Jacob Torfing

Governance has become one of the most commonly used concepts in contemporary political science. It is, however, often used to mean a variety of different things. This book helps to clarify this conceptual muddle by concentrating on one variety of governance-interactive governance. The authors argue that although the state may remain important for many aspects of governing, interactions between state and society represent an important, and perhaps increasingly important, dimension of governance. These interactions may be with social actors such as networks, with market actors or with other governments, but all these forms represent means of governing involving mixtures of state action with the actions of other entities.This book explores thoroughly this meaning of governance, and links it to broader questions of governance. In the process of explicating this dimension of governance the authors also explore some of the more fundamental questions about governance theory. For example, although governance is talked about a great deal political science has done relatively little about how to measure this concept. Likewise, the term multi-level governance has become widely used but its important to understand that idea more fully and see how it functions in the context of interactive forms of governance. The authors also link governance to some very fundamental questions in political science and the social sciences more broadly. How is power exercised in interactive governance? How democratic is interactive governance, and is democratic governance always advanced through transparency?

In this innovative book, Jacob Torfing, a leading scholar of the field, critically evaluates emerging ideas, practices and institutions that are transforming how public governance is perceived, theorised and conducted in practice.Identifying cutting-edge developments in public governance, this incisive book analyses new forms of political leadership, public management, public organisation, administrative steering, cross-boundary collaboration, public regulation and societal problem-solving. Examining some of the most significant instances of public governance transformation, chapters explore the effects of transformations from sovereign to interactive political leadership, from national to multi-level governance, and from hard to soft power. With a novel focus on the production of innovative public value outcomes, the book considers how these developments interact with and are influenced by new digital technologies and increasing globalisation. Torfing concludes with a reflection on how best to comprehend, study and take advantage of current and future transformations in public governance.A novel rethinking of how current societies are governed, this book will inspire students, scholars and practitioners of political science, public policy, regulation and governance, and public administration management to reconsider how public governance and administration may be organised in the future to present innovative solutions to societal problems.

This Element aims to build, promote, and consolidate a new social science research agenda by defining and exploring the concepts of turbulence and robustness, and subsequently demonstrating the need for robust governance in turbulent times. Turbulence refers to the unpredictable dynamics that public governance is currently facing in the wake of the financial crisis, the refugee crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, the inflation crisis etc. The heightened societal turbulence calls for robust governance aiming to maintain core functions, goals and values by means of flexibly adapting and proactively innovating the modus operandi of the public sector. This Element identifies a broad repertoire of robustness strategies that public governors may use and combine to respond robustly to turbulence. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

This Element aims to build, promote, and consolidate a new social science research agenda by defining and exploring the concepts of turbulence and robustness, and subsequently demonstrating the need for robust governance in turbulent times. Turbulence refers to the unpredictable dynamics that public governance is currently facing in the wake of the financial crisis, the refugee crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, the inflation crisis etc. The heightened societal turbulence calls for robust governance aiming to maintain core functions, goals and values by means of flexibly adapting and proactively innovating the modus operandi of the public sector. This Element identifies a broad repertoire of robustness strategies that public governors may use and combine to respond robustly to turbulence. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary.This incisive Research Agenda for Governance draws together unique contributions from leading scholars to examine the two distinct models of governance: the traditional model, based on the state and exercise of control through law and bureaucracy, and an alternative model centred on the collaboration of public and private sector actors.Introducing the essential principles and rationale of these alternative models of governance, both of which can be seen operating at all levels of government in democratic as well as non-democratic regimes, the chapters evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the two systems. Drawing conclusions from critical areas of inquiry, including multi-level governance, the nature of governance in democratic and authoritarian regimes, and digital innovations in governance, the book offers a richly detailed insight into the respective workings of the models of governing by control and by collaboration.This Research Agenda will be an invaluable resource for academics and graduate students of public policy, regulation and governance, and public administration management. Its measured consideration of the possibilities for enhancing public innovation via alternative models of governance will also be of significant interest to employees within the public sector.

