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RNS receives four awards at the NISPAcee Annual Conference
RNS members received an amazing four awards at the 2014 annual conference of NISPAcee (the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe, the main scholarly and professional PA association in that region, also covering Central Asia and the Caucasus region) in Budapest, which took place from 22 to 24 May 2014.
Professor Rainer Kattel was awarded the Alena Brunovskà Award for Teaching Excellence in Public Administration “on the basis of his accomplishments in teaching excellence and leadership in pedagogy as well as his contributions to the practice of public administration and research.” He received the award during the opening plenary session of the conference in the Hungarian Parliament’s Upper House chamber, during which he also gave a lecture on the topic „What would Max Weber say about public sector innovation?“ Previous Alena Brunovskà Award winners from RNS are Prof. Wolfgang Drechsler (2001, the first one ever) and Prof. Tiina Randma-Liiv (2006).
Prof. Kattel’s lecture was followed by a presentation by Dr. Külli Sarapuu, who was awarded the NISPAcee best PhD thesis award. This is named after the late Mzia Mikeladze (1961-2012), longtime President of NISPAcee and also a friend of the RNS. Dr. Sarapuu’s thesis „Mapping and Explaining Post-Communist Development of Administrative Structure: The Case of Estonian Public Administration 1990-2010.” was selected on the basis of its contribution to public administration and public policy, innovativeness of the PhD thesis as well as the relevance of the research for NISPAcee region. Dr. Sarapuu is the second-ever winner of this award; in 2013, it was won by Dr. Jane Järvalt. Both defended their theses at the RNS and were supervised by Prof. Tiina Randma-Liiv.
RNS teams were also successful in the competition for the Best Comparative Paper Award that was jointly awarded to Riin Savi and Aleksandrs Cepilovs (“The Role of Agencies and Street-Level Bureaucrats in Cutback Management: Comparing the Cases of Estonia and Latvia”) and to Prof. Randma-Liiv, Riin Savi and Prof. Walter Kickert from Erasmus University Rotterdam (“Politics of Fiscal Consolidation in Europe: A Comparative Analysis”). Several plenaries and panels were chaired or co-chaired by RNS’ delegates, such as the second part of the Opening Plenary on “Max Weber, Public Administration, and Central and Eastern Europe” and the “Islamic Public Administration” panel (both chaired by Prof. Drechsler). Former DoRa visiting student at RNS Dr. Rustamjon Urinboyev co-chaired the “Islamic PA” panel and Dr. Ringa Raudla the joint ASPA-NASPAA-NISPAcee Study Group on Cutback Management. Other members of the RNS delegation at the conference, all giving papers as well, included PhD students Aet Kiisla and Jüri Ratas, Ragnar Nurkse Visiting Professor Conrado Ramos, and Fulbright Visiting Professor James Douglas.
The core of the NISPAcee activities is to promote the development of public administration disciplines and training programs in post-Communist countries. Several RNS scholars have participated in its leadership, including Dr. Ringa Raudla, who currently serves in the NISPAcee Steering Committee, following Prof. Randma-Liiv and Prof. Drechsler, who held the same position previously.
