The focus of the Research Group is on the theories of public administration, public management and public governance (PA). The group aims at offering a space for presenting or revisiting, discussing and debating theoretical perspectives in, of and for PA. The thrust of the research group lies in providing a venue for a truly interdisciplinary dialogue about the intellectual contours of contemporary PA as a field of scholarly inquiry engaging with a complex world in poly-crisis.

A key aim of the group is discussing the contribution that the different disciplines contributing to the study of PA can provide, as well as exploring integrative perspectives. Papers that revisit and critically reflect upon the contribution of each discipline to PA are welcome, as are works that provide integrated interdisciplinary perspectives for the advancement of PA theories.

A first key area of interest for the Research Group are interdisciplinary perspectives arising from across the social sciences - including political science, public policy analysis, management, organisation studies, economics, sociology, social psychology, behavioural sciences – as well as all the applied social sciences which are specifically relevant for sectors of public services: - from criminology and policing for the field of public security, to health economics and management for health services, to education studies for educational services, and so forth. Works critically revisiting and developing the contribution of such disciplines – notably their integration – to the theorising of and for PA are welcome.

The Research Group also places centre stage the contribution that the humanities – including philosophy, theological and religious studies, historiography, anthropology, human geography, and the arts at large, from literature to the performing arts to the visual arts – can provide to theorising in and of PA in the contemporary world. Works from these disciplinary perspectives – whether focusing contributions to specific PA problems from distinctive intellectual angles or more integrative and broad-scope in thrust- are welcome.

Historical perspectives in PA are central, and papers adopting a historical / historiographic perspective are most welcome, both the history of ideas and the history of administrative systems and the examination of how historical perspectives enable to explore theories of PA. We place central stage to the mutual nourishment that can come from combining nomothetic approaches (theory and general laws searching research efforts) and ideographic approaches (focused on understanding specific, contextualised, historical events research – the distinction has famously been proposed by the philosopher Windelband). The development of theories (the ultimate thrust of nomothetic approaches) is nourished by engaging into close dialogue with ideographic approaches, and can in its turn nourish historical work in and for PA.

Alongside the social sciences and the humanities, papers offering integrative perspectives expanded to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Management) and the Life Sciences (for example, combining computer science with psychology to the study of the impact of Artificial Intelligence on public services) are most welcome.

Complementarily to offering a platform for the advancement of theoretical perspectives on PA, the Research Group also aims at providing a venue for revisiting and critically discussing intellectual traditions in the field – e.g. PA as practical wisdom, PA as practical experience, PA as scientific knowledge – and to debate different conceptions of PA and revisit key theoretical stances, European and non-European (e.g.: Weberian perspectives - traditional and neo-Weberian, Confucian perspectives - traditional and neo, and so forth), through a comparative perspective (intellectual and empirical comparative PA), and also in view of revisiting and exploring venerable notions in PA (like the notions of ideal-type, paradigm, model). The Research Group also engages with revisiting perennial issues in the field, like the extent to which theories and epistemological and methodological approaches drawn from the natural sciences can be applied to the social world, or whether the two worlds are distinct in fundamental ways (Dilthey’s distinction between the sciences of nature and the sciences of the spirit). Presentations, Panels and Round Table proposals as well as papers on intellectual traditions in PA are most welcome.

The RG aims at contributing to the entire portfolio of ENPA initiatives and projects (the annual conference, the ENPA events, special projects as they may unfold), as well as to promote ad hoc initiatives that support the objectives of ENPA.

Call for papers for the annual conference – we welcome:

• proposals of individual papers on all the thematic areas of the Research Group

• proposals of sets of coordinated papers on a thematic area and interconnected research questions (e.g. in preparation for a special issue)

• proposals of panels / sessions on the thematic areas of the Research Group – proposers should outline in the proposal: the theme and rationale (contribution to knowledge); the speakers; the format (presentations, round table discussion, interview-like conversation, etc.); the number of sessions required