studies of learning processes in the public sphere. 

• Public administration
• public governance
• democracy
• governance
• political behavior
• government
• public policy
• reflexivity

“A wide-ranging and deeply thoughtful book that advances a practice-oriented model of governance and a pragmatist-oriented action research methodology to bridge the gap between theory and practice.  Through an insightful analysis of four public disputes, the book illuminates both the possibilities and the challenges of democratizing governance.” (Christopher Ansell, University of California, Berkeley, USA)

“This important book focusses on the role of learning in governance research and practice and analyses its implications for metagovernance and management. It develops a practice oriented research framework and applies it in a number of interesting case studies of conflictual governance processes.” (Eva Sørensen, Roskilde University, Denmark)

“This practice-based analysis explores contingencies of collaborative learning in the face bureaucratic resistance, surprise and fear, complexity and public disputes.  Cogently and clearly argued, and reframing double loop learning as more deliberatively interactive and institutionally entrepreneurial practices of governance, this book promises to advance public administration theory and practice.” (John Forester, Cornell University, USA)

• VID Specialized University, Oslo, Norway

  Marta Struminska-Kutra

Marta Strumińska-Kutra is a sociologist at VID Specialized University, Norway and Kozminski University, Poland. Her areas of expertise include governance, public disputes, corporate social responsibility, public administration, sustainable innovation, and the methodology of critical and participatory research.

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