Abstract

Preparing public organizations for the future requires an attitude that goes beyond what is usually recognized, reinforced and rewarded in these organizational environments, typically characterized as productive, predictable and professional (Cinar, Trott, & Simms, 2019; Pittaway & Montazemi, 2020). It takes people that are capable and feel comfortable enough to explore new pathways in public service delivery without knowing if these eventually will materialize in actual policy measures and public services (Meijer, 2014). These innovators encounter obstacles, gather context-specific knowhow and connect actors across organizational boundaries. These useful processes and insights however, often remain at the tacit level.

In our anthropological study, for several months we followed a group of these ‘out-of-the-box’ professionals, working in a digital innovation center (i-lab) of one of the largest cities in The Netherlands (Tõnurist, Kattel & Lember, 2017). Through participatory observation (e.g. by joining them in work, project, meeting, and network), interviews and coworking activities we tried to discover what their way of conduct was, in fulfilling their exploratory roles, tasks and initiatives (Duijn, 2009; Hoholm & Araujo, 2011). We tried to make explicit and coin their professional behavior in transferring, managing and securing their expert and ‘futuristic’ knowledge and experiences with new digital technologies that will – inevitably, in one way or the other – change the landscape of public service delivery by local governments.

In our paper we will describe the professional context in which these public innovators work, as to better understand the specific challenges they face. Next, we describe, analyze and interpret their professional behavior in taking on these challenges. Lastly, we will draw some conclusions on what it takes to perform in the described public environment, when taking on exploratory, innovative and uncertainty-riddled tasks and how to productively share these practice-based inisghts both within and outside public organizations. Also, we will reflect on our research method, rooted in anthropology and ethnography, and discuss its value for 1) in-depth understanding of complex professional behavior, 2) for drafting interventionist actions to support change management and 3) for advancing public administration as a whole.

Bibliography

Cinar, E., Trott, P., & Simms, C. (2019). A systematic review of barriers to public sector innovation process. Public Management Review, 21(2), 264–290. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2018.1473477

Duijn, M. (2009). Embedded reflection on public policy innovation. Eburon Uitgeverij.

Hoholm, T., & Araujo, L. (2011). Studying innovation processes in real-time: The promises and challenges of ethnography. Industrial Marketing Management, 40(6), 933–939. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2011.06.036

Meijer, A. J. (2014). From Hero-Innovators to Distributed Heroism: An in-depth analysis of the role of individuals in public sector innovation. Public Management Review, 16(2), 199–216. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2013.806575

Tõnurist, P., Kattel, R., & Lember, V. (2017). Innovation labs in the public sector: What they are and what they do?. Public Management Review, 19(10), 1455-1479.

Pittaway, J. J., & Montazemi, A. R. (2020). Know-how to lead digital transformation: The case of local governments. Government Information Quarterly, 37(4), 101474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2020.101474

The term “poly-crisis” is first used in the European context (Zeitlin et al., 2019) to refer to the acute and creeping cleavage that emerges more frequently and causes multiple interacting crises. Government response to such a poly-crisis involves newer forms of politic-administrative interactions that leverage emerging technologies to address them with enhanced scope, scale, and speed (Ansell et al., 2023). School education is one such policy area where the public sector in developing countries faces the challenge of ensuring social equity (in terms of education access to low-income groups) and frontline accountability (preventing schoolteacher absence and ensuring effective implementation of education-related policies at the school level). The Department of School Education in Andhra Pradesh in India has introduced a bouquet of mobile apps (one of which uses facial recognition technology for schoolteacher attendance) to address these new cleavage forms.

In the above context, this research engages with how future-looking and uncertainty-embracing approaches are implemented in the context of traditional bureaucracies. Through 30 qualitative face-to-face interviews with schoolteachers, officials of the Department of school education, and other experts, this research explores the extent to which government schools are made future-proof and resilient through top-down decisions or formal arrangements and how hybrid organizational styles interact with frontline identities and motivational factors. This research is one of the earliest projects to explore the implications of the shift from e-governance largely reliant on computers to governance through mobile apps.

This research will build upon the work on the dark side of public innovations (Meijer & Thaens, 2021) and frontline accountability (Lieberherr et al., 2019), besides scholarship on digitalization. It uses the qualitative-interpretive method and is based on fieldwork based on a travel grant. It discusses the unintended consequences of these new tools and practices for educational systems in the developing world, focusing on frontline experiences.

