This article shows the relevance of Burawoy’s analytical categories on the division of scientific labour to analyse the interactions between science and practice. It argues that social scientists need to combine the roles of expert witness, social engineer and storyteller in order to develop a productive relationship with policy makers. It also emphasises the relevance of a permanent dialogue between social scientists and policy makers. However, the analysis disagrees with Burawoy’s view that knowledge is based on a consensus between scientists and their publics (consensual knowledge). Burawoy underestimates the risk of a politicisation of science inherent to a close relationship with various ‘publics’. The arguments presented in this article are based on the reception of a research project on labour migration from Central and Eastern Europe. This was a hybrid research project in which different actors participated: the Erasmus University, nine Dutch municipalities, the national government and a Dutch knowledge center on urban issues.

Forty years ago, Dutch Public Administration started as an independent academic discipline. The founding fathers considered empirical application and multidisciplinarity the most important characteristics of public administration. This article assesses the current state of the discipline in the Netherlands. The assessment is the result of a series of five debates throughout the country, focussing on different elements of the Public Administration discipline: education, academic research, consultancy and policy advice. In brief, the article argues that the discipline has reached maturity in these forty years. It has become an accepted academic discipline, on the verge of a mono-discipline. The Netherlands is considered as one of the leading countries in public administration research. However, these successes also create a gap between public administration as a successful academic discipline and its roots as a multi-disciplinary, applied science. Renewing the balance between these two will be the main challenge for the decades to come.

A transition to a bio based economy requires social and technological innovations. Transition management theory holds that these innovations take place in niches that can bring about structural change in society, politics and the economy in a stepwise manner. However, these innovations are always subjected to systemic barriers, such as regulations and institutional structures, that need to be overcome. This was also the case in a consortium of government, industry and eco-toxicologists that collaboratively developed innovative water monitoring tools. In this contribution the authors investigate how systemic barriers can be made productive in a science-society dialogue by creating reflexivity and learning. They conducted a frame analysis of interviews and policy documents to unravel systemic barriers to innovation – in the form of discursive boundary work: the routinized demarcations of practices. Second, they experimented with a science-society dialogue to reflect on these routinized demarcations and develop alternatives to overcome these boundaries. The research demonstrates that reflective conversations occurred and that participants developed a boundary concept of ‘living water’ that enhanced their innovative collaboration and technology.

Co-production is regarded as a way to actively involve vulnerable citizens with public service delivery. However, there are several critical aspects that may lead to the unexpected exclusion of this group by public organizations, which have been insufficiently addressed hitherto. On the basis of a dissertation research, these critical aspects are analyzed for three phases of co-production. In the first phase, self-selection and organizational selection may lead to the exclusion of vulnerable citizens. In the second phase, a lack of commitment of the user and organizational support increase the chance of early discontinuation of co-production by vulnerable citizens. Finally, in the evaluation phase, it is likely that disadvantaged citizens attribute potential success of co-production to themselves and do not reward the public service provider for this. This has the possible consequence that there is no recognition for the added value of co-production, which may lead to less co-production that involves vulnerable citizens in the future.

On a regular basis, the funding of football stadiums is an issue for large cities. Since football clubs appeal to the municipality for financial support, this is a public matter. Why should a municipality invest in a private project, such as a football stadium? What are the opportunities and risks? What is the public value of a stadium for the city? Based on literature reviews and case studies in Eindhoven and Amsterdam, this article examines what government involvement in stadium projects means, and what the outcomes of this involvement are. The cases show that stadiums may have social and economic spin-off effects on their surroundings, but one cannot take that for granted. Careful processes and elaborate strategies are needed for public investment in stadiums to really add value to the city. Based on the analyses, an assessment framework is presented for the benefit of new stadium project initiatives.

During the first decades after World War II income policy was an important topic of public debate in the Netherlands. This changed in the eighties and nineties when gross wages were ‘demoralized’ and taken off the political agenda. Income policy was deemed pointless, inefficient, or superfluous. Moreover wages were determined according to technocratic schemes designed by consultancy firms. These schemes encourage employees to compare themselves with people with a comparable education in other organizations rather than with coworkers in their own organization thus fostering a caste mentality.
However, following the financial crisis a cry for remoralization was launched which ended in a new law which determined that civil servants and top administrators in public organizations should never earn more than a government minister (178.000 euros per annum). In this article it is argued that such a partial remoralization of the highest wages in the public sector is unsatisfactory. It is argued that wages at large should be a moral topic for organizations that should explain their reward policy for their highest and lowest employees, thus encouraging workers to see themselves as members of their organization rather than their educational caste. Public administration scholars should play a role in this debate.

