Routledge Critical Studies in Public Management
About the Book Series
The study and practice of public management has undergone profound changes across the world. Over the last quarter century, we have seen
- the increasing criticism of public administration as the over-arching framework for the provision of public services
- the rise (and critical appraisal) of the ‘New Public Management’ as an emergent paradigm for the provision of public services
- the transformation of the ‘public sector’ into the cross-sectoral provision of public services
- the growth of the governance of inter-organizational relationships as an essential element in the provision of public services
In reality these trends have not so much replaced each other as elided or co-existed together – the public policy process has not gone away as a legitimate topic of study, intra-organizational management continues to be essential to the efficient provision of public services, whist the governance of inter-organizational and inter-sectoral relationships is now essential to the effective provision of these services.
This series is dedicated to presenting and critiquing this important body of theory and empirical study. It will publish books that both explore and evaluate the emergent and developing nature of public administration, management and governance (in theory and practice) and examine the relationship with and contribution to the over-arching disciplines of management and organizational sociology. Books in the series will be of interest to academics and researchers in this field, students undertaking advanced studies, and reflective policy makers and practitioners.
Public Procurement as Secondary Policy: Axioms and Perspectives
1st Edition
By Max Rolfstam
January 22, 2026
The role of public procurement as a means to implement secondary policy has been increasingly emphasised in the last few decades. Besides being the primary sourcing instrument for public agencies, public procurement could be used to stimulate all kinds of new behaviour, including innovation, ...
Social Equity and Public Management Theory: A Global Outlook
1st Edition
Edited
By Kimberly Wiley, Sarah Young, Denita Cepiku
December 26, 2025
Social equity is a pillar of public service. Thus, social equity should be a central concern in public management in practice and scholarship. However, widespread incorporation and reflection of social equity practices in government and the anticipated public benefits still seem like an elusive ...
Public Service Logic and Public Service Reform: State of the Art, New Perspectives, and Future Directions
1st Edition
Edited
By Stephen P Osborne, Carmine Bianchi, Joanne Macfarlane
December 05, 2025
This book extends and develops the theoretical framework of Public Service Logic (PSL). This framework has become established as one of the major frameworks for the delivery of public services. It draws upon and adapts the service management literature to present an understanding of public services...
Public Sector Ethics: Compliance, Integrity, and Comparison
1st Edition
Edited
By Christopher Reddick, Tansu Demir, Bruce J. Perlman
March 31, 2025
Public Sector Ethics: Compliance, Integrity, and Comparison presents a comprehensive treatment of the subject of ethics in the public sector. What structural elements are necessary and how to create organizations that make ethics their priority are the questions that this edited book addresses. It ...
Public Value and the Post-Pandemic Society
1st Edition
By Usman Chohan
November 28, 2024
The destruction of the Covid-19 pandemic has marked every society with deep-seated wounds whose scars have only begun to heal. Yet, even as societies take their first steps away from the trauma of the pandemic, they confront new and perhaps equally daunting challenges in the post-Covid era. These ...
Crossing Boundaries in Public Management and Policy: The International Experience
1st Edition
Edited
By Janine O'Flynn, Deborah Blackman, John Halligan
October 14, 2024
In the 21st century governments are increasingly focusing on designing ways and means of connecting across boundaries to achieve goals. Whether issues are complex and challenging – climate change, international terrorism, intergenerational poverty– or more straightforward - provision of a single ...
Policy Transfer and Learning in Public Policy and Management: International Contexts, Content and Development
1st Edition
Edited
By Peter Carroll, Richard Common
October 14, 2024
A typical image of the making and administration of policy suggests that it takes place on an incremental basis, involving public servants, their ministers and, to a more limited extent, a variety of interest groups. Yet, much policy making is based on similar policy developed in other ...
Public Sector Reforms in Developing Countries: Paradoxes and Practices
1st Edition
Edited
By Charles Conteh, Ahmed Shafiqul Huque
October 14, 2024
The underpinning assumption of public management in the developing world as a process of planned change is increasingly being recognized as unrealistic. In reality, the practice of development management is characterized by processes of mutual adjustment among individuals, agencies, and interest ...
Public-Private Partnerships in the USA: Lessons to be Learned for the United Kingdom
1st Edition
By Tony Wall
October 14, 2024
Broadly, a Public-Private Partnership (or PPP) is any collaboration between the public and private sector, but research in the UK has tended to focus on those that have been used for major infrastructure projects, such as roads, schools, and hospitals. This book compares and contrasts PPP research ...
Risk Management and Public Service Reform: Changing Governance and Funding Structures within School Education Services
1st Edition
By Iniobong Enang
October 09, 2024
School education reform is a dynamic process. It takes place in the context of changing institutional structures including society, economy, politics, legislation, and technology. Yet, there can be poor awareness of risk, particularly social risk, and its management during this process and more ...
Global Risk Management: The Role of Collective Cognition in Response to COVID-19
1st Edition
Edited
By Louise K. Comfort, Mary Lee Rhodes
May 27, 2024
The rise and spread of Covid-19 in the beginning of 2020 presents a once-in-a-century challenge and opportunity for decision makers, managers, scholars, and citizens to understand the risks, mitigate its impact and prepare for future crises. Drawing on a global network of scholars, this book ...
Pandemics and Public Value Management
1st Edition
By Usman Chohan
January 29, 2024
Widespread crisis-events such as pandemics can impose an immense strain on societies’ multi-stakeholder efforts to preserve and sustain the mechanisms of public value (PV) creation. The global coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic exemplifies this because it has pushed civil society, public managers, ...