References

Ansell, C., Sørensen, E., & Torfing, J. (2023). Public administration and politics meet turbulence: The search for robust governance responses. Public Administration, 101(1), 3-22. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12874

Lieberherr, E., Thomann, E., & Hupe, P. (2019). Street-level bureaucracy research and accountability beyond hierarchy. In P. Hupe (Ed.), Research Handbook on Street-Level Bureaucracy. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781786437631.00025

Meijer, A., & Thaens, M. (2021). The Dark Side of Public Innovation. Public Performance & Management Review, 44(1), 136-154. https://doi.org/10.1080/15309576.2020.1782954

Zeitlin, J., Nicoli, F., & Laffan, B. (2019). Introduction: the European Union beyond the polycrisis? Integration and politicization in an age of shifting cleavages. Journal of European Public Policy, 26(7), 963-976. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2019.1619803

Public transportation is considered as an essential human right and local authorities are now asked to guarantee the residents with its access. However, urban sprawl and hollowing out, followed by gentrification and shrinking population in suburban areas, and ageing society are making it difficult to guarantee the continuity of public transportation, especially in rural and mountain areas, where the elderly population lives often in isolation and without personal transportation means.

In order to solve this problem, many local governments are introducing innovative digital solutions. The paper first reconstructs the recent transformation in understanding the public transportation as an essential human right through literature review and public debates. Then the paper examines five empirical cases recently implemented in Japan to understand the rationales behind them. All cases supported by various government fundings and have different backgrounds as well as objects: using MaaS (Mobility as a Service) for vast rural area to improve transportation services; introducing on-demand public transportation using mobile app to guarantee transportation in rural area; introducing self-driving car in smart city context with citizen participation; introducing cashless payment for the locals as well as tourists to improve transportation services; and introducing mobile app to improve ticketing service of public transportation. The paper analyses the cases from technological, financial, and theoretical points of views, trying to identify the contribution of these digital transformations to the discussion of public transportation as human right.

These cases have to prove financial sustainability and accessibility to all, while contributing to the theoretical discussion. The paper concludes with findings and identification of remaining issues.

References:

Kafui Ablode Attoh (2019), Rights in Transit: Public Transportation and the Right to the City in California's East Bay, University of Georgia Press.

Thomas Coggin and Marius Pieterse (2015), “A Right to Transport? Moving Towards a Rights-Based Approach to Mobility in the City”, South African Journal on Human Rights, 31(2): 294-314.

Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2022), Cases of Digitalisation in Local Communities, https://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000835175.pdf

In the paper we present our findings on what has determined the longevity of changes made in two types of Czech central authorities - ministries and agencies - due to the COVID-19 crisis. We do it by surveying 2 groups of factors: 1) those that negatively impacted preparedness of public authorities for the COVID-19 crisis, and 2) those that have determined whether the changes made in public administration due to the pandemic will sustain it (have sustained till the present and will potentially endure). We obtained data mainly through semi-structured interviews with employees of 3 ministries (22 interviews were made) and 2 national agencies (11 interviews were conducted). From the interviews it seems that regardless the starting conditions and preparedness-related issues (i.e., those that determined whether public authorities could quickly maintain their functionality in the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis), the main (intraorganizational) factors driving the changes and determining their duration and longevity are related to PEOPLE and CULTURE which shape other organizational elements (like processes, structure and technologies).

To safeguard justice in energy system change, it is important that potential grievances of affected publics are adequately anticipated in decision-making processes. The many studies under the headings of ‘Energy justice' and 'Just transition', in which grievances are brought to the fore, suggest that this is often insufficiently done. What is needed is a conceptual lens through which to view (i) what affected publics consider important in terms of what energy systems of the future will deliver and how these systems function, and (ii) if and how these preferences are factored into decision-making processes by decision-makers. In this conceptual article, we explain how the public values concept can serve as such a lens. The public values concept draws attention to different – and often contested – views on what publics consider worth striving for. As such, the concept provides a sharp insight into potential grievances of affected publics and the extent to which these relate to considerations of justice or other considerations, such as cost-effectiveness, technical robustness, or environmental sustainability. In addition, from a public values perspective it is possible to see how values are implicitly and explicitly considered in decision-making processes and, more specifically, the extent to which considerations of justice are overlooked, ignored, sidelined or misunderstood. In order to stimulate EJ and JT research using the public values concept, we also share an analytical framework and a research agenda.