In this article we discuss the influence of external policy advisors on the policy process. In the Dutch context, little is known about the role, function and influence of external policy advisors (like consultants) who are hired on a temporary basis by the government. Based on a survey (N = 378) this study provides a profile of external policy advisors and the nature of their advice work. An interesting result is that external advisors generally conduct process-related policy work, but may also provide policy substance. Furthermore, the article develops an empirically and theoretically informed research agenda as a starting point for additional research.

Risks taken by some organizations may have considerable impact on society. In this contribution the assessment and management of risk are perceived to take place in a multi-actor setting. Within an organization operators, risk managers, and top managers interact about risk assessments and risk mitigation strategies. Public regulators and inspectorates increasingly focus on risk management systems instead of the operational activities or organizational outputs. Are organizations systematically assessing their risks? This contribution identifies two contrasting perspectives on risk assessment and risk mitigation in literature: risk management and risk governance. An empirical study in three sectors reveals evidence of both perspectives in practice. Companies adopt hybrid approaches, which are essential for the quality of risk assessment and mitigation. Indeed, adopting just one perspective seems dangerous. We conclude that public regulators and inspectorates might provide incentives to focus on just one perspective and suggest two heuristics for public inspectorates that respect hybrid approaches of risk assessment and mitigation.

Governments throughout the whole world feel the need to cut spending due to the current financial crisis. The Netherlands are no exception in this matter. Top civil servants are up to the task to implement these cutbacks within their own organizations. However, not much is known about what influences their choice for certain implementation strategies. One factor of interest are the values of top civil servants, which are supposed to be influenced by their work experience. This is a relevant factor, since the introduction of New Public Management made it more common for managers from the private sector to reach the higher echelons of government. Top civil servants with different backgrounds and from different Dutch ministries were interviewed for this study. It seems that using across-the-board cuts are present within Dutch ministries, sometimes combined with targeted cuts. Surprisingly, no differences in values and implementation strategies were found between managers with and without experience in the private sector, contrary to expectation. The implementation strategies used seem mainly influenced by values such as soberness and thrift, values which are not present in current public values literature.

In the Netherlands citizens increasingly unite in cooperatives to realize common facilities and services in their neighborhood themselves. Apparently neither markets nor governments succeed in providing all the public goods and services that citizens strive for. Although these forms of self-organization are still young and their success is far from sure, they are seen as sources of social innovation and new ways of organizing that inspire many. Their example is followed widely: cooperatives seem to be rapidly emerging almost everywhere. Yet not much systemic knowledge is available on their nature, drivers, and impacts, nor on the conditions under which they flourish. In this special issue the state of the art regarding these cooperatives is examined in the areas of energy, care, broadband connections and housing. The various contributions show that the main challenge that cooperatives have to deal with is finding the balance between the ambition to preserve their identity as grass root organizations and the need for professionalization. Also they have to learn to build and maintain relationships with other organizations and actors in their environment on which they are dependent: governments, private parties and professionals.

This contribution argues that self-organization is uneven: it emerges more in certain groups, sectors and geographical areas than in others. While the number of cooperatives has increased, their overall impact remains rather limited. Although the government rhetorically embraces cooperatives, in practices it is often hesitant or reluctant to lend support. Politicians are often ‘on a mission’ to promote startup companies and to obtain contracts or competitive advantages for large corporations. What if cooperatives would receive the same kind of support?

Public Administration has been confronted with an emerging body of literature on the subject of social engineering and the limitedness of governing society. At the same time, governance is considered to be more greedy. The aim of this article is to consider the implications of the boundaries of social engineering for Public Administration. This article reflects on these implications as follows. Firstly, this article gives an analysis of the relation between governance, policy and feasibility. Secondly, different definitions of feasibility are developed and related to Public Administration. These elements lead to the conclusion that Public Administration is part of the culture of perfecting. Thirdly, after rejecting fatalism, a new perspective for Public Administration can be found in thinking based on practical rationality.

Currently, in the Netherlands there are about 150 energy co-operatives are actively working on the promotion of energy use reduction and renewable energy production. Among them are 15 experienced wind energy co-operatives that started almost 25 years ago, but the majority started in 2007 or later. Their aim is to mobilize investments in local renewable energy and social projects, and to use the revenues to enhance the local economy and social cohesion. The members of the co-operative become co-owners of the production units and collectively decide about the allocation of the revenues for new energy projects.In practice, new, inexperienced co-operatives in particular have difficulties realizing larger projects like wind turbines and solar parks. Fierce resistance from the local community is hampering wind projects, while limited financial support (i.e. subsidies) is the main obstacle for the realization of solar parks. In our view, it would help Dutch co-operatives if local politicians were to take a clear position on wind energy and act accordingly, and if the Dutch government were to broaden the financial support schemes for cooperatively owned and financed solar parks.

