Bringing public organizations and organizing back in

Is cross-fertilization still relevant between organization study perspectives and public phenomena studies? What could perspectives dealing with the public sector and public affairs still learn from research on profit and non-profit organizations, and vice-versa? These are some of the questions that the 6th Organization Studies worskshop aims to explore. To this end, we invite theoretical and empirical papers, welcoming those that are situated in diverse geographies and disciplinary traditions, and are exploring knowledge frontiers.

Indicative topic areas

Public administration and public policy are themselves interdisciplinary fields that interrelate with organizations studies in very diverse forms. The following is a list of indicative, but not exhaustive, topic areas, all of which could be addressed in different geographical and cultural spheres:

- The local, the global and the transnational: local governments and inter-governmental relations; internationalization of organizational linkages; the role of local government in competitiveness, security and economic development; organising inter-governmental and international policy-making; transnational public and governmental networks.

- Organizational implications of public policy making: agenda setting, design, implementation, and evaluation. Policy domains: health, education, security, intergovernmental relations, regional development, etc

- Governance, governmentality, new public management and other "waves": the political and organizational assumptions for reforming public sector. Improving the regulation capacity of public sector not just "through" bureaucracies but also through new organizational designs.

- Citizen participation, public policy design and public organizations.

- Power and public organizations: organizations and public policy as political endeavors. Conflict resolution, political interrelationships (i.e., between public organizations and legislative power), unions, interests groups, among others.

- Public/private dichotomy: reconfiguration or blurring of the traditional boundaries between the public and private spheres or between the professional/technical and the governmental spheres, through public-private partnerships (PPP or P3), delegated management, management by contract, boundary organisations, etc.

- The organizational and organizing factors and dynamics of democracies and other types of political regimes

- Administrative public sector reform: change and transformation of public organizations, networks of organizations, and inter-organizational relationships. The organizational "variable" in reforming public sector: budgeting, e-government, environment, tax reform, civil service reform, etc

Keynote speakers

Barry BOZEMAN, University of Georgia, USA

Johan OLSEN, ARENA Center for European Studies, University of Oslo, Norway

Yves SCHEMEIL, Institut Universitaire de France and Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Grenoble, France

Submission

Interested participants must submit to osofficer@gmail.com an abstract of no more than 1, 000 words for their proposed contribution by December 6, 2010 indicating on the subject line: 6th Organizations Studies Workshop. The proposal must be submitted as an email attachment (doc. or .rtf) and should contain authors' names, institutional affiliations, email and postal address. Authors will be notified of acceptance or otherwise by January 10, 2011. Full papers must be submitted by April 11, 2011. Further details on the venue of the workshop will be published through the EGOS website.

Following the workshop, a Special Issue will be announced in Organization Studies. To be considered for publication, papers must be electronically received by November 28 2011. The latest guidelines for submission and information on the review procedures can be found on the OS web page. Participations in the Workshop is not a prerequisite to submit a paper for the special issue.

Conveners

• David ARELLANO GAULT, CIDE, Mexico (david.arellano@cide.edu)
• David DEMORTAIN, London School of Economics and Political Science, Great Britain (ddemortain@gmail.com)
• Christian ROUILLARD, University of Ottawa, Canada. (christian.rouillard@uottawa.ca)
• Jean-Claude THOENIG, Dauphine Recherches en Management, Paris, France
  (jeanclaude.thoenig@free.fr)

Administrative support

Sophia TSAGARAKI, Organization Studies managing editor. (osofficer@gmail.com)