Two decades of research on sustainability transitions has proposed a broad set of activities that governments ‘should do’ to steer and accelerate transitions (Köhler et al, 2019). However, many of these activities are not put to practice. Especially on a national and local level these include destabilizing and transforming vested ‘unsustainable’ sectors and practices, prioritizing the needs of future generations and the environment over short-term economic gains and efficiency and implementing policies and plans that credibly add up to reaching the long-term goals policy makers have set for themselves (Braams et al, 2021). All of these activities carry implications for the way governments are structured and run.

In our experience in collaborative projects, in-house trainings and discussions, public servants are often well aware of the relevance and need for such actions, but the next day find themselves unable to put this in practice. Research shows that this may be explained because they don’t feel legitimized to do so in their role as a ‘good public servant’ (Braams et al 2021).

The norms and roles of what a ‘good public servant is’ are historically and culturally defined. Not in the least through public administration traditions. These are valuable, but traditions change and still leave room for maneuvering depending on the personal motivations and values of civil servants and the particular context in which they work. The traditions structure what ‘a good public servant is’ but do not fully determine it. Our goal therefore is to research how public servants perceive and recreate their roles to address the tension between the way the government operates and sustainability challenges present.

Based on two case studies, we reflect how existing traditions may be reinterpreted to reduce the tension between what civil servants should do and what they are allowed to do. We look forward to a discussion with the audience on this.

Academic research and policy discussions show increased interest in public procurement as a powerful lever for achieving various policy goals, such as green transition or inclusive economies. Purposeful public procurement is fragmented, however, and practices are discussed in disconnected policy areas such as strategic public procurement; functional procurement; procurement of innovation; green and sustainable procurement; and agile procurement of digital solutions. In each of these branches of procurement, there have been both significant attempts to change existing practices and lively academic reflection of these changing practices. In parallel, governments are increasingly attempting to reform their financial, economic, STI and public policies with a view to tackling specific ‘grand challenges’. Public procurement features prominently in these discussions. In this paper, we will bring together these ongoing and emerging policy practices and academic discussions in order to understand the common issues, challenges and solutions in what we call mission-oriented procurement, a procurement practice directed at achieving explicit societal goals. The paper introduces the concept of ‘mission-oriented procurement’ as an umbrella approach for procurement practices aimed at attaining societal goals. The analysis is based on a systematic literature review.

According to the IPCC, the current pathway of sociotechnical systems leads to a 3 degree increase in global temperature. This brings along a significant increase in extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, storms, creating a situation of sustained, overlapping crisis. Despite the severity of these potential events, strategic adaptation to polycrisis is challenging for several reasons, including institutional inertia, defensive heuristics, and political pressures. An emerging framework of Policy Operations Room (POR) has been proposed for urgent strategic decision making while remaining sensitive to unwanted socio-ecological disruptions (Hukkinen, Eronen, Janasik, Järvensivu, et al., 2022; Hukkinen, Eronen, Janasik, Kuikka, et al., 2022; Järvensivu et al., 2021). Building upon literatures of high-reliability management, scenario exercises and simulations, this framework aims to create strategic awareness and increase adaptive capacity in public planning and governance that the climate change-induced polycrisis requires. While an Operations Room in high-reliability management is used to secure critical operations such as aviation control, water and electricity systems, military operations and financial transactions, in a POR, as the name suggests, the critical system is “policy”. However, like other proposed tools and short-term interventions, its influence remains weak unless it is embedded in governance on a strategic level. Indeed, one of the key concerns of high reliability literature has been the integration of various parts, including the Operations Rooms within the organization. Our paper aims to analyse the value and challenges of using such an analogy from high-reliability management in urban administration by empirically studying the application of the POR framework in three cities in Finland. The empirical analysis is particularly focused on the integration of the POR into the structure of urban administration.

There is ample evidence that public institutions are discriminating against clients. However, less is known about how experienced discrimination, by clients of the public sector, is affecting how they see public organizations. Specifically, the question arises as to whether and how discrimination experiences influence (1) employer attractiveness of public sector organizations and (2) person-sector fit. Differences in beliefs about system fairness have been shown to influence how individuals react to discrimination. Drawing from system justification theory (Jost & Major, 2001), it is argued that when clients justify the system as fair, they may legitimize discrimination experiences, and employment attractiveness of public sector organizations, as well as perceived person-sector-fit, remain unaffected.

