Researching COVID-19: A research agenda for public policy and administration scholars
| Author | Keith Baker,Edoardo Ongaro,Claire A Dunlop |
| Date | 01 October 2020 |
| Published date | 01 October 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0952076720939631 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Researching COVID-19:
A research agenda for
public policy and
administration scholars
Claire A Dunlop
University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
Edoardo Ongaro
Open University, UK
Keith Baker
SUNY Brockport, Brockport Downtown, Rochester, NY,
USA
Abstract
Coronavirus (COVID-19) is one of the defining policy challenges of an era. In this
article, we sketch some possible ways in which the public policy and administration
community can make an enduring contribution about how to cope with this terrible
crisis. We do so by offering some elements that delineate a tentative research agenda
for public policy and administration scholars, to be pursued with epistemic humility. We
outline the contours of seven analytical themes that are central to the challenges
presented by COVID-19: policy design and instruments, policy learning, public service
and its publics, organisational capacity, public governance, administrative traditions and
public sector reforms in multi-level governance (MLG). The list is neither exhaustive
nor exclusive to COVID-19. The knowledge we can generate must speak not only to
the daunting challenge of COVID-19 itself but also to policymakers, and indeed human-
kind, trying to cope with future unexpected but high impact threats, by leveraging
better public policies and building administrative capacities to enable more resilient,
equitable and effective public services.
Corresponding author:
Claire A Dunlop, University of Exeter, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter, Devon EX4 4RJ, UK.
Email: c.a.dunlop@exeter.ac.uk
Public Policy and Administration
2020, Vol. 35(4) 365–383
!The Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0952076720939631
journals.sagepub.com/home/ppa
Keywords
Coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic, public administration, public policy, relevance
COVID-19 and an appeal for relevant and robust scholarship
Though the world is still in the middle of a crisis characterised by radical uncer-
tainty, one thing is very clear: coronavirus (COVID-19) will be one of the defining
policy challenges of an era. Not merely a human tragedy, this global pandemic has
exposed across the world the fragile nature of some governance institutions and the
follies of denigrating and weakening the public sector. We use this article to sketch
some possible ways in which public policy and administration (PPA) research can
and should proceed. The knowledge we generate must speak not only to the
daunting challenge of COVID-19 itself but also to policymakers, and indeed
humankind, trying to cope with future unexpected but high impact threats
(‘black swans’), by leveraging better public policies and building administrative
capacities to enable more resilient, equitable and effective public services. This
way, paraphrasing the adage, a terrible crisis will not go to waste, but rather
will enable the PPA scholarly community to make an enduring contribution
about how to cope with future high-impact threats (by ‘PPA scholarly community’
we do not mean this journal specifically. Rather, we mean whomever in the world
identifies themselves as a scholar in the field of PPA). Clearly, the scope of the
scholarly challenge is huge and the problems are numerous, but so too are our
responsibilities.
What then can PPA scholars contribute? PPA is a fundamentally practical
endeavour (Barberis, 2012; Talbot and Talbot, 2018) and indeed a recent analysis
demonstrates the wide range of policy impacts PPA work delivers (Dunlop and
Radaelli, 2019). Yet, we rarely address the big global challenges societies face
(Milward et al., 2016; Pollitt, 2017; Potter, 2012). What Pollitt (2016) called
‘global megatrends’ – and Roberts (2020) simply labels ‘immense problems’ –
such as climate change, fiscal austerity, demographic changes or the education
of young people are largely neglected by our field. Rather, we approach relevance
through detailed policy analysis which examines the performance of the bureau at
a granular level, but rarely scale this up to the grand challenges of our world. We
stay behind the scenes and leave the main stage for other disciplines.
This dissonance between ‘small policy analysis facing big policy problems’
(Dunlop and Radaelli, 2021a) reveals the perennial challenge of matching rigour
with relevance. In this instance, our scholarship must provide both. If public
administration research is not useable on the ground, how can we hope to address
the big problems faced by government? Yet, relevance is not enough: without
methodological, conceptual and theoretical rigor, our scholarship lacks authority
and becomes journalistic.
366 Public Policy and Administration 35(4)
To continue reading
Request your trial