The 10th International Symposium “The emergence of the Smart City: stakes, challenges, practices and impacts for public governance” was held in Belval Luxembourg from 5 to 6 March 2019.
The organising team invites you to read the message from the President and Founder of the Symposium, Professeur Bachir Mazouz, published before the event.
The international symposium, “Perspectives on the transformation of management and public organizations” was founded as part of the research work initiated by the Gutenberg Research Chair at the ENA (Strasbourg, France) in 2009. It aims to promote a culture of discussion and debate between French-speaking public leaders and public and university affairs consultants. These discussions should lead to the formulation of new knowledge that can be actioned based on the impact of administrative reforms, in particular concerning values, organizational structures, official management frameworks and public action tools.
Indeed, from an empirical perspective, we note that the authorities in French-speaking countries have already institutionalized the quest for public performance. We also note that public leaders and employees are particularly concerned about the stakes, challenges and risks related to the space occupied by the measurement, evaluation and management public performance in transformational measures. In doing this, they question the future of public organizations. They do this as much in terms of the values and purpose of the public action as for the renewal of “ways of considering” public performance and the “practices” of public organizations.
Conceptually, research into the transformations undertaken in terms of public governance systems will enable a contribution to the renewal of existing knowledge in public services and management. Indeed, epistemic communities in public services and management are increasingly requested by leaders and consultants in public services. Using exploratory, explanatory and comparative approaches for the complex phenomena that provoke the ongoing transformations, the efforts made by researchers must allow us to understand the meaning and consequences of the transformation programmes of the administrative mechanisms on national public governance systems.
From an empirical point-of-view, the contribution of practitioners working for common good and general interest organizations and public services is essential today. Their experience in developing and putting into practice public policies and decisions and those concerning the restructuration of public, management and managerial instrumentation supply services in public sectors must be highlighted at the national and international levels. The empirical work carried out by the round tables at the Symposium and presented annually should also enable a transfer of knowledge to epistemic communities.
The Symposium therefore provides an environment to discuss management experiences and the conceptual scope of the research results. This is an understanding that will improve administrative and managerial practices and renew useful knowledge for public services and organizations.
Bachir Mazouz
Président-fondateur
Professeur titulaire à l’ENAP
Université du Québec, Canada