Presentation
III Public Administration and Governance Meeting
Salvador / BA
November 12 to 14, 2008
The Public Administration and Social Management Division has an additional platform at EnAPG for the discussion and sharing of research and other papers in the field. This is the third year for this initiative and it is driven by the success of the previous one, making it possible for researchers, students, and public administrators to exchange information as well as build networks in their areas of interest. On the other hand, the dynamic contemporary world, expressed by accelerated and constant changes, imposes on those interested in public administration, whether students or managers, almost a permanent new discussion about the dimensions of the public area, its conceptual constructions as well as its identity.
The challenge put before the academic community is exactly that of building new perspectives of investigation incorporating themes that are no longer defined by rigid sector lines, but a search to bring about a field defined by transversal perspectives in which various segments of knowledge can dialogue and reflect on contemporary problems that public administration entities are called upon to address. This does not mean, however, that sector themes are discarded because they can incorporate transversal elements and bring about their enrichment. Furthermore, this Meeting has as another central objective a concern with the Brazilian reality, a duty that the researchers of our country should not shirk. A focus on issues of national interest does not, however, eliminate a compared perspective. Openness to other experiences is essential in a global context and drawing comparisons with the national reality results in an important product for building conceptual tools that are more adequate for understanding the specifics of the contemporary world, to which the Brazilian situation adheres to in multiple aspects, and for elaborating responses that have the objective of improving public management with the growth of citizenship.
For this reason, EnAPG this year is not going to be set up around one general theme that would have to be too generic and would have difficulties covering the multifaceted clips of contemporary reality, but around three round tables that will attempt at covering a more diverse spectrum of this reality. Along with these round tables, which will be defined and announced shortly, EnAPG's coordination has also established a set of themes of interest that should be viewed as a signal of possible areas of interest of research for submitting papers. These themes of interest should be viewed as signals for possible developments of papers and not as an exhaustive list. This does not meant that the papers that do not directly match their specifications will not be considered by the organizers. They will be assessed as long as they carry a significant contribution to the area.
It is up to the academic community of Public Administration to engage, as it has done, in the deeper analysis of many contemporary problems that surround us, such as the resistant inequality as well as new forms and arrangements to face historic and new problems that characterize the Brazilian reality.
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