To test these propositions, a large-scale online survey was conducted (pre-registered; n = 2,465). First, respondents were asked based on which characteristics they have been discriminated against in the public sector, and in which institution/organization in the public sector they have been discriminated. Afterwards, respondents answered items on client discrimination during public service usage (Klinner & Walsh, 2013). Second, respondents were randomly assigned to one of five scenarios referring to concrete public service areas and/or public sector organizations, in which they were asked to rate the attractiveness to work in those public service areas and/or public sector organizations ((1) public education, (2) public service points in administrative offices, (3) police, (4) public health services, and (5) public social services/social centers). After asking about employer attractiveness separately for each area/organization, person-sector fit was asked for the public sector (Van Loon et al.'s, 2017). Finally, general system justification beliefs were asked (Vargas-Salfate et al., 2018).

Findings indicate that clients’ perceived discrimination has a significant negative effect on public sector’s employment attractiveness and person-sector fit: Clients who report having experienced discrimination in a public sector service perceive the public sector organizations less attractive in terms of employment and see less of a fit between their personal values and the public sector. Findings also point to significant interaction effects of clients’ discrimination experiences and their system justification beliefs on employment attractiveness, and sector-person fit: Public sector organizations are perceived as less attractive in terms of employment when clients’ system justification beliefs are low (e.g., belief that system is unfair), and their discrimination experiences are high.

The literature on Public Service Motivation (PSM) has studied how public employees in serving public institutions are more likely to commit to values that represent their desire to benefit the public’s best interest (Perry and Wise 1990). Other studies have shown that these employees demonstrate more altruistic (Rainey 1997) and democratic attitudes (Blair and Garand 1995; Conway 2000) than employees from the private sector.

There is abundant research about the motivations that drive public employees’ desire to perform public and social service. However, there is scarce research on bureaucrats´ attitudes on gender issues. Considering that gender equality is a critical dimension of democratic consolidation (Ionescu 2018) we would expect that public employees defend public interest and democratic values by exhibiting attitudes that promote gender equality.

The article shows that bureaucrats’ attitudes on gender equality play a significant role in expanding the scope of the literature on public service motivation. Using data from the most recent wave of World Values Survey – WVS (2017-2020) covering 77 countries, this study compares the gender attitudes of public-sector workers against general gender attitudes. These attitudes include dimensions related to the labor market, politics, among others.

We also analyze that those attitudes are conditional on structural opportunities for women in the countries using the Gender Inequality Index using the UN data. Finally, we study the conditional effect of individual characteristics such as education, religion, and age. Findings show that public employees tend to have attitudes that favor gender equality. However, that effect is contingent on the gender inequality context in which public servants operate.

The theoretical contribution of this work is to enrich the literature on public service motivation, public administration, and gender studies by understanding how public employees can internalize and promote gender values that affect gender inclusion in democratic contexts.

Gender equality is undoubtedly a core value of European Union. As a consequence, European Institutions, and also Member States, have been promoting the diffusion of gender mainstreaming for almost 30 years.

Gender mainstreaming is a strategy which proposes the reorganization, improvement, development and evaluation of policy processes, so that a gender perspective is incorporated in all the policies by the actors normally involved in policymaking, including Public Administrations.

All the Public Administrations play (or should play) a proactive and driving role to ensure the application of gender mainstreaming, not only by encouraging gender-oriented policies, but also by implementing them throughout their organisation.

The achievement of these goals can be notably improved through the adoption of Gender Budgeting (GB), an analysis and planning tool that integrates gender perspective at all the stages of public budgetary process, in order to advance gender equality.

This paper aims to provide a brief overview of the historical and conceptual origins of Gender Budgeting, in order to better understand how its effective incorporation within Public Administration can contribute to reduce existing gender inequalities.

GB can be defined as a specific application of gender mainstreaming in the budgetary process: it means a gender-based assessment of budgets, incorporating a gender perspective at all levels of the budgetary process and restructuring revenues and expenditures in order to promote gender equality.

First of all, GB enables the analysis, from a gender perspective, of political choices and economic-financial commitments that have already been adopted by Public Entities, in order to assess their impact in the pursuit of gender equality. Furthermore, this tool is also supposed to ensure that gender impact of past public decisions will be taken into consideration in order to program and plan the future policies of Public Authorities, effectively contributing to advance gender equality.

