Meeting DETAILS of Conference Programme
for the 32nd NISPAcee Annual Conference 2024, Tbilisi, Georgia

The mission statements of NISPAcee, as well as those of most other international academic and professional organizations in the field of Public Administration (PA) and related fields, typically include references to connecting with and applying insights from the global, international and/or European knowledge resources. Similarly, most learned societies, journals, and other research forums with an international focus typically strive to "include" hitherto underrepresented regions such as CEE. Moreover, these efforts often do not stop at symbolic declarations, but extend to well-considered and long-term commitments, policies backed by visible efforts and resources.

However, the relevance of the so-called NISPAcee region - the former socialist countries - for mainstream, mostly Western, PA scholarship is not always straightforward, especially in view of the frequency of manuscript rejections justified with the geographical focus of CEE research as "uninteresting" from a global (i.e. mainstream) perspective. Similarly, researchers, students and practitioners specializing in the CEE region sometimes feel uncomfortable using mainstream concepts and theories to describe and explain CEE administrative phenomena.

The aim of this panel is to elicit and contrast perceptions, insights, interpretations, explanations and foresights on the above contradictions. Is the CEE region adequately represented in mainstream scholarship, either as a source of empirical insights or in terms of "high-end" scholarly contributions? If not, what incentives or constraints underlie this imbalance, and how can it - can it? - be adequately addressed, and by whom? How do recent phenomena such as emerging polycrises and the global emergence of illiberal backsliding affect these dynamics? The panelists, who represent diverse geographical regions and have extensive experience in international scholarly engagement, seek to explore these and related questions.