We need new governance solutions to help us improve public policies and services, solve complex societal problems, strengthen social communities and reinvigorate democracy. By changing how government engages with citizens and stakeholders, co-creation provides an attractive and feasible approach to governance that goes beyond the triptych of public bureaucracy, private markets and self-organized communities. Inspired by the successful use of co-creation for product and service design, this book outlines a broad vision of co-creation as a strategy of public governance. Through the construction of platforms and arenas to facilitate co-creation, this strategy can empower local communities, enhance broad-based participation, mobilize societal resources and spur public innovation while building ownership for bold solutions to pressing problems and challenges. The book details how to use co-creation to achieve goals. This exciting and innovative study combines theoretical argument with illustrative empirical examples, visionary thinking and practical recommendations.

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set an ambitious agenda for global problem-solving and create a framework to achieve it through the power of partnerships. Goal 17 points to the central importance of partnerships, networks, and multi-stakeholder collaborations for bringing together a broad range of actors to accomplish the first 16 goals. Only through such partnerships can the distributed knowledge, resources and capacity of government agencies, private enterprises, political activists, local communities, and international NGOs be effectively combined to produce the major breakthroughs in sustainability that the SDGs envision. Co-Creation for Sustainability sets out a strategy of partnership, with an emphasis on how global goals can be translated into local action. Co-creation brings multiple parties together—including citizens—to collaboratively engage in innovative problem-solving. The book explains this strategy and describes how to foster the conditions necessary for its success. It details how leaders can spur co-creation and manage and overcome its practical challenges. Written to inspire public and private changemakers to find fundamental solutions to the pressing challenges that confront our social and natural environment, Co-creation for Sustainability: The UN SDGs and the Power of Partnerships provides intellectual resources and practical advice relevant for those who aspire to harness the talents, energy and perspectives of different sectors to build the momentum we need to realize a sustainable future.

Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary.This incisive Research Agenda for Governance draws together unique contributions from leading scholars to examine the two distinct models of governance: the traditional model, based on the state and exercise of control through law and bureaucracy, and an alternative model centred on the collaboration of public and private sector actors.Introducing the essential principles and rationale of these alternative models of governance, both of which can be seen operating at all levels of government in democratic as well as non-democratic regimes, the chapters evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the two systems. Drawing conclusions from critical areas of inquiry, including multi-level governance, the nature of governance in democratic and authoritarian regimes, and digital innovations in governance, the book offers a richly detailed insight into the respective workings of the models of governing by control and by collaboration.This Research Agenda will be an invaluable resource for academics and graduate students of public policy, regulation and governance, and public administration management. Its measured consideration of the possibilities for enhancing public innovation via alternative models of governance will also be of significant interest to employees within the public sector.

The thoroughly revised and updated Handbook on Theories of Governance brings together leading scholars in the field to summarise and assess the diversity of governance theories. The Handbook advances a deeper theoretical understanding of governance processes, illuminating the interdisciplinary foundations of the field.

This enlightening book scrutinizes the shifting and overlapping governance paradigms that inform public administration reforms. Exploring the models that shape and reshape the daily operation of public organizations, it explains the core features of public bureaucracy and professional rule in the modern day. From the rise to supremacy of New Public Management to the growing preference for alternatives, such as Digital Era Governance, Public Value Management and New Public Governance, four world-renowned authors launch a powerful and systematic comparison of the competing and co-existing paradigms. Advancing the 'public governance diamond' as a critical tool for comparing the core features of governance paradigms, this insightful book discusses the underlying behavioural assumptions of these models and the challenges faced by leaders when managing in a public sector. Informed by both key theory and empirical analysis, this book will be crucial reading for students and researchers seeking an authoritative voice on competing and co-existing modes of governance. Public leaders and managers, as well as public employees, will also benefit from its insights into the varying and multifaceted dynamics of public governance.

We need new governance solutions to help us improve public policies and services, solve complex societal problems, strengthen social communities and reinvigorate democracy. By changing how government engages with citizens and stakeholders, co-creation provides an attractive and feasible approach to governance that goes beyond the triptych of public bureaucracy, private markets and self-organized communities. Inspired by the successful use of co-creation for product and service design, this book outlines a broad vision of co-creation as a strategy of public governance. Through the construction of platforms and arenas to facilitate co-creation, this strategy can empower local communities, enhance broad-based participation, mobilize societal resources and spur public innovation while building ownership for bold solutions to pressing problems and challenges. The book details how to use co-creation to achieve goals. This exciting and innovative study combines theoretical argument with illustrative empirical examples, visionary thinking and practical recommendations.

