Publications by Michal Sedlacko
NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy , 2020
The aim of this essay is threefold: (1) to identify the tasks of public managers in public value ... more The aim of this essay is threefold: (1) to identify the tasks of public managers in public value management (PVM), (2) to start a debate on the relationships between autonomy, entrepreneurship and PVM from the perspective of institutional roles and management levels, and (3) to initiate a discussion about the transferability of PVM to diverse administrative systems and cultures. The public value discourse emerged in the 1990s, justifying the need for the concept through a deficit in democratic legitimacy, the delivery paradox, as well as market failure and the critique of New Public Management. Public value focuses on the ultimate purpose of the use of public resources and can thus serve to strengthen outcome legitimacy and downward accountability. Arguably, the most productive interpretation of the public value concept rests along the lines of a normative, conceptual orientation for managerial action, accompanied by a (so far somewhat sparse) set of practical tools and reasoning for public managers. Five tasks of PVM were identified: (1) conducting political management to secure legitimacy for particular value propositions; (2) leveraging public value opportunities through networks and a range of delivery mechanisms; (3) ensuring continuing democratisation through helping the realisation of politically empowered citizenship; (4) ensuring learning across multiple levels and audiences; and (5) cultivating a wider view of sustainable wellbeing for all. Regarding the applicability of PVM across various dimensions of administrative traditions and cultures, it would seem that the tasks are more compatible with some cultures and traditions than others. For instance, these roles seem more compatible with non-politicised public administrations that grant high societal status and discretion to civil servants, and provide them with generalist training and career options. One of the key open questions is under what conditions can a public value approach contribute to changes in the given public administration culture, in particular towards the development of downward accountability mechanisms in the context of democratic backsliding and constraints to bureaucratic autonomy.
Fachhochschulen arbeiten in Forschung und Lehre eng mit Praxisakteuren zusammen und wirken so in ... more Fachhochschulen arbeiten in Forschung und Lehre eng mit Praxisakteuren zusammen und wirken so in die Gesellschaft hinein. Dies prädestiniert sie dazu, gesellschaftliche Trans formationsprozesse anzustoßen. Durch die stärkere Beteiligung gesellschaftlicher Akteure könnten sie ihre Position festigen. Im Gegenzug sollte die Politik sie besser unterstützen, damit Forschungsaktivitäten ausgebaut werden können.
Publikation des Österreichischen Bundeskanzleramts. Mein Beitrag S. 41-45.
This paper examines the possibilities of a theoretical linkage between the 'micro level' of civil... more This paper examines the possibilities of a theoretical linkage between the 'micro level' of civil servants' sociomaterial practical doing and the strategic effects of a state apparatus. We go beyond mundane organizational studies by highlighting the critical relevance of interpretive/practice studies when studying the state and pursuing the promising idea of 'knowledge regimes' and 'knowledge styles' (Freeman and Sturdy 2014). In addition, while practice-compatible ontologies, theories and epistemologies seem obvious, we try to extend the framework into critical theory. We first explore theoretical linkages between knowledge and state apparatuses, examining the state as a site of resolution of contradictory relations, as an idea or a cultural representation, and as a processual ensemble of materials, knowledge and power. In the second part, we analyse our empirical data with regard to the linkages between knowledge and statehood in the practical work of civil servants. We use two qualitative case studies that deal with contested knowledge and the construction of statehood in asylum policy and inscribed expert knowledge and the construction of statehood in environmental policy respectively. Our focus of analysis is threefold: we explore whether specific knowledge 'patterns' or 'styles' can be identified, how and through which forms of knowledge practices produce statehood, and what is the role of relationality in this production. Linking the framework to state theory seems productive, although the framework needs to be supplemented, in line with foci of analysis, with theoretical notions from state theory (e.g. relationality). The main advantage of such a marriage seems, in this context, to lie in recasting the production of statehood through the lens of operations with/on knowledge.
This paper contributes to the debate on the competences required for civil servants and public ma... more This paper contributes to the debate on the competences required for civil servants and public managers by (i) conceptually developing a theory of practitioners' knowing in action that reframes the use of scientific knowledge as part of practical inquiry, (ii) developing a set of scholarly competencies around Dewey's notion of 'scientific temper' and discussing its implications for science, (iii) translating these competencies into a didactic approach by developing a process-based model of learning by research, and (iv) reflecting on our experience with the approach. The approach aims at promoting a socially engaged and emancipatory process of managing and coping with complex and contested issues which also allows counterhegemonic alternatives through teaching practically useful and transformative kind of science in professional degree programs. We conclude that public administration organisations will have to rethink their guiding images based on theories of evidence-based policy making or learning organisation in several respects.
