Wellington Conference on Contemporary China Conference
Wellington Conference on Contemporary China 2012
Public Service Reform in China and the Asia-Pacific: Theory and Practice
cohosted with the School of Politics and Public Administration, China University of Political Science and Law
Date: 19-20 May, 2012
Avenue: Beijing
In the last two decades, China, like many other countries, has been tackling with the problem of public services. The New Public Management (NPM) movement of the 1990s has influenced many countries in rationalizing and reforming of their public services. In China, the public service reform was part of the much larger historical change, or even revolution, but equably influenced by the principles extended from the market economic reform, and indeed the New Public Management movement. Efficiency-centred reforms have driven significant change in the structure and organization of the public services, and the rationalization of their functions, provision and delivery. Further reforms are seen to radically reorganize and restructure the public services, and further rationalize their relationship with government, the private sector and NGOs, and address the problem of increasing tensions between efficiency and equality in the provision and delivery of public services.
China is not alone in dealing with the problem of public services. Many countries, for different reasons and under different historical circumstances, have experienced similar challenges and undergone similar experiences of reforming and restructuring their public service sector. Significant academic research has been done in this area. It is therefore very useful to understand China’s public service reform in a large international context, both in theory and practice of public services.
This conference is designed to bring together scholars of Public Administration and Management, Political Science and Government to examine the historical experiences of public service reform in China and Asia-Pacific countries, the challenges and issues they face in deepening of reform in public services, and advance scholarly research and debate on significant issues emerging from the experiences of public service reforms in these countries.
The conference will address two sets of issues. We are interested to bring together international scholarship on public services in China and Asia-Pacific countries; different theoretical approaches and frameworks in understanding and explaining issues and challenges in public service reforms; and different research paradigms on reform experiences in different countries. Secondly, we are interested to examine core issues in the public service sector from an international, historical and comparative perspective: issues such as the role of the state, the boundary between public and private in public service provision and delivery, public service financing and management, NGOs and public services, and the large context of social, economic and political structure and change for public service reform and restructuring – issues that have a significant bearing on the emergent structure and organization of public services in these countries and their overall rationalizing and organizing principles.
We are inviting paper proposals on any aspects of the overall theme and issues proposed above. Those interested to give a paper at the conference shall forward their paper proposals (title, a 150-word abstract and a short bio of yourself, with full contact details) to Professor Xiaoming Huang (xiaoming.huang@vuw.ac.nz) and Professor Chunlong Lu (chunlonglu@hotmail.com), no later than 30 March, 2012. Registration details for the conference and acceptance letters will be sent shortly after that. For those only interested in participating in the conference, please register your interest to Professor Chunlong Lu (chunlonglu@hotmail.com). For those who require a formal letter for travel and visa purposes, please send your proposal early and indicate accordingly.
Further Links
Public Service Reform Conference Call for Papers