Movement and change in the public sector

Jim Barry, Elisabeth Berg and John Chandler

Public Management Review, 2006, vol. 8, issue 3, 433-448

Abstract: This essay seeks to develop a theoretical framework for public-sector managerial change that draws on social movement theory, an approach located within the domain of political sociology. The essay opens with a brief examination of the literature on the New Public Management and governance which, it is argued, draws on a neo-liberal agenda, displays a tendency to de-centre or marginalize considerations of democracy and politics and offers abstract, top -- down, descriptions of change. Approaches to social movement theory are considered, with particular attention paid to two dominant schools: the political process approach and new social movement theory which account for ‘how’ and ‘why’ change occurs. By operating through grass-roots networks, and offering symbolic challenges to the dominant neo-liberal order, social movements help us to see more clearly the limitations of conventional wisdom on public-sector managerial change, and consider resistances, accommodations and messy compromises. The essay seeks to use such insights to re-conceptualize public-sector managerial change.

Date: 2006
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14719030600853329 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:pubmgr:v:8:y:2006:i:3:p:433-448

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RPXM20

DOI: 10.1080/14719030600853329

Access Statistics for this article

Public Management Review is currently edited by Professor Stephen P. Osborne, Jenny Harrow and Tobias Jung

More articles in Public Management Review from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().