Governance in transition? Emerging paradigms and practices in the twenty-first century
The editors of Human Relations intend to publish a special issue of the journal on: governance in transition: emerging paradigms and practices in the twenty first century
Guest editors: Mahmoud Ezzamel and Mike Reed (Cardiff University)
Debates about the logics, forms and practices of governance emerging in the 'knowledge-based economy and society' have dominated social science research and analysis for over two decades. These debates have crystallised around the complex interaction between a series of 'disjunctive' economic, technological, cultural and social changes that putatively transform the established governance structures and practices through which socio-political power has been institutionalised and mobilised in the post-1945 era. Thus, the cumulative effect of the complex interaction between 'globalisation', 'informationalisation', 'individualisation' and 'marketisation' seems to undermine and erode the ideological foundations and political viability of governance strategies and structures dominated by the logic of rational bureaucratic organisation and control. This is so to the extent that a deepening 'legitimation crisis' in 'state-centred' forms of political representation and administrative co-ordination has been paralleled by a 'managerial crisis' in 'corporate-centred' forms of economic organisation and control.
For many influential commentators, these developments can best be conceptualised and explained as entailing a 'paradigm shift' from relatively simple, well-integrated and inherently stable governance systems, based on the logic of bureaucratic co-ordination and control, to much more complex, fragmented and endemically unstable governance systems based on the logic of network co-ordination and control. For others, these changes do not represent a radical transformation in governance logics and forms based on authority and hierarchy to ones founded on autonomy and knowledge. Rather, they are interpreted and explained as providing the ideological, political and discursive rationalisations for emerging concentrations of economic, social and cultural power that generate new contradictions, tensions and paradoxes within more complex governance forms and practices.
Set within this ongoing debate over potential transitions in governance logics, forms and practices, this special issue will focus upon a number of interrelated themes and issues that are central to our understanding of the 'governance problem' and its broader significance for explaining institutional and organisational change. First, it will seek to explore, clarify and evaluate the various philosophical, theoretical and political 'frames' through which differing, and often conflicting, conceptions of 'governance' have emerged and intervened in contemporary social science analysis focused on new forms of power and control. Second, it will identify the key substantive domains and levels of analysis within which 'essentially contested' conceptions of governance have been developed and applied, with the aim of teasing out their relative capacity to account for underlying dynamics and their longer-term impact on emergent organisational forms. Third, it will highlight the wider policy and practice implications of current social science research and analysis on the 'governance problem' in relation to the, potentially innovative, discursive, ideological and political resources that it makes available to individual and collective actors engaged in struggles over 'how things will be run' in local and global settings.
Given this remit and agenda, then the guest editors invite submissions on the following range of topics:
- Historical perspectives on the emergence and development of forms of governance.
- Governance theory and practices in a post-Keynesian world.
- Political and philosophical reflections on governance.
- Comparative forms of governance in divergent capitalisms.
- Emerging governance forms in transitional economies.
- The governance of organisations as distributed knowledge systems and managerial implications of their location in complex inter-organisational networks.
- Globalisation, the governance of multinationals and the compression of time and space.
Contributors should note the following
- This call is open and competitive, and the submitted papers will be blind reviewed in the normal way.
- Submitted papers must be based on original material not under consideration by any other journal or outlet
- The editors will select five papers to be included in the special issue, but other papers submitted in this process may be published in other issues of the journal.
The deadline for submission is October 31st 2006. Those accepted will be sent for blind review in the journal's standard way. The special issue is intended for publication in the second half of 2007.
Contributors should note the following:
- This call is open and competitive, and the submitted papers will be blind reviewed in the normal way.
- Submitted papers must be based on original material not under consideration by any other journal or outlet.
- The Editors will select five papers to be included in the special issue, but other papers submitted in this process may be published in other issues of the journal.
Papers to be considered for this special issue should be submitted online.
Manuscripts should include the title of this special issue: 'Governance in transition? Emerging paradigms and practices in the twenty first century' at the top of the title page. A completed copy of the journal's Manuscript Submission Form, which can be found on the submissions website, should also be submitted.
Queries should be addressed to:
Mahmoud Ezzamel and Mike Reed
Cardiff Business School
Cardiff University
Aberconway Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff CF10 3EU, Wales, UK
