Research Group Roskilde School of Governance
The Roskilde School of Governance (RSG) contributes to the advancement of research excellence in the field of public policy and governance, the development of high quality educational programs and the provision of expert policy-advice.
Research
RSG aims to conduct internationally leading academic and applied research that enhances our understanding of public policy, governance and administration. Our research is problem-driven, interdisciplinary and innovative, and it builds on a mixture of research methods and analytics. We aim to be research leaders in new fields through conceptual and theoretical contributions and empirical studies capturing new trends and phenomena. Our research is based on an interactive research strategy that seeks to involve key stakeholders in discussions about the questions and knowledge gaps to be investigated, the strategies for data collection and the assessment of the validity of preliminary conclusions and their practical implications.
We are studying the changing forms and conditions of public policy and governance at different scales and in different countries. However, we pay a special attention to the way that hierarchical and market-based forms of governance are supplemented and supplanted by more interactive forms of governance such as networks, partnerships, relational contracts and deliberative policy arenas.
The overall goal for RSG is to provide an incubator for new and powerful ideas that can assist decision makers in transforming the role and functioning of the public sector by adjusting organizational and institutional designs, experimenting with new tools of governing, developing an active citizenship and strengthening political and administrative leadership. One of the key endeavors in this transformation is to stimulate collaboration between public and private actors in order to spur the development of innovative, robust, and democratic solutions that can break policy deadlocks and enhance a sustainable social, political and economic development.
Education
RSG aims to provide high-quality teaching of bachelor, master and PhD-students in Danish and English language study programs. The teaching will use problematization, puzzles and dilemmas as well as cutting-edge theoretical and methodological tools to stimulate learning processes and build knowledge and competences that can be applied in real life settings. The study of public governance processes will be approached from political, administrative and societal angles. It will focus on public governance at different levels and aim to answer theoretical, empirical and normative questions. The key ambition of our research-based study programs in ‘Politics and Administration’ and ‘International Public Administration and Politics’ is to prepare students for leadership and management of complex policy and governance processes within and across different scales, sectors and organizations.
Policy-advice
RSG aims to bring researchers and practitioners from the public and private sector together in a fruitful exchange of new and relevant ideas about current and future governance challenges. It will assist politicians, public managers and interest organizations in developing and assessing new governance initiatives. It will also supply new research-based insights that can inspire governance reforms at the local, regional and national level and offer customized training and competence-building courses to mid-career practitioners. The overall ambition is to contribute to the development of new forms of governance, the deepening of democracy and the strengthening of political and administrative leadership as well as the promotion of integrative leadership that cuts across institutional and organizational boundaries.
Publication plans
RSG endeavors to publish articles in leading public administration and political science journals such as those found in the Social Science Citation Index or listed by Scopus, and we work persistently to improve our listing in the Shanghai ranking. We also put a premium on publishing single- and co-authored books with prestigious international publishing houses and publishing edited volumes that define new research agendas and build support for new important research endeavors. Finally, we seek to reach out practitioners and policy makers through more accessible publications such as Danish language books, reports, and magazine articles. Whenever possible, we aim for publications with a double impact on research and practice.
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Contact
Lena Brogaard, Associate professor, Roskilde University, brogaard@ruc.dk
Kim Sass Mikkelsen, Associate professor, Roskilde University, ksass@ruc.dk
Researchers
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Annika Agger, Karsten Hansen, Eva Sørensen og Jacob Torfing: The GREENGOV projectThe GREENGOV project (Governing the green shift in Oslo, Gothenburg and Copenhagen through leadership of co-creation) is financed by the Research Council in Norway (fall 2017-2021). The purpose of the GREENGOV is to study leadership strategies and mechanisms that can effectively support co-creation, learning and innovation in favour of the green shift. With this term, we look at transformations toward sustainable, low carbon cities –acknowledging that this encompasses also resilient and energy smart or low energy/energy efficient society.
Andreas Hagedorn Krogh: Voluntary organizations in local emergency management (VOLEM) – from january 2020
Handling emergencies in the events of natural disasters, accidents or deliberate incidents such as terrorism or social unrest often requires resources beyond those available to public authorities. The VOLEM project examines how collaboration between voluntary organizations and public authorities affects local communities’ capacity to respond to emergency situations. Through a comparative and methodologically diversified approach, the project investigates how and under what conditions institutional and individual factors affect the collaborative process and the resulting emergency response capacity.
Eva Sørensen, Jacob Torfing, Tina Øllgaard Bentzen: POLECO
POLECO - A research project on political leadership and institutional reform in Norwegian and Danish municipalities funded by the Norwegian research council.