However, it is possible to notice that almost all the experimentations of GB, that have been carried out in Italy up to now, have only paid attention on the first step of the practise, while neglecting the second one.

For this reason, the paper offers a specific focus on the state of play of Gender Budgeting in Italy, emphasising the insufficient implementation of this practise in Italian Public Administrations, but also valorising the perspectives of reform that have been outlined after the diffusion of Covid-19 pandemic.

Indeed, National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) offered the opportunity to consolidate and strengthen Gender Budgeting, proposing a definitive integration of the strategic approach of gender mainstreaming into the budgeting process of State and Public Entities.

Starting from the 2024 Italian budget law, it will be required a classification of the items of Gender Budgeting, according to the criteria of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In conclusion, this decision to make GB structural could be the occasion to implement this practise as a permanent planning tool for Italian Public Administrations.

The fight against gender discrimination in Brazil has been a long-standing issue, both in the public and private sectors. The objectives of the study are to identify the main challenges faced by women in the Brazilian labor market, to describe the best practices adopted by public and private institutions to promote gender equality, to assess the effectiveness of these practices and the challenges Brazil faces in achieving SDG 5.

The preliminary study of the related literature indicates that the best practices to eradicate gender discrimination in Brazil include the promotion of equal pay for equal work, the implementation of quotas for women in leadership positions, the provision of parental leave and flexible working arrangements, the promotion of gender-sensitive policies and the implementation of training programs.

However, there are still significant challenges to be addressed, such as the persistence of gender stereotypes and biases, the lack of enforcement mechanisms for gender equality laws, and the underrepresentation of women in high-skilled and high-paying occupations. Hence, further research and policy interventions are needed to achieve gender equality.

Among the gender inequalities mentioned above, some draw attention, such as unequal access to education, employment, and healthcare, as well as high levels of violence against women. Brazil has one of the highest rates of femicide in the world. In the first semester of 2022 alone, 699 women were victims of feminicide, an average of four women per day. This number is 3.2% higher than the total number of deaths registered in the first semester of 2021, when 677 women were murdered .

The country also has a significant gender pay gap, with women earning on average 77% of what men earn . Women are also underrepresented in political and leadership positions, with only 15% of seats in the Brazilian Congress held by women .

To address these challenges, Brazil has implemented various policies and initiatives. These include affirmative action programs to increase the participation of women in politics, as well as efforts to improve access to education and healthcare. Brazil has also implemented legislation to address violence against women, including the Maria da Penha Law, which provides greater protection for women who are victims of domestic violence.

Despite these efforts, significant challenges remain. Implementation of policies to address gender inequality has been inconsistent, and many women still face significant barriers to accessing education, healthcare, and employment. Violence against women remains pervasive, and the gender pay gap persists. Further efforts are needed to ensure that women in Brazil are able to fully participate in all aspects of society and achieve gender equality in line with SDG 5.

The methodology adopted to implement these best practices has been a collaborative effort between government agencies, civil society organizations, and the private sector. The Brazilian government has played a key role in promoting gender equality through the implementation of laws and policies, while civil society organizations have been actively advocating for women's rights and monitoring the implementation of these policies. The private sector has also been involved in promoting gender equality by implementing best practices and participating in public-private partnerships.

The research methodology adopted consists of a literature review of scholarly articles, reports, and official documents related to gender equality policies and practices in Brazil. The justification for this study is the persistent gender gap in the Brazilian labor market, which has a negative impact on the country's economic growth and social development.

Smart societies and industry 5.0 are policies promoted by the European Union as an economic and societal step changes relying on collection of countless real-time data generated by a digitalized environment known as the Internet of Things. These policies should make foundation for the Green policy goals in particular green energy generation, shift to green transport and overall net zero CO2 emission of future fully digitalised societies.

The implementation of Smart and Green polices is dependent on the Digital policy, primarily suitable fixed and mobile communications networks for high capacity and instant transfer of data i.e. enabling use cases like smart factories, telemedicine or driverless vehicles supported all by machine learning software mostly known under the notion of artificial intelligence.

