Theme and Call for Proposals

"Public Administration Theory in Times of Terror and Disaster"

This conference will engage public admin"stration theorists in addressing the implications for contemporary governance of the "war on terror," homeland security, and disaster response as central topics of public and governmental concern. Is the war on terror over-writing public administration discourse and practice? Will the call to war, the push for homeland security, and the failures of governmental responses to Hurricane Katrina combine to overwhelm public policy and administrative discourse for the foreseeable future? We think it is time for public administration theorists to engage in a collective effort to make sense of what is happening and open avenues for creative and critical action.

This is certainly not the first time that emergencies and disasters have affected public administration practice and discourse. To give just one example, in 1979 there was a crisis at Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant (TMI) near Middletown, Pennsylvania, that resulted an a partial meltdown of the core in that plant. It also engaged public discourse and affected administrative practice – including numerous regulatory and policy changes. The nuclear power industry in the U.S. has not been the same since. Because the 2007 PAT-Net Conference will take place in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, (less than 10 miles from TMI) there is an added poignancy to our discussing crisis governance at this conference.

In setting this theme for the 2007 PAT-Net Conference, the program committee invites people to submit paper, panel, and other session proposals that will:

Reflect on the coordinates of fear, terror, and security in the history of liberalism and the rise of the administrative state
Reflect on historical differences in theoretical and practical approaches to crisis management
Reflect generally on whether and how public administration theory needs to engage with problems related to disasters
Reflect on the moral and/or ethical stance the field and individual administrators should, can, or might take in waging/opposing the war on terror (and/or any other war)
Consider what public administration´s responsibilities are in responding to natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina
Consider how race and religion are shaping contemporary policy debates about terror, security, and crises – and influencing the invention of new administrative structures
Address how the discourse of warfare, security, preparedness, and response is restructuring public bureaucracies, changing budget priorities, shifting resources, and militarizing public administration
Consider how the war on terror and/or the impacts of Katrina are affecting pedagogical practice, both in terms of the demands for new programs and curricula as well as what we say (or don´t say) about them in class.
- What political and/or institutional risks do critics of the war run?
- Is there evidence of silencing of dissent on campuses or public organizations?
- Are public administration professionals adding sufficiently to discussions about the causes of Katrina´s impacts and the failures of our responses?
Following the recent work of Camilla Stivers, consider what possibilities exist for critically re-inhabiting the discursive and geographical space of "homeland."
- What is the space of the war?
- What is the significance of the space called New Orleans?
Reflect generally on the state of public administration in light of this environment

The program committee plans to set up two major streams for the conference -- theme and open- stream. We think it will be interesting to hear what public administration theorists have to say on the terror/security/disaster theme, but we do not want to limit presenters to that theme. The open-stream track creates space in the conference for all kinds of proposals that concern themes and ideas of importance to public administration theorists.

Proposals should be submitted no later than September 15, 2006, to:

Larry S. Luton
Program Committee Chair
2007 PAT-Net Conference
Eastern Washington University
668 Riverpoint Blvd, Suite A
Spokane, WA 99202

lluton@mail.ewu.edu
509-358-2247 voice
509/358-2267 fax

The Program Committee anticipates contacting people about acceptance of their proposals by November 1, 2006. Final papers will be due by May 1, 2007.