Healthcare cooperatives are not only attractive to citizens, but they also seen by managers as a source of inspiration and as a means to provide care efficiently. This raises the question of how health cooperatives evolve and which relationship with governments is appropriate for them. The aim of this article is examine the state of the art regarding the rise and development of health cooperatives. This development depends on the degree to which health cooperatives are able to overcome cultural, legal and financial obstacles. Health cooperatives seems to be more promising and stable if they succeed in determining their own course, show that they can realize their aims themselves and while learning to work together with others.

In his much praised book on mayors, Benjamin Barber argues it’s up to cities to address the world’s most acute problems. These include wicked problems such as climate change, terrorism, poverty and trafficking of drugs, weapons and humans. Cities are not only excellent problem solvers, they are also given a prominent role in innovation and economics, democracy and citizenship, and more recently domestic care. Complicated, wicked and thus knowledge intensive problems are stacking up at the local level. But where to get the appropriate knowledge to tackle these issues?

Henk de Jong, former chief clerk of the municipality of Amsterdam, spent some years as a management consultant in New York. Back home, he describes what the Netherlands can learn from the American way of managing big cities. Klaartje Peters, professor of Maastricht University, reflects on the lessons he draws.

Worldwide, cities are becoming increasingly important in global networks. The rise of cities and urban regions is widely described in academic literature. Cities are becoming essential players in networks on three scales: on an international scale as a hub in global networks, on a regional scale in partnerships as a consequence of the necessity of upscaling and on a local scale, in cooperation with citizens. This article addresses what this rise of the city, operating in complex networks on different scales, means for the position and tasks of the mayor, as a representative of the city. The article describes the modern challenges for the mayoral function and role in an emerging network society and addresses the growing importance of strong personal and transactional leadership while operating in networks both inside and outside the municipality.

Over the last couple of decades, metropolitan areas around the world have been engaged in a multitude of initiatives aimed at upgrading urban infrastructure and services, in an effort to create better environmental, social and economic conditions and to enhance cities’ attractiveness and competitiveness. Reflecting these developments, many new categories of ‘cities’ have entered the policy discourse: ‘sustainable cities’; ‘green cities’; ‘digital cities’; ‘intelligent cities’; ‘smart cities’; ‘information cities’; ‘knowledge cities’; ‘resilient cities’; ‘eco-cities’; ‘low carbon cities’; ‘liveable cities’; and even combinations, such as ‘low carbon eco-cities’ and ‘ubiquitous eco-cities’. Each of these terms apparently seeks to capture and conceptualize key aspects of ongoing urban sustainability efforts. Closer examination, however, reveals that the terms are often used interchangeably by policy makers, planners and developers alike. In this article we examine the reflection of the wider policy debate in academic discourse. By subjecting the twelve most frequently encountered categories mentioned above to bibliometric analysis, we aim to identify the distinct conceptual perspectives harbored by each of them.

The economic crisis is forcing Dutch government to deliberate decisions that lead to effective public policy.
There seems to be a trend for the involvement of behavioral insights in the policymaking process, in order to achieve more effective public policy. The Government Strategy Board organized several conferences on this topic and the Scientific Council for Government policy researches this subject.
To what extent can behavioral insights be considered a success formula for policy? This article offers a critical consideration from the findings of the thesis ’Two sides of the coin’, that deals with the relationship between the policymaking process and the effectiveness of public policy and makes it clear that behavioral insights are an important condition for successful policy. However, success demands an update of the current dominant scientific perspective on public policy as well as a realistic judgement of the high requirements on policy makers to involve behavioral insights in the policymaking process.

This article examines whether there is a trade-off between publishing articles in international peer reviewed journals vis-à-vis national and professional work among scholars in the administrative and political sciences. A cluster analysis on their publications results in three publishing profiles: a professional profile, an international profile and a traditional profile. The professional profile author publishes a relatively high number of professional publications. The international profile author publishes a relatively high number of international peer-reviewed papers. The traditional author profile is characterized by a lower number of publications and a more balanced distribution of publications in both international and national categories. The profiles showcase that indeed there is a trade-off between publishing international scientific articles and publishing for practitioners, but only to some extent. Furthermore, the profiles are associated with the university where authors are employed and whether they got their Ph.D. at a Dutch university or abroad.