Call for Papers

11th Annual Fred Riggs Symposium
Robust and Responsive Government for Resilient Communities

Section on International and Comparative Administration (SICA) of the
American Society for Public Administration (ASPA)

The Section on International and Comparative Administration (SICA) of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) is seeking abstracts and/or fully formed panels for the 11th Annual Fred Riggs Symposium to be held on Friday, April 12th during the 2024 ASPA Annual Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The title for the symposium is Robust and Responsive Government for Resilient Communities, which contributes to the ASPA Conference theme on building resilient communities.

The coronavirus pandemic, climate disasters, social and economic injustice, xenophobia, and more have put a large strain on governments around the world in recent years. As practitioners and scholars in the public administration field, we play a key role in mitigating the impacts of these disasters and in promoting resilience in our local communities and beyond. Without this resiliency, governments are unable to function at their optimal level. Resilience can be achieved in many ways, including a rapid response time; a robust plan for before, during, and after disasters; strong partnerships with other individuals and organizations within the community and beyond; access to new technology and innovation; and more. In addition, the public administration field must continually adapt to innovations to maintain its resiliency.

The SICA Riggs Symposium will focus on how governments worldwide can promote resiliency, responsiveness, and robustness in the local context. It will also examine how public administrators can respond to global disasters highlighting the relevance of a global and comparative approach to pedagogy and research in public administration. Students who are introduced to a comparative and international resiliency-building framework can better understand and implement resiliency strategies into management practices. Such training can enable them to better support their communities in times of trouble, and develop their innovative strategies.

SICA encourages authors to think about ways public managers/administrators working at the local level and public administration educators can promote resilience within their communities. Furthermore, what are examples of promising practices in fostering local resilience that have already been implemented, and what new ideas should be further explored?

Proposals can address the following questions and other ones related to international and comparative public administration:

•                How do governments and communities in different contexts interpret and implement resilience?

•                Are the administrative values of efficiency and resilience in conflict? If so, how do governments and the public navigate this tension?

•                How can technology promote public sector resilience and sustainable development?

•                What role can transnational governance play in promoting public sector resilience and sustainable development?

•                How can public organizations incorporate resilience into their recruitment and training processes?

•                How can governments and nonprofit organizations collaborate to promote community resilience?

•                How can scholars and practitioners promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in global community resilience?

•                How can scholars and practitioners assess and evaluate resilience in the public sector?

•                What roles must comparative public administration scholars and practitioners play in building resilient communities?

•                What is the nexus of comparative theories and practices related to global community resilience?

•                How can we build bridges across the profession to collaboratively develop policy solutions to current community challenges?

•                What lessons can comparative public administration scholarship and practice provide to solving contemporary community challenges?

•                …And similar topics.

The 2024 Riggs Symposium explores these questions and considers how public administrators and public administration educators around the world can promote resilience in their communities. We seek papers and panels that address this topic in any national or comparative context. 

Submission Information

Individual Paper Proposal: Please submit an abstract not exceeding 300 words, your paper title, the author’s affiliation (s), and contact information for at least one author.

Panel Proposal: Please submit the panel title along with the titles of 3-5 papers the paper author names, affiliations, contact details, and the discussant for the panel. Each panel submission must also include the paper abstracts for each panel. Each abstract should not exceed 300 words.

All abstracts and panel proposals must be submitted via the ASPA website. Please name your submission with an indication of ‘Riggs Symposium/SICA’ and select the Riggs Symposium from the options when you submit through the ASPA website. The submission deadline is October 29.

https://aspanet.secure-platform.com/a/solicitations/1041/home

If your paper abstract or panel is accepted, your full paper for the ASPA Conference is due one week before the conference start date. Accepted paper authors must register for the conference via the ASPA website. All full papers submitted for the Riggs Symposium will be considered for SICA’s Garcia-Zamor Best Paper Award.

The 2024 Annual Conference is an in-person event; virtual attendance/Zoom room access/ other remote attendance options are unavailable for this event. All symposium participants must attend the symposium in-person in Minneapolis. All speakers and attendees must pay the appropriate fees to attend the conference at the time of registration. No exceptions to this policy will be made. 

Members of the 2024 Riggs Symposium Committee

•                Co-Chairs: Atta Ceesay, SUNY Buffalo State University & Brittany Keegan, Virginia Commonwealth University

•                Ricardo Bello-Gomez, Rutgers University – Newark

•                Aroon Manoharan, Suffolk University

•                Charlene M L Roach, The University of the West Indies, Trinidad & Tobago

•                Cristina M. Stanica, Northeastern University

•                Jungwon Yeo, University of Central Florida