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Faculty of Organisation Studies Novo mesto organizes 1st annual Governance in (post)transition conference that will take place between 12 and 14 April 2012 in hotel Šport Otočec. Topic of 2012 conference is “Two decades of change of administrative paradigm in CEE”Since early nineties of previous millennium, governments in Central and Eastern European countries have been trying to reform rigid bureaucratic administrative system into more flexible, modern and responsive administration that would perform better under new conditions of globalization, which was entering higher level by spread of modern information and communication technologies. However, not in every case transition to the modern administration was successful. Main assumption is that even if transition from socialist/communist public administration to democratic one was successful same cannot be applied in the case of transition from bureaucracy to modern, flexible and slim administration. In this perspective, any case study, comparative study, empirical or only theoretical reflection is welcome. |
Conference is open to papers in the following fields:
- administrative reform
- local governance
- public finances and fiscal policy
- reform approaches and evaluation
- regionalization
- common European Administrative Space
- Role of ICT in administrative processes
Organizing team is providing also special panel for up to 5 students papers on aforementioned topics.
Short abstract shall be send to uros.pinteric@gmail.com no later than by 1.1. 2012. Authors will be notified about acceptance until 10.1. 2012. Full papers shall be submitted until 1.4. 2012 for e-publication.
At the same time, two permanent working groups are established this year in the field of local politics and policy making and in the field of local and regional development. Working groups are accepting papers according to calls specified below.
WG 1: Local politics and policy making
Chair: Daniel Klimovský, PhD.,Technical university of Košice
Chair: Katarzyna Radzik Maruszak, PhD., University of Marie Curie-Sklodowska in Lublin
Working group focus: Local Governance in the CEE Region: 20 years of experience
Governance belongs to a group of those terms that are used very frequently. However, a frequent utilization of any term does not automatically lead to its better understanding. On the contrary, it may lead to terminological confusion or devaluation too. The Central and Eastern European countries are environments where (local) governance became a project buzzword in the recent two decades. It has happened due to three reasons:
- First, governance is not any easy concept in terms of understanding of its content; especially when understanding is required from those who were educated and trained in completely different conditions.
- Second, national governments of the Central and Eastern European countries had to deal with similar problems in the recent twenty years but both their starting lines and political, legal as well as economic conditions varied a lot. It caused many troubles by implementation of basic governance principles into practice.
- Third, a successful implementation of governance includes several requirements. The requirements are sometimes controversial, and quite often they are accomplished rather just formally (for instance when completion of various reports on actual or expected state is necessary) but reality is different.
Local governance structures in the Central and Eastern European countries vary a lot nowadays – not only between the countries but also within the countries. It opens windows for many research possibilities. At the same time, it is an extremely challenging state for practitioners too. This raises a crucial question which forms the theme for the sessions of this working group: “How successfully have been the elements of governance concept implemented in the local level practice of the Central and Eastern European countries since 1989?” The sessions of working group are open primarily to academics and we especially encourage early career researchers, including those who are currently undertaking an academic degree or post-doctoral studies, to attend the sessions and use this opportunity to present their research outcomes.
WG2: Local and regional development
Chair: Uroš Pinterič, PhD., Faculty of Organisation Studies Novo mesto
Chair: Saša Drezgić, PhD., University of Rijeka
Working group focus: Assessment of 20 years of local and regional development in CEE countries
Group on local and regional development welcomes papers on role of administrative bodies in supporting development programmes of regions/municipalities. Administrative bodies in certain area (or even at the national level) are crucial for crating supportive environment for development. In accordance with general topic of 2012 conference WG especially welcomes papers that are able to present how public administration reforms were influencing development on regional and local level in CEE countries. As well as national level, also regional and local level had to transform administrative system from communist/socialist to democratic and market supportive environment.
Papers within this working group shall address topics such as how different levels of public administration supported local and regional development, which measures were taken in order to support development in certain area. Long term overview of measures and their results are of extreme importance systematically assess performance of public administration in development processes. Responsibility for development can be seen not only in creating appropriate legal basis (which is indeed important) but also in taking active role in carrying out legislation. If authorities are responsibility for supportive environment, it is indisputable that development processes are shared burden between public and private sphere and civil society. From this perspective, articles revealing the role of private sector or civil sphere in local and regional development are welcome as well. Importance of such cases is even greater when civil sphere or private sector became generator or accelerator of changes, pressing public authorities to change their understanding of development.
We are looking forward to meet you in Otočec.
On behalf of organizing team
Uroš Pinterič, PhD.
Faculty of Organisation Studies Novo mesto