One of the enduring issues in Digital policy is who will bear the cost associated with the deployment of very high capacity networks (VHCN) in EU member states. Traditionally, telecom operators deploy infrastructure and networks, but this time EU funds and state aid are needed since Digital policy has a very ambitious agenda. The initial idea of liberalisation was to open telecom services from former monopolies to competition in order to achieve greater innovation and value for money to consumers. The arrival of competitors has in some cases diminished the incomes of incumbent operators slowing their investments in VHCN networks. Competitors have built their own networks or used incumbents’ networks based on wholesale offers.

Along, new digital markets have emerged in the internet ecosystem, content and application providers search engines, social networking, video-sharing services (CAP) at the same time online platform gatekeepers, are feeding large contents that end users demand, and the telecoms as internet service providers (ISP) connect end users to the internet from their homes, offices or mobile devices. Large ISP argue that growing internet traffic creates a cost burden on ISP, which is unsustainable since CAP are benefiting from the network without investing in network infrastructure. Accordingly, ISP call for policy makers to mandate that CAP pay ISP network usage fees that would be based on the amount of traffic delivered to end users. Meanwhile, EU wishes to scale up the number of its one start-ups in information technology, build its future on artificial intelligence, blockchain technologies and supercomputers and thus catch up with competitors from China, Japan or the United States.

The paper will attempt to present challenges faced by the EU and by Member States’ market regulators in a bid to harmonise digital policy goals with competition policy goals. In other words, boosting efficient investments by telecoms in VHCN networks should not be to the detriment of competitive telecom markets taking them back to mono/oligopolistic structures. The paper will also attempt to look at the readiness of market regulators to deal with regulatory challenges stemming out from regulating digital markets and online platform gatekeepers and generally the use of artificial intelligence by firms on the market.

Note: This paper was inspired by my teaching of a MPP-level Digital Governance course that I created. We discuss the policy implications of blockchain, AI, algorithmic governance, and so on. However, in our last topic of the semester (quantum computing), I found no articles specific to the implications of quantum for public policymakers and administrators. Where articles mentioned "policy" they were often ill-reflective of our disciplinary literatures -- both public policy and public administration and instead, were often written by engineers, IT scholars, telecommunications scholars, and/or physicists. This is an opportunity for our discipline.

Abstract: Quantum information sciences, a discipline which includes quantum computing, quantum communication, quantum sensing, and quantum cryptography, is producing outputs with significant potential to re-write public policy and relations among the public sector, the private sector, and citizens.

Unlike current and prior policy and public administration scholarship on e-government, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic governance, the quantum revolution is not just another new idea. Each of the prior literatures have a similar hardware foundation: the modern computer. Quantum computing and its topical off-shoots replace that hardware foundation. The implications are enormous. One of the first is that prior information – whether held my individuals, governments, or private actors – which had previously been assumed to be secure (via anti-virus programs, organization-specific cybersecurity, and so on) is no longer automatically secure.

By its vary nature, quantum computing re-writes what had been presumed secure. This includes government databases, health records information, financial and economic models and their related Ministries, environmental information, and so on. It is includes the algorithms behind blockchain and AI. The most notorious of the real fears by multiple governments is that currently secure intelligence, defense, and foreign policy information suddenly becomes accessible. This moment of accessibility, colloquially understood as “Q Day” in government technology circles, is close at hand.

With a QDay expected to arrive within the decade, how can our public policy and public administration discipline respond? This paper starts to answer this question. The paper starts by briefly providing a ‘common man’ description (aka eliminating its math and physics heaviness for a public administration audience) of our quantum future and sharing its potential applications in fields as diverse as health, education, and environment to space, e-governance, communications, and chemistry.

This is followed by the ‘heart’ of the paper. That is, re-configuring the “big questions” of public administration, public policy, and e-governance for the quantum era. This will include reflections on ethics, privacy (personal, government), on diversity/equity/inclusion, and on how public policy is created and administered in a quantum era.

For more information, see: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckbrooks/2023/01/19/quantum-tech-needed-to-secure-critical-data-from-quantum-decryption/?sh=7126a9691fba

Context, object, research problem and goal: This work is configured as a case study analysis about a public policy innovation promoted by the Federal Government of Brazil: the tool called “PIX”, online, in real-time, to transfer payments of all nature from persons and enterprises, credit card and private and public documents, increasing the competitiveness, created in November, 2020 (Brazil, 2022). Brazil corresponds to the second bigger economy in America Continent, has the most market customer size and has the most attraction of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Latin America (USA, 2021). The research problem includes the use of that tool in the society and the goal is to analyze the economic and social impact of it in the years 2020 and 2021.

