Relational Public Management

SIG Purpose and objectives

The purpose of the Relational Public Management SIG is to:

• Learn from an emerging international shift to a distributed and heterogeneous approach to public management, actively responding to and learning from citizen, civic and societal diversity rather than focusing on government or organization-centred efficiency-based models.
• Focus on the role of human relationships, capabilities and assets rather than bureaucratic interactions or market transactions as the basis of public management.
• Critically explore the emphasis of the role of capable public service generalists and adaptive organising up rather than specialism and fragmentation in service management and delivery.

Our objectives are to

• Build upon an emerging international network of scholars, policy makers (including think tanks) and practitioners (across public, non-profit and business sectors) working on aspects of Relational Public Management in professional settings, societal contexts and national settings to foster links between them.
• Facilitate generative collaborations to develop further theoretical conceptualisations, innovative methods and international comparative case studies of empirical research in a range of forms including public management journals and edited collections.  
• Support the development of Early Career Researchers (ECRs), engagement of policy makers and practitioners working on and with relational approaches to public management by creating dedicated mentoring and capacity-building opportunities.

Activities: Key dialogues, presentations, and outputs

We create spaces for dialogue, learning and development with practitioner researchers, Think Tanks/Consultancies/Networks and policy makers at annual events. We have a particular emphasis on ensuring diversity in participation—across geography, gender, and career stages—while promoting dialogue between Global North and Global South perspectives.

We create opportunities for outputs from the SIG activities including Position Papers (in PMM), Special Issues (PMM, PPA and AJPA), and edited books Futures in Public Management: The Emerging Relational Approach to Public Services, Emerald (2025) and Edward Elgar Companion for Relational Public Services (2027) which have been drawn from the previous activities of the SIG membership. Many of the members of the wider network are also keen bloggers and contributors to podcasts.

Underpinning these activities are the annual IRSPM SIG panel and the Towards Relational Public Services (TRIPS) conference held in June (now in its’ 5th iteration).

Upcoming events

As well as Panels at IRSPM conferences SIG members host an annual conference on relational approaches to public management Towards Relational Public Services (TRIPS), which gathers a community of approximately 150 academics, policy makers and practitioners working in the area. At this event we also host Keynotes, Book Launches from leading thinkers and Special Issue workshops as part of the activities.

As the SIG matures, we will seek to support ECRs, continue to bring academics and non-academics together and contribute to other national public management/public administration events. Also, we will seek to develop on-line community discussions and resources including a LinkedIn presence and connections to Policy Reports, Blogs and Podcasts.

List of all convenors