About conference

About conference

IPSA RC32 CONFERENCE IN DUBROVNIK

‘Developing policy in different cultural contexts: learning from study, learning from experience’.

June, 10-12, 2011, Dubrovnik, Croatia

The collaboration

The initiative for the conference came from RC32 and the Croatian PSA, which had collaborated to organize a successful conference in Dubrovnik in 2008 with support from the University of Dubrovnik, the University of Zagreb and its Faculty of Political Science. As the organization of the current conference progressed, other scholarly bodies expressed interest in joining the enterprise. The Institute for Public Administration in Zagreb offered to co-sponsor the conference and arrange one of the streams. In response to a letter sent by RC32 at the request of Rainer Eisfeld and Les Pal, the Research Committee on Public Policy and Governance of the Russian Association for Political Science asked to be involved and to be allowed to nominate speakers. RC05 (Comparative Local Government) also expressed interest in co-sponsoring the conference and organizing several panels. And the University of Zagreb and its Faculty of Political Science agreed to provide organizational and financial support.

The full list of collaborators is therefore:

• IPSA Research Committee 32 (Public Policy and Administration)

• the Croatian Political Science Association

• the Institute of Public Administration, Zagreb

• IPSA Research Committee 5 (Comparative studies on local government and politics)

• the Research Committee on Public Policy and Governance of the Russian Association for Political Science

• the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Zagreb

• the University of Zagreb.

The rationale

In the last two decades the countries of central and Eastern Europe have been engaged in regime-reconstruction, and particularly the states of the former Yugoslavia, where the country itself, as well as the regime, had to be re-established. In this context, there has been a particular interest in policy as part of the dynamic of governing, and this conference has been convened to focus on the policy process and the practices by which it is constituted. It identifies the subject as ‘policy development’ rather than ‘policy making’ or ‘policy analysis’, recognizing that policy is generated by a wide range of practices and participants, inside and outside government, and that norm-setting by bodies like the OECD and the EU may be as important as choice by authority figures in government. It recognizes that policy practice is ‘put together’, and seeks to identify the way that the experiential knowledge of practitioners, as well as the research-based knowledge of academics, is used to inform practice.

The conference is therefore an occasion for both academic observers and policy practitioners to review the nature of policy knowledge and policy practice in the region, and what can be learned from analysis and research from outside the region.

Conference Format

There will be five streams, running over three days. The streams, and the potential speakers, are set out below, though in many cases their attendance depends on whether they can find funding for travel.

(a) Analytical/conceptual

Chair: Hal Colebatch, University of NSW, Australia

(b) Policy practice in Europe

Chair: Zdravko Petak,University of Zagreb, Croatia

(c) Reforming public administration in south-east Europe

Chair: Ivan Kopric, Institute for Public Administration, Zagreb

(d) Policy analysis in local governance

Chair: Hellmut Wollman,, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany

(e) Policy in relation to higher education

Chair: Tihomir Ziljak, University of Zagreb, Croatia

Outcome

The principal outcome of the conference will be strengthening the links among researchers and practitioners in the region, in other post-Soviet states, and in the political science profession generally. We plan to give the papers presented and the conference discussions the widest and most appropriate circulation. The papers from the 2008 Conference were published in the bilingual Anali Hrvatskog politoloskog drustva 2008 [Annals of Croatian Political Science 2008], while the papers from the RC32 workshop in Utrecht in 2007 have now been published by Amsterdam University Press under the title Working for Policy (edited by Colebatch, Hoppe and Noordegraaf).

Submitting papers

All nominated speakers should submit their abstracts by April 21, 2011. The abstracts should be uploaded through Invited speakers registration form on this web site. Final versions of the papers should be sent by June 5, 2011.

Invited speakers may register to attend and present at the conference only online, by filling out the Invited speakers registration form. The topic and the abstract (500 words) of your presentation are to be uploaded through the Invited speakers registration form by 21 April 2011. After successfully uploading your Abstract, the Abstract will be re-directed to conference organizers and the Stream Chair of selected conference stream together with your profile information.

Should they wish to book the accommodation at the CAAS Dormitory, all invited speakers will be asked to tick the ‘accommodation’ checkbox on the registration form. If you tick the ‘accommodation’ checkbox, your contact information will be forwarded directly to the the Secretary of the conference in charge of creating rooming list, in cooperation with the Dormitory manager. For more information on accommodation at the CAAS Dormitory, please visit the 'Accommodation' section of this website.

After successful uploading the Abstract by 21 April 2011, the final version of your Paper (5 000 – 6 000 words) should be submitted by 5 June 2011. Your Paper should be sent directly via email should be sent directly via e-mail to Chairs and Discussant of your panels, with a CC to to the general email of the Conference, ipsa@politologija.hr. For the list of Chairs of pannels and discussant please visit the 'Program' section of this website where you can download detailed program of the Conference.

All Papers that are received by Monday 6 of June will be posted at the Conference website so that all participants will have some time to read them before the event. In case you do not want your paper to be posted at the Conference website, please state that in the e-mail when sending your Paper. So that all papers which you are sending to Chairs and participants of your panel can be collected and posted on the web, it is important that Papers are sent with a CC to ipsa@politologija.hr.

We would be happy to provide further details if required.

Co-chairs of the Conference:

Hal K. Colebatch (hal@colebatch.com)

Ivan Kopric (ikopric@pravo.hr)

Zdravko Petak (zpetak@fpzg.hr)