Abstract
We are very pleased that Teaching Public Administration is starting a new phase in its development. From 2015, we are increasing the number of issues from two to three per year. The response to the journal following its re-launch in January 2012 has been very positive. The number of articles being submitted for peer review has been steadily increasing and so have the number of proposals for special issues. We know, too, that the number of visits to the TPA home page has been increasing as well. We are becoming a genuine international journal with contributors and especially readers to match. This international dimension is reflected in the membership of the TPA Editorial Board. We are, always, willing to welcome new members to the Board and we do invite you to become involved with us as peer reviewers or by proposing special issues or contributing original papers or by convening workshops on teaching and learning in public administration at national/regional/international conferences. It is our intention in 2015 to bring together as many members of the editorial board as possible to participate in a workshop focused on the development of TPA over the next 10 years. Whilst that may seem a little fanciful, below we sketch out why we think that it is a good time for such a discussion.
Creating an editorial board to discuss ideas
We will be holding an open meeting of the Editorial Board during the next IRSPM conference which is at the University of Birmingham (UK) from 30 March to 1 April 2015. We will be sending out invitations to colleagues shortly. We want to bring together as many members of the Board as possible so that we can have an informed and a challenging discussion on the future developments of TPA.
We think that there are practical reasons why this is necessary, as well as ones which we hope will shape the direction and development of the journal. The practical reasons reflect the fact that from the outset we wanted to the Editorial Board to be ‘international’. We are committed to the idea that at its most simplest a journal engaged in the critical reflection of the pedagogy of teaching and learning within the context of public administration or policy will want to situate those discussions in an international context. The exchange of ideas which cut across policy practice and management, as well as thinking about the development of critical independent thinkers and practitioners, are conceptual frameworks which invite dialogue across borders.
At the same time, we were aware that we had a series of publication deadlines to meet and that we would have to choose between bringing colleagues together in advance of publication or waiting until we had established the legitimacy of the journal within our professional community. We decided to go for the latter. We now feel the time is appropriate to bring colleagues together for a structured conversation about the future.
There are, we think, three separate elements to our open Editorial Board workshop. Firstly, there is an opportunity for colleagues to meet and to share ideas and to develop networks which will be of benefit both personally and professionally. We do recognize how much we rely on the active participation of colleagues in the successful running of the Journal from being peer reviewers to promoting the journal at conferences and seminars. So, meeting in Birmingham is one opportunity to say ‘thank you’!
Secondly, we do want to explore with members of the Board how TPA might develop over time. Together with SAGE, we have had initial discussions on how we might use pod casting, Twitter and other forms of social media, as well as generating an active TPA community responding to national/international developments as well as anticipating developments within the field. The move to three issues per year reflects a very positive response from the public administration community to TPA and we are aware of the need to sustain that interest and engagement. We are, also, aware that we need to ensure that there is as short a time frame as possible between submission of an article/peer reviewing/acceptance and then publication. We use on-line first to ensure that this timeframe is as short as possible. We will continue to do that but we can also use on-line first to publish articles (or collections) which will only appear there, and, therefore, we would need to become very focused on what appears in both the on-line and hard copy version. Or do we move to a TPA app version?
Finally, there is a need (we think) for an opportunity to explore the intellectual and pedagogical health of the discipline (or field of enquiry). SAGE and the existing editors of TPA came together during the ‘age of austerity’ across Europe and North America. The financial and banking crises post-2007 have continued to have an impact on the global economies and the social, economic and welfare policies of states and institutions. The administration and governance of civil society institutions and the education and training expectations of practitioners and decision makers remain key questions for enquiry and reflection.
Anticipating the future
We think that it would be appropriate to ‘imagine’ the field in 10 years’ time. What would public administration look like? What would the key roles and responsibilities of civil society institutions be in 2025? What would the curriculum look like? What would the relationship be between the state/civil society and the market? What would the role be of post-bureaucratic agencies be in this context? What would the role be or the relationship of philanthropic organizations to state funded or managed services be? What would the role/relationship be towards users of services (regardless of where the funding comes from)? And what implications does that have for the recruitment, education, training and continuing professional learning of practitioners and professionals?
These are some of the issues we would like to explore both at Birmingham and also through TPA. The shifts in power and decision making over the past few years (across Europe as well as the Arab Spring and changes in China) all have direct and indirect consequences for all of us. We would like to see TPA become the journal which offers an intellectual and practical home to those engaged with exploring the challenges and opportunities which these changes and disruptions have generated.
We would welcome comments and contributions to these general observations as well as how you see TPA developing in response to these changes as well as anticipating and seeking to shape these developments too.