STUDYING REFORMS, EXPERIMENTS AND CHANGE IN LOCAL DEMOCRACY AND LOCAL PUBLIC SECTOR INSTITUTIONS: THEORIES, METHODS, TRENDS
Joint PhD-Training School organized by The University of Oslo, the Norwegian Centre in Paris and the COST Action
September 30 to October 02, 2013
ABOUT THE PHD-TRAINING SCHOOL:
Local governments all over Europe are in a period of intense reform activity, not least of all because in some countries they have been the level of government most seriously affected by the still expanding global financial and economic crisis. They are simultaneously faced by a variety of – partly contradictory – reform pressures, often aimed at conflicting reform objectives (e.g. efficiency vs.participation). Against this background, the PhD-Training School is meant to discuss reforms, experiments and changes in local democracy and local public sector institutions. The course is intended to provide training in theories and methods to be applied in the study of local public sector reforms and democracy, especially in comparative perspectives. The training school will focus on democratic reforms and new instruments of citizen participation (e.g. referenda, direct election of mayors). In addition, it concentrates on New Public Management (NPM) reforms that were targeted towards marketization, privatization and ‘corporatization’ as well as the more recent ‘Post-NPM’ reforms, which were often aimed at correcting the shortcomings of earlier NPM measures. Finally it will include the more nationally driven territorial and functional reforms (municipal amalgamations, decentralization) that have been fuelled, in part, by recent austerity measures and the hopes of national policy makers that such reforms will facilitate economies of scale.
MORE DETAILS:
Venue: The Norwegian Centre in Paris:
CENTRE FRANCO-NORVEGIEN EN SCIENCES SOCIALES ET HUMAINES
Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme,
190, Avenue de France, 75013 Paris
tél. +33 (0)149542216, http://www.paris.uio.no/fr-web/.
MORE INFORMATION:
- For more information about the Training School (content/schedule): Professor Harald Baldersheim, the Democracy Programme at UiO: harald.baldersheim@stv.uio.no,
- For more information about the COST Action `LocRef´: Professor Sabine Kuhlmann, University of Potsdam sabine.kuhlmann@uni-potsdam.de or at http://www.cost.eu/domains_actions/isch/Actions/IS1207?
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION AND INSTRUCTIONS:
Please submit an abstract that provides a brief outline of your current work (PhD topic/project outline, 300 words max., in English) accompanied by a short CV, electronically by July 31, 2013. To apply for the PhD-grant of the COST Action LocRef, please send your abstract and CV to Sabine Kuhlmann ( sabine.kuhlmann@uni-potsdam.de ) and Christian Schwab ( schwab@foev-speyer.de ) and refer to ‘Phd-Training School Grant’ in the subject line.
Acceptance of participants and grant holders will be notified in August.