Assumption: the potential amplitude of the PIX inside the populational extracts of the more vulnerable social nature is of hight / medium effect, which is characterized as an informal task force and micro-entrepreneur; within the less vulnerable, the effect is small.

Research methodology and data: empirical nature; qualitative and quantitative; documental, case study; official documents of the Central Bank of Brazil.

Results: According to The Central Bank of Brazil: 1. the tool represents a public policy for all the Brazilians; 2. in the primer year of the dissemination of PIX in the Brazilian society, there was: 2.1. the financial inclusion of 45,6 million of persons and the filter of universal inclusion was of 52% during march to October 2021, and selecting the vulnerable public, in the same time, of 131%; 3.inside the people registered in the public data of the very poor persons, called “Cadastro Unico”, the use was of 35%, and within the in the social program “Bolsa Família”, which focuses the prevention of extreme poor situation, the use was of 25% of the users (Brazil, 2021).

Discussion:  the tool created has the potential to take “power” of the bigger banks in Brazil, analyzing the expensive tax on money transfers and the bureaucracy needed to open a bank account, and to democratize the flux of payments in this country, improving the Brazilian economy and the Latin America Gross domestic product (GDP). The proportional utilization of the tool is bigger among the more poor people, which demonstrate that, among the more riche groups, the use of traditional ways of payments, paying taxes to banks, is higher.

 Author  profile: she is a Policy Maker in Brazil and finishing her PhD;  was a former Consultant of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Brasília, Professor at the University of Costa Rica (UCR) and Trade Supervisor Global Operation (TSGO) Brazil Sub Region Manager in an international enterprise placed in the Free Zone / Industrial Park in Costa Rica. She is a researcher of the competitiveness of National States and at subnational level, Foreign Direct Investments (FDI),  policy cycle, public administration  and of civil society.

Digital transformation has become a buzzword in the public sector. Digital transformation in the public sector entails integration of digital technologies in every aspect of the public sector. While extensive literature has been written on digital transformation, limited attention has been paid to factors impeding inclusive digital transformation and the potential of digital transformation to foster inclusive development, particularly in emerging economies. Yet, it has been observed that inclusive digital transformation may play a significant role in the realisation of sustainable development goals. Employing the United Nations’ conceptualisation of inclusive digital transformation, this article examines the challenges and prospects of digital transformation. Drawing from case studies and extensive literature the article highlights that digital transformation may exacerbate inequalities if it does not foster digital inclusion. The digital divide, digital literacy, privacy and security are some of the teething challenges to be confronted by the public sector in its quest for digital transformation. Moreover, digital transformation may facilitate digital authoritarianism and threaten democratisation in some instances. However, inclusive digital transformation may accelerate the efficiency and effectives of the public sector, increase agility and enrich citizen experience through digitalizing citizen participation and co-creation. Given the challenges and potential which digital transformation has, it is important for Governments, particularly in emerging economies to invest in digital infrastructure to facilitate digital inclusion and digital literacy for inclusive digital infrastructure to realise its full potential and overcome the teething challenges highlighted in this article.

Digital transformation changes the nature of public sector occupations, eliminating many tasks and some occupations. What is the likely magnitude and distribution of such disruptions? The answer to this question is key to planning civil service responses to large-scale digitally oriented institutional reforms, which are increasing throughout the world. Existing methodologies designed to measure the automation potential of occupations are ill-equipped for such an estimation, as they tend to be outdated concerning recent technological developments, based on experts’ opinions with unverifiable knowledge of the occupations assessed and/or not designed specifically for public sector contexts. Our measurement, the Automation Potential Index (API), attempts to address these shortcomings. We designed a survey-based tool based on a series of expert consultations, cognitive interviews, and in-depth semi-structured interviews that are up to date regarding technological progress, tailored to the context of the civil service, and gathers granular information on occupations directly from incumbents. Over 14,000 Chilean public servants answered the survey. We show that the survey-based API effectively reflects an occupation’s automation potential through comparisons with estimates from alternative methods, other characteristics of occupations measured in the survey, and other estimates previously documented in the automation literature. Implications for further research are discussed.

