Public Management Seminars I - Erik Klijn

Front stage and back stage: an impossible (managerial) job?

The growing tension between the world of media and politics and the world of implementation and network decision making.

Abstract

With the rise of social media, media attention has become more fierce and fast, and media logic has become more dominant in news than ever. Media and politics have always been tightly connected but this has become even more apparent than ever. At the same time social and policy problems have become more complex. The governance logic present in solving social problems (long term) dedication, horizontal network management and appreciation for complexity of the problem) is very difficult to combine with the logic at the front (importance of images, need to profile oneself and attention for short term). The rise of populist parties has enhanced this tension. Building on research results the presentation will explore some of these tensions.

Short CV

Klijn is professor of Public Administration at the Department of Public Administration and Sociology, Erasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Erasmus University. In 2019 he received an Honorary doctorate from the university of Gent for his work on network governance. Over the last two decades, his research which has covered a wide area of research methods (case studies, Qualitative Comparative Analysis, Q sort, experiments and survey research), has focused on:

• the impact of network management on network performance.
• the role of trust in complex decision-making in networks.
• democratic legitimacy in complex decision-making.
• Research on Public Private Partnerships:.
• the influence of media attention on complex decision making in networks.
• branding in public management and governance