The purpose of the present paper is threefold: (i) to provide a critical overview of scholarly li... more The purpose of the present paper is threefold: (i) to provide a critical overview of scholarly literature on public value with a focusing on different positions in the use of the concept, (ii), to analyse the fit of public value management to different public administration traditions, systems and cultures (iii) to provide a research agenda based on the preliminary findings of this paper. The public value approach was developed in reaction and reference to New Public Management and its attendant risks of neoliberalisation, and is resting on preference deliberation, plural and political processes providing a safeguard against uncertainty and change (Stoker 2005). Although a strong concern for common good and societal well-being provides a common thread, a more thorough review of the literature reveals several tensions and contradictions that characterize the discourse on public value, not the least the risks of producing a new variant of neoliberal rationality (Dahl and Soss 2014). In addition, it would also seem that the architecture of political-administrative relations and public administrative tradition plays a strong role in how the public value concept is being conceived and received, and vice versa, public value offers particular understandings of 'public managers', compatible with existing public administrative systems to varying degrees (Rhodes & Wanna 2007). Based on the literature review and the analysis of the possible use of the public value approach in different political-administrative settings, we identify a research agenda sensitive to the different understandings, objectives and functions of public value in various country contexts.
This paper examines the effects of dehumanization produced in the bureaucratic procedure of refug... more This paper examines the effects of dehumanization produced in the bureaucratic procedure of refugee status determination. The issue of asylum is not only highly topical; it also represents a fundamental issue since it touches upon basic human rights – individuals not granted protection usually have to return to their countries of origin, where their lives are often be in danger. In our ethnographic study, we conceptualize dehumanization as objectification and (work) alienation. We consider both the perspective of the asylum claimants (as the subjects of the bureaucratic procedure), as well as of the public servants as workers, using three tiers of analysis – the asylum interview, the sequence of the asylum determination procedure (a case), and the public official's workplace and its organizational context. The starting point of our paper is a short literature review on alienation and reification in work organizations as well as objectification in order to demonstrate how both terms are linked, but used with different meanings by various theories. Following this, we introduce the case along which the theoretical frame will be discussed and which is based on empirical research on refugee status determination in the former Austrian Federal Asylum Office. Our discussion of empirical findings in the following three chapters is structured along the mentioned levels of analysis. First, the asylum interview as a cornerstone of the procedure is used for observing practices of dehumanization in face-to-face interaction. Second, case processing is analyzed as a process of translating the individual into an abstract case through categories and documents. Third, the effects of the organizational context on the public officials are considered, in particular with regard to New Public Management and related pressures in everyday work. The paper's conclusion presents as one of the central findings the linkage between increased work alienation experienced by the public official (aggravated by, if not directly resulting from performance expectations set by the organizational context), and the increased objectification of the asylum claimants in the asylum interview in particular.
This article addresses the problem of adhering to ontology consistent with theories of social pra... more This article addresses the problem of adhering to ontology consistent with theories of social practice while conducting ethnographic research with focus on immersion and openness. As a partial solution to this contradiction, I formulate an outline of a ‘sensibility for practice’, a filtering and sense-making device to be used as a fieldwork tool. I believe this goes a long way towards producing a processual and experience-near account of sociopolitical life while remaining true to the theoretical commitments of practice theories. The sensibility for practice consists of four main principles derived from the theories of social practice and that enable us to hold those theories lightly: focus on what people actually do (and the materials they ‘converse’ with); focus on everydayness; focus on the work of assembling, structuring and ordering; and focus on reflexivity. For each of the principles, I identify three specific ‘loci of attention’ that can serve as sensitising concepts during fieldwork. Sensibility for practice represents a narrowed-down approach to ethnographic research that is able to accommodate various strands of practice studies, including the interpretivist, ‘wholist’ as well as associationist stream.
There is overwhelming evidence that one of the most important challenges facing society today is ... more There is overwhelming evidence that one of the most important challenges facing society today is the growing scale and unequal distribution of consumption of natural resources. Both the socio-economic implications of resource scarcities and the documented decline in provision of and rising threats to ecosystem services have spurred parts of the academic and policy communities into identification of problems and solutions. Some of the most fundamental debates, led by researchers from various disciplines, centre around economic growth and sustainable consumption. However, there is often a lack of knowledge exchange between these researchers as well as between researchers and policy makers. Together with other factors this results in slow policy progress. In this paper, we seek to contribute to the dialogue and understanding between sustainability science and policy by identifying a set of important research questions that link the challenges of sustainable consumption with economic growth debates and critiques. The research questions have been identified through an extensive participatory process involving leading researchers and policy makers responsible for sustainability policies throughout the whole EU and cover five areas (food, housing, mobility, information and communication technology, finance). The aim of the research questions is to orient researchers towards important research priorities as well as guide policy makers and public authorities in funding of research and use of sound scientific evidence and policy advice to inform decision making. We anticipate that addressing these questions will contribute to rethinking of societal institutions and forms of consumption in order to transition towards sustainability, while improving the synergy between policy and sustainability science.