The conditions under which elected politicians perform political leadership is changing, and in response to these changes, governments all over the Western world seek to reform the democratic institutions. This activity is particularly intense at local levels of governance. The POLECO project studies how small and large democratic reforms affect the role perceptions and political leadership capacity of municipal politicians in Norwegian and Danish municipalities.
The TROPICO project (Transforming into Open, Innovative and Collaborative Governments) aims to comparatively examine how public administrations are transformed to enhance collaboration in policy design and service delivery, advancing the participation of public, private and societal actors. It will analyse collaboration in and by governments, with a special emphasis on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), and its consequences.
The Horizon 2020 project Hecat aims to investigate, demonstrate and pilot a disruptive technology to support labour market decision making by unemployed citizens and those seeking to help them. The ambition of the project is to improve citizen’s experience and outcomes of unemployment by offering real-time evidence-based insight into their personal position in the labour market. Hecat builds on the experience and learning of existing basic algorithmic techniques used by some European PES administrations to deliver labour market insight directly to unemployed citizen while broaden out the focus on quantity of jobs drawn from the ‘economic imagination’ to add a focus on job quality and sustainable employment. The aim is bring these insights into into the hands of decision makers with a platform-UX that exploits novel artificial intelligence with learning capabilities and cutting edge, accessible visualisation and gamification techniques to support knowledge discovery and decision making at the critical moment, as a decision support system.
The project gathers researchers from universities in the United Kingdom (UCL, Nottingham), Nepal (Tribhuvan Kathmandu), and Bangladesh (Dhaka). It designs and implements state-of-the-art ethics training courses with civil servants in Nepal and Bangladesh and evaluates their effects on corruption and (un)ethical behaviour in a field experiment. The research will provide insights for those who seek innovative tools to reduce corruption in the public sector and promote ethical behaviour among civil servants. The project is funded by Department for International Development (DFID) and Global Integrity.
The public sector is in the process of transforming itself from a bureaucratic authority, via an efficient service provider, to an arena for co-creation. The COGOV project studies how strategic management and institutional design may enable local governments and public agencies to exploit the drivers and overcome the barriers to the co-production or co-creation of innovative public value outcomes. The Roskilde team is responsible for conducting a series of design experiments aiming to enhance co-creation, but also participates in the other parts of the project.
For further information please contact Jacob Torfing at jtor@ruc.dk
You find a list of projects at Research Group profile at the Roskilde University Research Portal
Publications
Acting on three arenas: A multidimensional approach to understanding ministerial turnover
Nielsen, P. H. & Hansen, M. E., 30 Oct 2024, In: Scandinavian Political Studies. Early view, 27 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
A decade of outsourcing in health and social care in England: What was it meant to achieve?
Bach-Mortensen, A. M., Goodair, B. & Walker, C. C., Nov 2024, In: Social Policy and Administration. 58, 6, p. 938-959 22 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Advancing Co-creation in Local Governance: The Role of Coping Strategies and Constructive Hybridization
Roiseland, A. (Editor), Sørensen, E. (Editor) & Torfing, J. (Editor), 12 Jul 2024, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. 227 p. (Policy, Administrative and Institutional Change).Research output: Book/Report › Anthology › Research › peer-review
Activities
Towards a Sociology of Doubt
Hansen, M. P. (Speaker)
20 Nov 2024Activity: Talk or presentation › Lecture and oral contribution
Department of Social Sciences and Business (Organisational unit)
Aagaard, P. (Chairman)
15 Oct 2024 → 8 Nov 2024Activity: Membership › Membership in review committee
Department of Social Sciences and Business (Organisational unit)
Aagaard, P. (Chairman) & Wijhe, M. V. (Member)
1 Oct 2024 → 29 Oct 2024Activity: Membership › Membership in review committee
Press-media
Christian skulle bare have et par flybilletter. Så begyndte et halvt års bureaukratisk bøvl
20/11/2024
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Press / Media
Professor jubler - blandt verdens allerbedste
16/11/2024
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Press / Media
Musk mener, at danskerne er blevet hjernevasket
08/11/2024
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Press / Media
Insights
Base at RUC
The research groups is a part of Department of Social Sciences and Business
PhD-School: Doctoral School of Social Sciences and Business
Education: Politik og Forvaltning (DK) // Socialvidenskab (DK) // Samfundsvidenskabelig Bachelor (DK) // International Bachelor in Social Sciences
Research from Roskilde University
More information
More about Roskilde School of Governance:
Contact
Research group leaders
Lena Brogaard
Associate professor
Phone +45 4674 3353
brogaard@ruc.dk
Kim Sass Mikkelsen
Associate professor
Phone + 45 4674 2801
ksass@ruc.dk