The theme of the Tampere Edition IRSPM conference was “Hybrid futures for public governance and management,” reflecting that, for addressing global management challenges for good governance, it is crucial to understand public management not as detached from private efforts and civic activities, but as resulting from the complex interfaces and interactions between them. The theme of the conference was strongly reflected in the 50 working groups organized during the conference, representing a variety of research areas related to public management. The opportunity to get together for the IRSPM Tampere edition delights Tampere University’s Professor of Administrative Science Jan-Erik Johanson who chaired the scientific committee planning the congress. The IRSPM was initially meant to be organised in Tampere 2020, but it had to be postponed because of COVID-19.
On Tuesday, the keynote speech was delivered by Professor Emeritus Barry Bozeman from Arizona State University. Professor Emeritus Barry Bozeman is a distinguished scholar in the field of public management, known for his theories on public value and dimensional publicness. He discussed methods for communicating research-based knowledge to decision-makers. The presentation highlighted how politicians and civil servants tailor their use of research knowledge to fit their own purposes.
Wednesday’s keynote speech was given by Minister of Local and Regional Government Anna-Kaisa Ikonen. Ikonen has previously worked, among other things, as the Mayor of Tampere and as a Professor of Practice at Tampere University. Minister Ikonen talked about good governance, focusing in particular on the Finnish public governance and management context. She emphasized the importance of partnerships in addressing global and local management challenges.
On Wednesday evening, conference guests gathered at Tampere Hall for the conference Gala Dinner featuring the IRSPM annual awards ceremony. The 2024 IRSPM Rosemary O’Leary Prize was awarded to Sue Williamson, Helen Taylor, and Vindhya Weeratunga for their paper “Working from home during COVID-19: What does this mean for the ideal worker norm?”, published in Gender, Work and Organization in 2023. The 2024 IRSPM Routledge Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Board of Governors Distinguished Professor Norma M. Riccucci from the School of Public Affairs and Administration (SPAA) at Rutgers University–Newark. The award ceremony was followed by the Tampere University Faculty of Management and Business House Band entertaining the winners and guests.
Next years venue for the conference was also announced: IRSPM 2025 will be hosted by the University of Bologna, Italy. International Research Society for Public Management Special Interest Group (SIG) on Governing and Managing Hybridity organizes, during the conference, panel on hybridity. If you are interested in joining us in Bologna next year, follow our news section and IRSPM home page for more information and dates for abstract submission and conference registration.