Course 2022-2023 a.y.

20573 - GOVERNANCE OF PUBLIC POLICY NETWORKS

Department of Social and Political Sciences

Course taught in English
Go to class group/s: 31
CLMG (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  12 credits SECS-P/07) - M (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/07) - IM (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/07) - MM (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/07) - AFC (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/07) - CLELI (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/07) - ACME (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/07) - DES-ESS (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/07) - EMIT (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/07) - GIO (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/07) - DSBA (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/07) - PPA (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/07) - FIN (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/07)
Course Director:
FRANCESCO LONGO

Classes: 31 (I sem.)
Instructors:
Class 31: FRANCESCO LONGO


Suggested background knowledge

A general economic and managerial culture. Interest for the public realm and for public policy implementation and management.

Mission & Content Summary

MISSION

All major relevant public issues (Covid, migrations, global warming, transportation, economic development, welfare services, etc.) are embedded in relevant inter-institutional interdependencies. Public managers, tackling those issues, needs to act as network managers. The course aims to analyse public sector networks, involving public, private and third sector organizations, at local, regional, national and international level. The course intends to evaluate the existing interdependencies, to assess critically networks governances and functioning modes in order to provide students with tools to re-design them. In some scenarios Public Administrations play the parent organization role, in other they act as pivot of the game, in the remaining they are peer to all others: governance structures and steering tools need to be adapted and contextualized. The public network framework is applied to diverse and heterogeneous policy fields (culture, utilities, waste, transportation, health and social care, social housing, etc.) in order to generalize the proposed approach. One of the main objectives is to distinguish network design and building, from network functioning and steering and from inter-institutional conflict and crisis management. The course matches traditional lectures, case discussions with interviews to public networks managers run by the class students, from the national and international landscape.

CONTENT SUMMARY

The course has the following fundamentals goals:

 

  • Analyze the emergent inter-institutional interdependencies in diverse public policy domains.
  • Present a framework to define the boundaries of public networks, their mission and competences.
  • Analyze the possible inter-connections and governance structures in public sector networks.
  • Design and organize public policy networks
  • Manage public networks

 

 

The course is divided in two parts:

  1. The first one based on traditional lectures and case discussion with the main instructor (2/3 of the lessons).
  2. The second one is based on public networks managers’ presentations and interviews managed by students (1/3 of the lessons).

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...
  • Define and classify public networks and related social capital and institutional trust.
  • Analyse public sector networks building and their governance structures.
  • Present different possible provision architectures within networks (peer, hub and spoke, pendulum, etc.).

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...
  • Frame the allocation of different public functions in any policy field: services regulation, planning, purchasing, provision, control.
  • Analyse the portfolio of tools to steer or influence public networks.
  • Discuss the coordination and litigation management modes.

Teaching methods

  • Face-to-face lectures
  • Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
  • Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
  • Individual assignments

DETAILS

The course matches traditional lectures, case discussions with interviews to public networks managers run by the class students, from the national and international landscape.


Assessment methods

  Continuous assessment Partial exams General exam
  • Written individual exam (traditional/online)
     x
  • Individual assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)
     x
  • Active class participation (virtual, attendance)
 x    

ATTENDING STUDENTS

  • Preparing a paper about a public network case and discussing it with the instructor. The paper should be about 15-20 pages long, and present an assessment of interdependencies, governance structures and functioning modes of a public relevant case, providing an evaluation of the adopted managerial solutions and suggesting possible changes for better performances. The paper will be discussed with the instructor. Attendance is valid for all exam sessions of the academic year. 

NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

Written exam (90’ long) based on 4-5 open questions about the contents presented in class and the papers available in the course learning space.


Teaching materials


ATTENDING STUDENTS

A collection of international scientific papers selected by the instructor available on the course learning space.


NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

  • KLIJN, ERIK HANS, KOPPENJAN, JOOP, Governance networks in the public sector, 2016.
  • A collection of international scientific papers selected by the instructor available on the course learning space.
Last change 16/09/2022 15:59