Bøgerne er en indføring i de forskellige samfundsteoretiske traditioner, og de dertil knyttede begreber. Her foreligger nu en revideret 6. udgave. I 6. udgaven af Klassisk og moderne samfundsteori er alle kapitler revideret og opdateret. Det gælder både i forhold til ny litteratur og nye teoribrydninger. Yderligere er seks helt nye kapitler blevet tilføjet. Alle bogens kapitler er derudover blevet beriget med refleksionsspørgsmål til brug for læseren; studerende såvel som undervisere, så bogen er nem at anvende hjemme og i undervisning. I bogens første del er hovedvægten lagt på samfundsteorier, der er udviklet fra og med nationalstatens konsolidering og industrialismens og kapitalismens gennembrud i 1800-tallet – dvs. teorier, som findes hos bl.a. Karl Marx, Herbert Spencer, Émile Durkheim, Max Weber og Georg Simmel. I anden del sættes der fokus på teorier, som har præget udviklingen frem til i dag – bl.a. sociologiske tænkere som Jürgen Habermas, Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, Niklas Luhmann, Anthony Giddens, Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck, Axel Honneth og Bruno Latour samt mere tværgående teoribygninger som diskursanalyse, fænomenologi, relationel teori, pragmatisme, neoinstitutionalisme og rational choice-teori. Endelig sætter bogens tredje del fokus på centrale samfundsteoretiske temaer såsom medborgerskab, stat, migration og køn. En fyldig litteraturliste, der medtager både originalværker, skandinaviske oversættelser og den vigtigste sekundære litteratur på området, suppleret med et omfattende navne- og emneregister gør bogen anvendelig som opslagsværk og som redskab til litteratursøgning. Klassisk og moderne samfundsteori er skrevet af danske, norske og svenske sociologer med undtagelse af et enkelt kapitel forfattet af en amerikansk sociolog.

This enlightening book scrutinizes the shifting and overlapping governance paradigms that inform public administration reforms. Exploring the models that shape and reshape the daily operation of public organizations, it explains the core features of public bureaucracy and professional rule in the modern day. From the rise to supremacy of New Public Management to the growing preference for alternatives, such as Digital Era Governance, Public Value Management and New Public Governance, four world-renowned authors launch a powerful and systematic comparison of the competing and co-existing paradigms. Advancing the 'public governance diamond' as a critical tool for comparing the core features of governance paradigms, this insightful book discusses the underlying behavioural assumptions of these models and the challenges faced by leaders when managing in a public sector. Informed by both key theory and empirical analysis, this book will be crucial reading for students and researchers seeking an authoritative voice on competing and co-existing modes of governance. Public leaders and managers, as well as public employees, will also benefit from its insights into the varying and multifaceted dynamics of public governance.

Forvaltning og stat søger først og fremmest at bibringe et solidt indblik i, hvordan den offentlige forvaltning er organiseret, og hvordan politiske beslutninger bliver til og omsættes til konkrete handlinger. Men bogen giver også nogle bud på centrale teoretiske vinkler og diskussioner, som søger at forstå og forklare, fx hvorfor forvaltning er organiseret, som den er, hvilken betydning denne organisering har for demokratiet og samspillet mellem politikere, administratorer og borgere, og hvorfor det ofte er svært at skabe store forandringer i forvaltningen. Denne 6. udgave af Forvaltning og stat har, ligesom de forrige udgaver, det formål at give en generel introduktion til den offentlige forvaltnings organisation og beslutningsprocesser. Udgangspunktet er Danmark, men der trækkes også på erfaringer fra andre lande. Målgruppen for bogen er studerende i statskundskab og forvaltning, men bogen er også relevant for diverse masteruddannelser inden for offentlig administration og ledelse. Mens Peter Bogason var ene om at skrive de fem første udgaver, er der nu kommet tre nye forfattere med. I den forbindelse er der også foretaget en række væsentlige ændringer i bogen, hvor den største er, at politikerne og de politiske partiers rolle for forvaltningen nu behandles udførligt i et særskilt kapitel. Desuden er der foretaget omstrukturering og redigering af andre kapitler. Endelig er bogen opdateret på væsentlige nye forvaltningsreformer og politiske begivenheder.

