Workshop on Bureaucratic Aversion to Criticism International Perspectives amid Populism and Polarisation

Name: Workshop on Bureaucratic Aversion to Criticism International Perspectives amid Populism and Polarisation
Start: 2025-05-15T00:00:00+02:00
End: 2025-05-16T00:00:00+02:00
Location: Berlin

Veranstaltungsart
Workshop

Ort / Datum
Berlin, 15.05.2025 bis 16.05.2025

Veranstalter

German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)

Focus

Hosted by the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), the workshop offers a unique opportunity for a select group of scholars researching bureaucratic politics to discuss work in progress in a collegial Chatham House setting.

The workshop’s objective is to explore bureaucratic aversion to criticism across common boundaries of disciplinary scholarship. Bureaucracies face particular challenges in acknowledging and learning from public and internal criticism (Esser & Janus, 2023; Hood, 2011; Kühl, 2014; Lægreid, 2014). At the same time, some bureaucracies are known to have increased their effectiveness by not just analysing successes but also mistakes and failures (Dekker & Hansén, 2004; Dunlop, 2017; Perrin & Tyrrell, 2021). We seek to better understand the reasons for both reluctance to and acceptance of criticism.

Our goal is to create an intellectual space for exchange and learning by drawing on sociological, political, and psychological theories and juxtaposing findings from a wide variety of national and international settings. Our focus lies on (1) empirical research examining (2) public-sector organisations and (3) their responses to public and internal criticism.

We are particularly interested in analyses that consider the current context of populism and political polarisation and how they affect bureaucratic (non-)responses to criticism. We embrace comparative approaches and are confident that such perspectives will crystallize further in situ. We are particularly interested in work that speaks directly to any of the following questions:

How do public organisations address public criticism and/or internal criticism? To what extent is public criticism sought, considered, mitigated or ignored, and why?
What role do individual bureaucrats play in this context? Which implicit and explicit strategies do organisations and bureaucrats deploy in this context?
Does public criticism enhance, diminish, or have no measurable impact on the effectiveness of public organisations? Is criticism itself a facet of organisational effectiveness?
Under what conditions do public organisations use evidence to change practices even when this requires admitting that past approaches were less than optimal or appropriate?
How do public organisations navigate incentives for and against learning from failure? Are there cases of organisational learning from failure that allow for cross-contextual application?

Hinweis

Während unserer Veranstaltungen werden z.T. Foto- und/oder Filmaufnahmen gemacht, die für Zwecke der Veranstaltungsberichterstattung und allgemeinen Öffentlichkeitsarbeit in verschiedenen Medien veröffentlicht werden. Sie haben jederzeit das Recht, die Foto- oder Videograf*innen darauf hinzuweisen, dass Sie nicht aufgenommen werden möchten. / During our events photos and/or videos may be taken which may be published in various media for the purposes of documentation and PR activities. You have the right at any time to point out to the photographer or videographer that you do not want to be photographed or filmed.