[Tps] Public Administration Theory Network

[FrankFchr at aol.com]

>From TPS
 
Call for Proposals

2007 Conference of the Public Administration  Theory Network
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
May 26-27, 2007

"Public  Administration Theory in Times of Terror and Disaster?

This  conference will engage public administration theorists in  
addressing  the implications for contemporary governance of the ?war on  
terror,?  homeland security, and disaster response as central topics of  
public  and governmental concern. Is the war on terror over-writing  
public  administration discourse and practice? Will the call to war,  
the push  for homeland security, and the failures of governmental  
responses to  Hurricane Katrina combine to overwhelm public policy and   
administrative discourse for the foreseeable future? We think it is   
time for public administration theorists to engage in a collective   
effort to make sense of what is happening and open avenues for   
creative and critical action.

This is certainly not the  first time that emergencies and disasters  
have affected public  administration practice and discourse. To give  
just one example, in  1979 there was a crisis at Three Mile Island  
Nuclear Power Plant (TMI)  near Middleton, Pennsylvania, that resulted  
an a partial meltdown of  the core in that plant. It also engaged  
public discourse and affected  administrative practice?including  
numerous regulatory and policy  changes. The nuclear power industry in  
the US has not been the same  since. Because the 2007 PAT-Net  
Conference will take place in  Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, (less than 10  
miles from TMI) there is an  added poignancy to our discussing crisis  
governance at this  conference.

In setting this theme for the 2007 PAT-Net Conference, the  program  
committee invites people to submit paper, panel, and other  session  
proposals that will:

?    reflect on the  coordinates of fear, terror, and security in the  
history of liberalism  and the rise of the administrative state

?    reflect on  historical differences in theoretical and practical  
approaches to  crisis management

?    reflect generally on whether and how  public administration theory  
needs to engage with problems related to  disasters

?    reflect on the moral and/or ethical stance the  field and individual  
administrators should, can, or might take in  waging/opposing the war  
on terror (and/or any other  war)

?    consider what public administration?s  responsibilities are in  
responding to natural disasters such as  Hurricane Katrina

?    consider how race and religion are  shaping contemporary policy  
debates about terror, security, and  crises?and influencing the  
invention of new administrative  structures

?    address how the discourse of warfare, security,  preparedness and  
response is restructuring public bureaucracies,  changing budget  
priorities, shifting resources, and militarizing  public administration

?    consider how the war on terror  and/or the impacts of Katrina are  
affecting pedagogical practice, both  in terms of the demands for new  
programs and curricula as well as what  we say (or don?t say) about  
them in class.
o    What  political and/or institutional risks do critics of the war run?
o   Is there evidence of silencing of dissent on campuses or public   
organizations?
o    Are public administration professionals  adding sufficiently to  
discussions about the causes of Katrina?s  impacts and the failures of  
our responses?

?     following the recent work of Camilla Stivers, consider what   
possibilities exist for critically re-inhabiting the discursive and   
geographical space of "homeland."
o    What is the space of the  war?
o    What is the significance of the space called New  Orleans?

?    reflect generally on the state of public  administration in light of  
this environment

The program  committee plans to set up two major streams for the  
conference?theme  and open-stream. We think it will be interesting to  
hear what public  administration theorists have to say on the  
terror/security/disaster  theme, but we do not want to limit presenters  
to that theme. The  open-stream track creates space in the conference  
for all kinds of  proposals that concern themes and ideas of importance  
to public  administration theorists.

Proposals should be submitted no later than  September 15, 2006, to:

Larry S. Luton
Program Committee Chair
2007  PAT-Net Conference
Eastern Washington University
668 Riverpoint Blvd,  Suite A
Spokane, WA 99202

lluton at mail.ewu.edu
509/358-2247  voice
509/358-2267 fax

The Program Committee anticipates contacting  people about acceptance  
of their proposals by November 1, 2006. Final  papers will be due by  
May 1,  2007.



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