The Association for Middle Eastern Public Policy and Administration (AMEPPA) is pleased to announce the convening of its Second Conference on November 14 and 15, 2013, at Atılım University in Ankara, Turkey. The conference is also the Second Global Conference on Public Policy and Administration in the Middle East.

 

We are asking scholars both in the Middle East and around the world to participate in this important conference and be part of a scholarly movement dedicated to public service and public interest in the Middle East. Professionals and academics from all countries and territories and of all nationalities are welcome to participate as presenters (upon acceptance of an abstract or panel) and as conference attendees.

 

Since the conference will be organized in several themes, the reviewers will be looking for a number of key features in proposals for papers:

 

· Abstracts should be directly related to one of the themes and strongly related to one or more than one Middle Eastern

  countries.

· Abstracts should show evidence of theoretical and conceptual underpinning for the proposed paper.

· Papers should be empirically based with evidence of new findings from research by the author(s) or direct

  involvement with the experience being reported; purely reflective/theoretical/conceptual/hypothetical papers are

  strongly discouraged and will not be accepted.

· There should be evidence that the proposed paper emerges from or related to contemporary debate within the public

  policy and administration sphere, broadly defined.

 

Proposals are accepted in English, Turkish, and Arabic. It is not necessary for a proposal to have all of these features, but it should have most of them.    

 

 

Ongoing upsurge of social movements and state restructuring in the Middle East in recent times have left nearly all academicians and practitioners in disarray, regarding scholarly recognition of the continuing turmoil with the help of a kaleidoscope of existing intellectual instruments and tool-kits. While on the one hand, there are optimistic approaches that perceive latest commotions as the last steps towards further modernization, there are also pessimistic perspectives that anxiously try to depict the trajectory of the change for coming years and generations. These two seemingly distinct positions are struggling to posit emergent chaotic situation within a meaningful frame of understanding in order to attest novelty of their positions and to identify a sound basis of analysis. Eventually, we see increased interaction among scholars from various countries and networks, an incrementalist effort to link incidences that cut across different scales of government and different sectors of societies. From local government level and urban life to regional bodies, from regional bodies to national state apparatus and even supra-national formations, the chaotic nature of change brings about search for models, new and innovative ways of looking into and prescribing the path to peace and prosperity in the Middle East.  It can even be argued that, this caused a convergence of different disciplines into public policy making and state restructuring processes.

 

But will these ongoing chaotic situations, spread in a number of nations in the Region, be handled to giving a way to stabilized and prosperous social life? Or, could it be possible to govern these chaotic situations solely with the help of the Middle East’s own historical experience with state-society relations, government institutions, models and theoretical accounts, without entirely depending upon the help and thinking of the advanced western nations? These questions are especially related to the capacities of public administrators all over the Region to bring hope, based on their own accumulation and sharing of experiences regarding crisis management.   

 

AMEPPA's second international conference will provide a welcoming venue for academics and practitioners, coming from a diverse array of backgrounds, to come together to explore how public policy and administration professionals, together with scholars from other disciplines can contribute to the region's transformation. The conference will present emerging ideas, new lessons from experience, and timely research findings to shape public policy and administration.

 

Within each of these areas, AMEPPA's International Conference will continue to explore the dynamics of models and experiences from within at various scales lead by diverse range of actors and institutions that can address the chaotic situations at hand. Leading voices in public policy and administration will present their perspectives on these challenges. Panels of scholars and practitioners will present the results of recent research and practice.

 

Papers and proposals for panel presentations are welcomed, including case studies, survey research, best practices, and comparative analyses between and among countries. We particularly welcome evidence-based proposals that focus on themes and the sub-themes within the public policy and public administration fields identified below as well as perspectives from practitioners that highlight experiences in innovation and change management.

 

For the follow-up of the former AMEPPA’s Conference and keeping track of the studies presented in it, from the Second Conference onwards, there will be a permanent track of sound governance the Key to Peace and Prosperity in the Middle East. In this track, studies furthering the research presented in former Conferences will find an opportunity to be disseminated in front of a wider audience. There might also be a follow-up session to be organized.

 

· Governance and Public Policy in the Middle East: Global Assimilation or Preserving Historical Identity?

· Public Administration and Civilization: Celebrating the Past and Exploring the Future.

· Governance in Middle East: An Interdisciplinary Interaction at the Crossroads of International Relations, Politics,

  Sociology and Public Administration.

· Innovation and Creativity for Chaotic Situations in the Middle East: Search for Prescriptions and Perspectives

· Civil Responses and Initiatives towards Restructuring Public Administration in the Middle East.

· Spatial and Organizational Challenges and Responses to the Governing Chaos in the Middle East.