- Michiel S de Vries, Chair of the department of Public Administration, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, m.devries@fm.ru.nl
- Daniel Klimovský, Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Arts, Department of Political Science, daniel.klimovsky@gmail.com
- Tim Jäkel, National Research University Higher School of Economics: School of Public Administration, Russia, tjekel@hse.ru
The Working Group I on local government held four sessions during the NISPA annual conference. In these sessions, 15 papers were presented and discussed, with an average of 20 participants in each meeting.
Some of the papers focused on demographic developments and their impact on municipalities, the role of management and coordination in providing care for elderly people, the consequences of external threats on the functioning of local governments, planning housing projects at the local level, and the varying significance of tourism for local government.
Another aspect of the discussions revolved around public participation at the local level, including topics such as citizen assemblies, participatory budgeting, gender-responsive budgeting, access to information, and the role of IT and social media in fostering participation. The lively discussions made the sessions interesting, with an engaged audience giving the papers the attention they deserved. However, regarding the leadership of the working group, unfortunately, two out of the three chairs were unable to attend the conference. Consequently, it is necessary to invite at least one new individual to chair the meetings of WG 1 during future conferences.
Overall, Working Group 1 remains an engaging and thought-provoking group, attracting numerous paper submissions. The sessions provide new perspectives on current developments in the CEE region and foster plans for research cooperation on these topics.