1. Rising to Ostrom’s challenge: an invitation to walk on the bright side of public governance and public service
- Author
-
Douglas, Scott, Schillemans, Thomas, t Hart, Paul, Ansell, Christopher, Andersen, Lotte B, Flinders, Matthew, Head, Brian, Moynihan, Donald, Nabatchi, Tina, O'Flynn, Janine, Raadschelders, Jos, Sancino, Alessandro, Sørensen, Eva, Torfing, Jacob, Public management en publieke innovaties, UU LEG Research USG Public Matters, Public management en gedrag, and Bestuur en beleid
- Subjects
Coping (psychology) ,Introduction ,positivescholarship ,Public Administration ,business.industry ,Organizational studies ,Corporate governance ,Public policy ,effectiveness ,positive scholarship ,Public relations ,Core (game theory) ,Scholarship ,Public governance ,Political science ,Political Science and International Relations ,Public service ,Positive psychology ,business ,Symposium on Learning ,policy success ,high performance - Abstract
In this programmatic essay, we argue that public governance scholarship would benefit from developing a self-conscious and cohesive strand of “positive” scholarship, akin to social science subfields like positive psychology, positive organizational studies, and positive evaluation. We call for a program of research devoted to uncovering the factors and mechanisms that enable high performing public policies and public service delivery mechanisms; procedurally and distributively fair processes of tackling societal conflicts; and robust and resilient ways of coping with threats and risks. The core question driving positive public administration scholarship should be: Why is it that particular public policies, programs, organizations, networks, or partnerships manage do much better than others to produce widely valued societal outcomes, and how might knowledge of this be used to advance institutional learning from positives?
- Published
- 2021