2 - 4 June 2009 :Doing governance research: Understanding the implications of governance through case studies Department of Development and Planning - Aalborg University, Denmark

Governance research needs to be critical and analytical in investigating the consequences and efficiency of governance approaches in practice. This paper-based course addresses those methodological components, taking the following questions as a frame: How are value conflicts being managed in governance research? Do new governance practices actually help us to solve complex and persistent policy problems? How can (governance) theory be operationalised with regard to specific (research) contexts? What types ofnormativity can be dealt with in governance research and what should the roles of contemporary governance researchers be? Questions of this sort comprise the main motivation for this doctoral course on doing governance research.
The course will be a combination of lectures and debate workshops with focus on the participants’ projects. Participants are therefore asked to submit an academic paper (4,000-8,000 words) and give corresponding presentations during the course. Two opponents will be assigned to each paper. Focus is largely put on knowledge sharing among the participants as well as feedback from senior academics. The papers presented should discuss the theoretical point of departure of the case study, methods of case analysis and the analysis of results (if any). The registration form (under: ‘Brief description of Ph.D. subject’) should contain a brief outline of the planned paper for the course (instead of an actual description of the Ph.D. project).
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