Fudan-LSE Lecture Series No.69

Title: 

Rethinking Public Governance for the 21st Century: The Importance of (Re-)Connecting Philosophy and Public Administration

Speaker: 

Prof. Edoardo Ongaro, The Open University, UK

Host: 

Prof. Yijia Jing, Fudan IGPP

Time: 

12:00-13:20, March 26th, Wednesday, 2025

Venue: 

Room 805E, 8th Floor, West Sub-building of Guanghua Towers

https://www.wjx.cn/vm/r8KXyp1.aspx#

The Speaker：

Edoardo Ongaro is Professor of Public Management at The Open University, UK. His research focuses contextual influences and adaptation of public management practices to local circumstances. He has served in various learned societies internationally as well as academic and expert committees and has contributed to numerous international research projects. He is invited to present his research works in universities throughout the world as well as International Organisations like the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development or the World Bank, and the European Commission. He is an editor of Public Policy and Administration, a journal of the UK Association for Public Administration (UKAPA). Professor Ongaro holds a PhD from King's College London, an MPhil from The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and MSc/BSc from Politecnico di Milano. Professor Ongaro is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences and of UKAPA.

Abstract:

Robust and resilient public administrative systems and public governance arrangements require more than material resources and capabilities, however important these may be. The lecture makes the case for the significance of the ideational bases of public administration and for rediscovering philosophical thinking for addressing key challenges of public governance in the 21st century. It also argues for a cross-civilisational dialogue which enables to combine eastern and western philosophical perspectives for application to the field of public administration and public governance. Four connecting points between philosophy and public administration are identified and discussed: (i) Philosophy for public administration, namely mobilising one or more philosophical streams for addressing public administration themes and problems ; (ii) Mapping backwards to unveil the often implicit philosophical premises of scholarly works in the field of public administration; (iii) Aligning philosophy and public administration, by analysing the ideational bases of administrative doctrines; and (iv) Developing a philosophy of public administration. These four directions of inquiry are presented and discussed in the lecture.