New Public Governance gør det muligt at skabe offentlig værdi på nye måder. Men NPG er ingen trylledrik, der fra den ene dag til den anden skaber balance mellem borgernes store forventninger og en trængt økonomi. Og når NPG skal fungere side om side med de gamle styringsparadigmer, New Public Management og bureaukratiet, opstår der tit dilemmaer. New Public Governance på dansk er den første introduktion til NPG på dansk. Bogen giver bud på, hvordan tankerne i NPG kan omsættes til konkrete former for styring og ledelse i den offentlige sektor, og udfolder og diskuterer gevinsterne og begrænsningerne ved NPG i forhold til en lang række opgaver og udfordringer. Blandt de emner, der bliver behandlet, er politiker- og embedsmandsroller, ledelse, borgerinddragelse og samskabelse, samspillet mellem offentlige og private aktører, behovet for kontrol og retlige forhold som ansvarsplacering. Bogen er skrevet i et klart og tilgængeligt sprog og henvender sig til forskere såvel som studerende og praktikere.

Governments worldwide struggle to remove policy deadlocks and enact much needed reforms in organizational structure and public services. In this book, Jacob Torfing explores collaborative innovation as a way for public and private stakeholders to break the impasse.Torfing draws on his own pioneering work in Europe as well as examples from the United States and Australia to construct a cross-disciplinary framework for studying collaborative innovation. The result is a theoretically and empirically informed book that carefully demonstrates how multi-actor collaboration can enhance public innovation in the face of fiscal constraint, the proliferation of wicked problems, and the presence of unsatisfied social needs

Governments worldwide struggle to remove policy deadlocks and enact much-needed reforms in organizational structure and public services. In this book, Jacob Torfing explores collaborative innovation as a way for public and private stakeholders to break the impasse. These network-based collaborations promise to multiply the skills, ideas, energy, and resources between government and its partners across agency boundaries and in the nonprofit and private sectors. Torfing draws on his own pioneering work in Europe as well as examples from the United States and Australia to construct a cross-disciplinary framework for studying collaborative innovation. His analysis explores its complex and interactive processes as he looks at how drivers and barriers may enhance or impede the collaborative approach. He also reflects on the roles institutional design, public management, and governance reform play in spurring collaboration for public sector innovation.The result is a theoretically and empirically informed book that carefully demonstrates how multi-actor collaboration can enhance public innovation in the face of fiscal constraint, the proliferation of wicked problems, and the presence of unsatisfied social needs.

Governments worldwide struggle to remove policy deadlocks and enact much-needed reforms in organizational structure and public services. In this book, Jacob Torfing explores collaborative innovation as a way for public and private stakeholders to break the impasse. These network-based collaborations promise to multiply the skills, ideas, energy, and resources between government and its partners across agency boundaries and in the nonprofit and private sectors. Torfing draws on his own pioneering work in Europe as well as examples from the United States and Australia to construct a cross-disciplinary framework for studying collaborative innovation. His analysis explores its complex and interactive processes as he looks at how drivers and barriers may enhance or impede the collaborative approach. He also reflects on the roles institutional design, public management, and governance reform play in spurring collaboration for public sector innovation.The result is a theoretically and empirically informed book that carefully demonstrates how multi-actor collaboration can enhance public innovation in the face of fiscal constraint, the proliferation of wicked problems, and the presence of unsatisfied social needs.

"Politik og administration" er en lærebog i offentlige forvaltning, der forener klassiske forvaltningstudier og politologi med nyere forståelser af bl.a. innovation og samproduktion i den offentlige sektor. Bogen giver en deskriptiv indføring i forvaltningens mange facetter, men har samtidig en teoretiske dimension, hvor centrale teorier gennemgås, og kernebegreber operationaliseres for at give en mere nuanceret forståelse af forvaltningens mange sammenhænge og udfordringer.