View Thread

WHAT FUTURE FOR DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT?

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT (PAD) 60^th ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

&

DEVELOPMENT STUDIES ASSOCATION  (DSA) ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Call for Papers

What has development management achieved and what are its prospects? Development-related programmes and activities under the rubrics of capacity development, institution building and public management reform remain both significant and contested.  Recent discussions have called for greater study of development management's potential contribution to global problems like poverty and inequality, climate change, ill-health and terrorism.  This provides evidence of continuing interest in the scope, possibilities and limitations of development management.

A number of trends and challenges make PAD's 60^th Anniversary year a good time for appraising development management's future.  These include:

•   interest in the political  contexts for development management, reflected in donor initiatives such as the World Banks' Institutional and Governance Reviews and DFID's 'Drivers of Change' studies
•  the institutional frameworks within which development management takes place 
• the relationship between the study of public sectors in the developing world and American public administration and management
• major development policy statements, notably the Millennium Development Goals and the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, whose implications for development management have not yet been fully explored

• the critical view of development management as anti-political, elitist and hostile to emancipatory and indigenous forms of development
• the prominence of new civil society actors and the private sector, including in the provision of public services
• the rise of the governance model
• the international financial crisis of late 2008, particularly for the role of government as facilitator, regulator and provider of development;

Given these trends, the time would seem ripe to reflect on and examine the future of development management. Do we need new models that match new conditions, possibly ones that are more in harmony with the evolving development agenda and underlying political and institutional frameworks?  Has the time come to discard exhausted approaches that stand in the way of progress?  Or is the problem even more fundamental?

We welcome both theoretical and empirical responses to these and other questions from scholars and practitioners alike.  Contributions can be in one of three ways:

1. By submitting a conference paper proposal (not to exceed 1000 words) by May 1, 2009.  Accepted conference papers will be considered for a special issue of Public Administration and Development (PAD) so long as full papers are received by July 31, 2009.
2. By submitting a full paper directly for consideration for the PAD Special Issue by July 31, 2009. 

Proposals and papers should be sent to both joint editors and should conform to PAD's 'instructions for authors' located at:

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/2821/home/ForAuthors.html. 

We aim to build on recent statements regarding development management and, to this effect, contributors may find it useful to refer to some of the following publications.

Please contact either of the joint editors (who are also the co-convenors of the DSA's Development Management sub-group, which welcomes new members) with any queries.  We look forward to receiving your contributions.