Being a fragmented and dynamic scholarly field, public administration has surprisingly overlooked the spatial dimension. We argue that the study of public administration may substantially benefit from including a spatial dimension in models aimed at understanding political-administrative processes. This paper offers an explorative study of the role of the physical or spatial dimension in current public administration theory and research. First, we outline what we mean by the term “spatial dimension”, leaning on organization theory and spatial economy. Second, we conduct an explorative scoping literature review on the spatial dimension in public administration theory and research. This is done in two sub-sections, one scrutinizing a selection of “classic” texts in public administration, and another conducting a systematic review of empirical studies in major public administration journals. From this review, we outline both the status of the spatial dimension in public administration research as well as suggesting paths for future studies.

Administrative traditions (Painter and Peters 2010; Kuhlmann and Wollmann 2014; Peters 2021) are a prominent attempt to classify public administration systems across countries. They have been used widely to explain variation in the uptake and success of administrative reforms or variation in administrative practices. Recent studies found that countries with different administrative traditions varied significantly in their reactions to Covid-19 (Bouckaert et al. 2020; Jugl 2022). Despite this central role in PA, the concept of administrative traditions has its limitations; in particular there is a lack of consensus on the central dimensions of administrative traditions. To substantiate this diagnosis and to lay ground for future concept development, the goal of this first systematic review on the topic is to take stock of how the concept of AT is understood and used in the PA literature. First, I present the results of a systematic literature review: How have administrative traditions been used, conceptualized, and measured in the public administration literature of the last 25 years? Which dimensions of administrative traditions are most relevant in comparative PA research? Second, based on this systematic review, I identify best practices and formulate recommendations for different usages of the concept in empirical studies. These recommendations can help scholars to achieve a thorough understanding and rigorous empirical use of AT and to communicate their reasoning clearly to readers. The recommendations can also serve as guidelines for reviewers and, if applied systematically, they can help PA scholarship achieve more robust insights about AT.

Public sector management are believed to be influenced by the vagaries of fashionable reform ideas. Although there is a well-developed literature on related topics such as policy diffusion, isomorphism and innovation, however, rarely have the causes, manifestations and consequences of fashions in public administration received close attention. In contrast, for several decades, organization and management scholars have identified the rise and fall of fashionable management ideas in business, and interrogated these processes theoretically and empirically to a far greater extent. We review this literature to determine its relevance and implications for fashions in the public sector, focusing on conceptualization, theoretical explanations and empirical evidence.

Transboundary crises have become an important topic of interest in the field of public administration (Boin & Lodge, 2016). This is hardly surprising, since recent transboundary crises have proved to be exceptionally tough governance challenges (e.g., euro crisis, covid-19). While transboundary crises are high on the agenda of practitioners (Hornis & Steur, 2023) and public administration scholars (this year’s EGPA theme) alike, the phenomenon is conceptually underdeveloped and it has not yet been mapped systematically. This research project aims to change that by developing an inventory of European transboundary crisis.

References

Boin, A., & Lodge, M. (2016). Designing Resilient Institutions for Transboundary Crisis Management: A Time for Public Administration. Public Administration, 94(2), 289-298. https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12264

Hornis, W., & Steur, B. (2023). Crisis in de Polder: Handelingsperspectieven voor een overheid in permanente crisismodus. Retrieved from https://www.kennisopenbaarbestuur.nl/binaries/kennisbankopenbaarbestuur/documenten/publicaties/2023/04/26/index/Verkenning+Crisis+in+de+Polder.pdf