Patterns and influence of state-third sector partnership, which refers to the involvement of third sector organizations in public service delivery are well-documented. State-third sector partnership may take varied forms, including contract-based, collaboration-based as well as form that is based on relational contractual or granting frameworks. Notably, on-the-ground implementation of partnerships relying on relational types of contracts and grants is increasingly recognized as promising middle path but is still understudied. To better understand the ways through which partnership between government and third-sector organizations is exercised with reliance on relational contracts and grants, this study considers a street-level perspective, that is, looking into the day-to-day decisions, activities, and practices through which a public service is directly delivered on the ground to policy clients, termed here as street-level partnership. Based on comparative analysis of eight social services for families in risk in Croatia, study uncovers that the middle path that combines contracts with trust by relying on relational types of contracts and grants is not only already here, but it even has distinctive modalities in practice. Analysis of data collected through focus groups, interviews, and member checking workshops with over 100 actors engaged in the provision of various services for families in risk has uncovered that the nature of state-third sector partnership for the provision of complex services, in a policy setting qualified with state’s necessity for collaboration, tends to unfold toward hybrid modes that are shaped and calibrated at the direct level. Study identifies four different patterns of street-level partnering between government and third-sector organizations, distinguished key mechanism that frames funding of the service and relationship between partners (subcontract vs. grant), and whether direct-delivery practices are established or informal. Closer look at four modes further illuminates that the assessment of results of state-third sector collaboration should acknowledge the innate features of partnerships’ modes.

This article is relevant to the study group by focusing on fluid forms of collaboration. The care professionals is this study seek new, innovative ways of collaborating across professional domains and across organizations to be able to care for clients with combined problems.

In caring for clients with combined problems, various types of professionals are encouraged to work together in new ways to offer their different contributions (Petrakou 2009, Bosch and Mansell 2015, Schot, Tummers et al. 2020). Collaboration is often fluid and professionals are expected to go outside to seek other professionals and organizations to solve complex problems (Morgan, Pullon et al. 2015). This type of collaboration is not institutionalized, therefore, it may be hard to develop routines compared to fixed teams. Knowledge about how frontline professionals work together in noninstitutionalized forms of fluid collaboration is lacking (Schot, Tummers et al. 2020, Bakken and van der Wel 2022). This article addresses this gap by studying how professionals from various disciplines work together in fluid collaborative contexts when caring for clients with combined problems (Croker, Trede et al. 2012, Schot, Tummers et al. 2020). To this end, this empirical research has an iterative design and uses longitudinal qualitative observations and various types of interviews in studying these hard to grasp contexts (Kerrissey, Satterstrom et al. 2020). In the analysis, elements of interprofessional collaboration in healthcare (a.o. bridging gaps, creating spaces) identified by Schot and colleagues (2020) are used as sensitizing concepts to grasp whether and how these or other elements are present in fluid interprofessional contexts. The results report on how these collaborative mechanisms are visible in the three empirical contexts of general practice, mental healthcare and social welfare in the Dutch city of the Hague.

This paper uses the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina to examine international intervention in policy and statebuilding in post-conflict contexts, and to challenge the existing dichotomy of international actors’ presence. It does so by exploring the cases of the Central Election Commission, which international actors left two decades ago, and the Constitutional Court, where international actors remain to this day. This outcome is puzzling as the original goal of interventions was to help build state institutions in the aftermath of the war and thereafter hand them over to local agents. In that sense, the success of intervention is measured by the exit of international actors and its transition to local agents. Rather than looking at these cases simply as discretionary decisions by the international actors, I offer a more nuanced exploration of cross-sectional exit, by presenting an innovative analytical framework, which looks at both the supply of (actors intervening), and demand (local agencies) for international intervention. By doing so, I offer a causal explanation of variation in the speed and nature of international withdrawal. However, in order to look at the interrelationship between supply and demand, I argue that we need to disaggregate the two sides of the equation, and look at them within the dynamics of each category. Using Bosnia and Herzegovina as my case study, I challenge the notion of local agency being unified and demonstrate that the local actors can have diverging and contradictory interests; I demonstrate that different local agencies developed dissimilar relations and collaborations with the involved international actors, which led to different on the ground solutions. The research included a two-month posting in Sarajevo, BIH; where +20 interviews with relevant stakeholders were conducted. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate the individual complexities and interdependencies of domestic and international actors in the initiation and perpetuation of international intervention, and to show how this shapes international intervention and the exit of international actors.