The Department of Public Administration at Tallinn University of Technology and the journal Halduskultuur – Administrative Culture are hosting their 13th annual scholarly conference, this time on “Public Administration, Technology & Innovation”, on 6-7 May 2011 in Tallinn, Estonia.

The 2011 conference is doubling as a kick-off and network-creating workshop of the newly-established permanent study group ‘Public Administration, Technology & Innovation’ (PATI) of EGPA, the European Group of Public Administration. PATI will be officially inaugurated at the EGPA 2011 Annual Conference in Bucharest (7-10 September 2011), to which all interested attendees of the Tallinn conference are also invited. On the study group, see www.ttu.ee/pati.

Technological developments of the last decades have brought the co-evolutionary linkages between technology and public sector institutions into the center of both economics and public administration research. Technologies can, arguably, make public administration more effective, efficient, transparent and more accountable; but they can also cause problems with privacy, sustainability, legality, and equality, to name just a few examples. Recent public sector austerity measures (and attempts at lean government in general) may thwart socio-political efforts to foster technological innovation; but they can at the same time lead to greater willingness of governments to adopt new technologies and management principles based, directly or indirectly, on technological innovations. The challenge to public administration research is not only to trace and understand these linkages, but to find working solutions to these apparent trade-offs, and even to investigate the nature and permutations of the techno-administrative interface generally.

We are inviting papers dealing with theoretical or empirical topics looking at either side of the co-evolution perspective of technological and institutional development; the role of public administration in technological progress and innovation; and the role of technology and innovation in the trajectories of public administration. Abstract proposals, no longer than 750 words, should be sent to the conference manager, Mr. Erkki Karo, at erkki.karo@ttu.ee, no later than 14 January 2011; full papers will be expected by 8 April.

The papers presented will be submitted for fast-track peer review for a theme issue of Halduskultuur – Administrative Culture. This Journal, published biannually by Tallinn University of Technology, is a fully refereed interdisciplinary journal of administrative studies. Halduskultuur – Administrative Culture is available at EBSCO, Central and Eastern European Online Library and Google Books, and abstracted, e.g., in Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts and Social Services Abstracts. See www.halduskultuur.eu.