Credible Public Practices

Panel Chairs:

David Laws, University of Amsterdam (contact: Tamara Metze: t.metze@uvt.nl)

Abstract:

This panel begins with the premise that public officials, citizens groups and businesses in a network society face a unique credibility challenge as they advance their arguments, policy positions, and narratives. Where public agents once secured legitimacy through the formal arrangements of government, they and other public agents must now be credible. If actors find the arguments, policy positions, and narratives of others credible, they are in principle willing to accept and support them. We introduce credibility as a more appropriate frame for legitimacy in a network society. Credibility is secured informal relations. The papers in this panel address this credibility challenge by examining these questions: How do politicians, public officials and experts regain and maintain credibility? And how do citizens and business representatives participate in problem solving and decision making for the public good in ways that appear and are credible to others?

While they all focus on credibility in public practices, the papers in this panel address different substantive issues -environmental politics, crisis management, and cultural planning - and different policy processes -public deliberation and public management. By examining credibility in these different contexts, we hope to deepen our understanding of the unique credibility challenge actors in a networked society face and how credibility relates to democratic legitimacy and decision making in horizontal relationships.

To enhance the deliberative quality of the discussion, each panellist will present one paper from a different panellist using a "fishbowl" technique. Panellists will present the papers to each other in an inner circle, begin a discussion amongst themselves, then open the conversation to the broader audience, who will be invited to replace participants from the inner circle.