ESRC Research Seminar Series:

The New Regional Management: a consequence of multi-level governance and meta-governance?

Organisers: Leslie Budd OpenUniversityBusinessSchool

Jose Kelly; AstonUniversity

Joyce Liddle:University of Nottingham

Andy Pike:University of Newcastle

Background to the Series

In contemporary academic and policy circles, the apparent decline of formal government and “hollowing-out of the state” in the leading economies has generated debates and literature around the rise of multi-level governance, particularly within the European Union. The development of manifold governance structures and institutions, at devolved and decentralised levels, is being examined by many through the concept of meta-governance.

An investigation of the shift from formal public administration of government to meta-governance of institutions and networks of governance brings together a number of different disciplinary perspectives and literatures and the establishment of a new field of enquiry: the New Regional Management.

The New Regional Management (NRM) is derived from the New Public Management (NPM) and its literature. The language of NPM lends itself to a decentralised investigation and one that operates on a spatial scale, because of the stress on the utility of market and quasi-market mechanisms. The vocabulary of NPM includes, ‘marketisation’; ‘contracting-out’; ‘performance indicators’; ‘partnership; and ‘empowerment’

Within the realm of this new institutional authority, functional and territorial actors have started to acquire a common interest. The constraints on the state’s capacity to respond to demands of civil society have created the conditions for the accompanying shift from government to governance. An analytical framework that acts as a locus of these issues is meta-governance as it combines the restructuring of the public domain; networks and decentralisation. In particular, meta-governance provides the basis to investigate;

  • The decentralisation of administrative and political functions;
  • The reforms instigated under re-invented government and NPM;
  • The establishment of networks and co-operation and competition between and among autonomous public and private actors.

These issues and challenges can be analysed by proposing the concept and practice of ‘New Regional Management: where governance meets organisation meets management at multiple levels in an expanded public domain.

Seminar 2: Beyond New Public Management? Prospects for New Regional Management (Organiser: Dr Leslie Budd: Open University)

This is the second in the series following the very successful seminar The Rise of Multi-Level Governance and Meta-Governance in International Context held at Aston University on 2/3 March 2006

The purpose of the second seminar is to investigate the degree to which the decentralisation and devolution of governmental functions and the has been a technocratic process in which new agencies and actors of manage rather than govern. The seminar creates an opportunity to study the relationship between NPM, as discourse and practice, and the development of multi-level governance in creating a new area of enquiry

The New Public Management (NPM) literature there are a number of debates concerning policy networks and the role of actors and agencies. . The logic of NPM is a decentralised and devolved one, in delivering public services and making their accountability more immediate and transparent. Within the regional agenda, in the UK and elsewhere in the Europe and beyond, there is a tension between devolution of public powers and decentralisation of public functions: reflected in the range of institutions and programmes. Consequently one can propose a new field of enquiry: “The New Regional Management”, that not only encompasses the management of decentralised public functions, but the investigation of governance and institutional reform within its remit.

The seminar is to be held at:

OpenUniversityBusinessSchool

Michael Young Building Meeting Rooms 3 and 4

Open University

Milton Keynes MK7 6AA

Contact numbers:Leslie Budd: 01908655607e-mail:

Mina Panchal 01908655987e-mail:

ESRC RESEARCH SEMINAR SERIES:

The New Regional Management: A consequence of multi-level governance and meta-governance?

Seminar 2: Open University; East Campus , 26 April 2006

BEYOND NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT: PROSPECTS FOR NEW REGIONAL MANAGEMENT?

9.30Registration and Coffee

9.45Welcome and Introduction:

SESSION 1:Chair: Dr Leslie Budd (Open University)

10.00Dr Josie Kelly (AstonUniversity)

Reprise of Seminar 1:

10.20Professor John Clarke (Open University)

`“The governance puzzle: tracing emergent forms and practices”

11.00Coffee

11.20Dr Mark Sandford (UniversityCollegeLondon)

"From Democratisation to Gershonisation: the technocracy's capture of theregional agenda"

12.00Professor Jan-Erik-Lane (University of Geneva)

“Providing Public Services is Contracting”

12.45Q&As and Discussion

(Chair: Professor Martin Jones, University of Aberystwyth)

13.00Lunch

SESSION 2Chair: Professor Allan Cochrane (Open University)

13.40Professor Mark Goodwin (University of Exeter)

“Making Sense' of the new regionalism; state personnel and therescaling

of governance”

14.20Dr Pip Tucker (Association of Regional Observatories)

“Setting regional priorities inthe New Regional Management”

15.00.Tea

15.20David Walburn (Past President of the European Association of Development Agencies (EURADA),Visiting Professor at London South Bank University and Director of the Local Economy Policy Unit)

16.00Panel Discussion: (Chair: Dr Joyce Liddle University of Nottingham)

Professor Christopher Hood, (University of Oxford) John Adams (IPPR) Paul Bevan ( South of England Regional Assembly), Professor Mark Tewdwr-Jones (University College London)Alastair Johnson (Commission for Rural Communities) Nick Dakin (Yorkshire Forward, to be confirmed)

17.00End

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