I wrote this paper to think about the problem of practice-based ontology in ethnographic writing.... more I wrote this paper to think about the problem of practice-based ontology in ethnographic writing. I suggest that during fieldwork as well as during deskwork a 'sensibility for practice', derived from a practice-theoretical (and somewhat counterintuitive) ontology, goes a long way towards producing a processual and experience-near account of social and political life. I study two text examples (Neumann's 2007 ministerial speech writing and Bevir and Rhodes' 2003 everyday life in a British ministry) in order to better understand what works, and what doesn't, in practice-based ethnographic writing. I attempt to outline a set of principles and vocabulary recommendations for writing with a sensibility for practice, i.e. features of ethnography of practice that would mark it as a distinct genre. Writing is world-building, and I hope to help make this work a more conscious and reflected process.
In this paper I am trying to provide perspectives on a theoretical and methodological approach fo... more In this paper I am trying to provide perspectives on a theoretical and methodological approach for studying governing and the state that foregrounds materiality and practice. I suggest a study of governing that decentres individual actors, the state, or any structural entity such as 'class' or 'system' or their foundational (pre-existent, autonomous) properties, and instead traces the ordering effects of documents and the technologies giving them form. As opposed to interpretive approaches to policy analysis I stress the importance of materiality. I highlight attributes of documents that make them good means of governing such as the ability to make space and time, to translate heterogeneous entities into easily readable and natural-seeming set of relationships, and to reliably stabilise specific material relationships. Drawing on theories from sociology and organisational science, the concepts of 'actornetwork', 'assemblage' and 'sociomaterial orders' serve well to theoretically capture the nets that make documents powerful means of organising and governing. Methodologically, documents need to be studied 'in motion' and in situ, with attention paid to mutual interconnectedness of material objects and practices in governing, and to the way how conceptual categories and dualities common in policy analysis (power, state, micro/macro) come into being.
In political science and policy analysis the treatment of material objects remains sparse and uns... more In political science and policy analysis the treatment of material objects remains sparse and unsystematic. In comparison to the symbolic, discursive or institutional aspects of what goes on in the world the material aspects are being glossed over, with objects at best considered passive tools of intentional human action. To redress this situation we focus on the role of material objects in co-structuring interactions between experts and policy makers and shaping the learning processes and outcomes in the science-policy interface. In contrast to approaches to knowledge use based on rational choice theory our account foregrounds practices, assemblages (with an eye towards material objects) and the inseparability of 'knowing' and 'doing'. Based on ethnographic research of seven science-policy events in which public policy makers and researchers met to exchange knowledge on topics of environment and sustainability (such as natural resource management and sustainable consumption) we try to highlight various formative influences of material objects on social practice. We found that seating is critical for the intensity of interaction among the participants (even when in the role of supposedly passive audience) and also has some interesting power implications. Pens, papers and documents that are provided for group work recruit human bodies into quite specific roles and actions, serve as sites of distributed knowledge, and shape the results that can be achieved in group work. Lastly, material objects (such as cork pin walls or electronic documents) serve as sites of stabilisation of the nets assembled in the events, and might be quite important for actual policy or organisational change (i.e. 'materialised' learning). Foregrounding materiality in the analysis of knowledge exchange events would have important implications in how we understand learning to happen.
Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, 2013
To increase the uptake of research findings by policy makers and to encourage European researcher... more To increase the uptake of research findings by policy makers and to encourage European researchers to better reflect policy needs, we facilitated the development of a joint research agenda (JRA) on sustainable food consumption (SFC) involving scientists, policy makers, and other stakeholders. Pursuing interpretive action research and using a number of data sources, we tried to understand how the “fit” between the characteristics of policy makers’ organizational contexts and the attributes of the JRA development process affects the reception of the JRA and its outcomes. Our framework was based on three distinct formations of discursive and material practices related to the use of knowledge in public policy making: bureaucratic, managerial, and communicative. Two dominant patterns seem to be represented in SFC consumption in the European Union: a transition between the bureaucratic and the managerial formation and a highly developed managerial formation with occasional communicative practices. We found that reflecting national policy priorities would help overcome some of the structural barriers between science and policy, whereas other barriers could be addressed by designing the process to better fit with the logics of the three formations, such as the fragmentation of knowledge (bureaucratic formation) or breadth of participation (communicative formation).
European Environment, 2007
National strategies for sustainable development are gaining increasing recognition as an instrume... more National strategies for sustainable development are gaining increasing recognition as an instrument to reconcile needs of development and environmental protection by improving policy-making procedures. The paper assesses the Slovak sustainable development strategy in the context of two key documents, the National Strategy for Sustainable Development of the Slovak Republic (MESR, 2001a) and the Action Plan for Sustainable Development of the Slovak Republic for 2005–2010 (OGSR, 2005). Focus is mainly placed on horizontal policy integration, but institutional arrangements and mechanisms for implementation, monitoring and review, stakeholder participation and vertical integration are also assessed. Based on the results of a series of interviews with ministerial planners and utilizing the example of the Working Group for Environmental Education, the paper identifies barriers to horizontal policy integration. The main conclusion is that improvement of mechanisms for horizontal policy integration is offset by recession in other areas, including public participation. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
Vol 3 in the series Evaluating Sustainable Development, 2012
Ökologisches Wirtschaften 3: 30–34, 2011
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Publications by Michal Sedlacko