Curriculum Vitae

PROFESSOR HENDRIK WAGENAAR, FRSA


PERSONAL INFORMATION

Name: Wagenaar, Hendrik
Researcher unique identifier(s): ORCID: 0000-0001-7275-6761
Nationality: Netherlands
Date of birth: 19 April 1950

EDUCATION

1968 – 1975 University of Amsterdam, BA and MA in Psychology
1982–1987 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge Massachusetts, USA. PhD, Urban Studies

MISSION STATEMENT

From the start of my career as a policy scholar I have been interested in policy implementation, the processes by which political decisions are realized. This resulted in two fruitful research ‘programs’: the study of policy practice and the study of the way that policies are perceived by the target group. To conceive of policy making as a practice implies a transformational change in perspective. In a nutshell it means to approach public policy from, what John Dewey calls, the “practical starting point”. Instead of projecting theories upon the world that we study, the emphasis is on the experience of policy implementation, where the term ‘experience’ refers not to an individual state but a dynamic relationship between the person and their world. My work on practice has generated a series of theoretical and applied articles and book chapters.

My preference for studying the reception of policies by the target group has both intellectual and ethical reasons. Inquiring into the way that ordinary people and administrators perceive policies and try to integrate them into their life world, is a particularly fruitful way to understand the mechanisms by which negative unintended consequences are generated. Ethically, ordinary people are underrepresented in the policy literature. Street level bureaucrats have been studied extensively, but usually not from a practice perspective. I therefore established mutual collaborations with administrative agencies, patient associations (mental health), citizen initiatives (Resident University), commons, and sex worker advocacy groups, trying to communicate to these groups the insights I had derived from my research. In many publications on topics as varied as the deinstitutionalization of public services, administrative practice, social service delivery, governance driven democratisation, urban commons, and prostitution policy I have applied and developed this dual perspective.  

Finally, a practice approach, combined with a focus on ordinary people and street-level bureaucrats, calls for a research strategy that fits the open-ended nature of the subject at hand. For this reason, I gravitated towards interpretive research methods in my research and teaching: intensive qualitative empirical research followed by abductive conceptualization.  In numerous publications I articulated and developed what it means to do and teach interpretive policy research.  

CURRENT POSITIONS

2020 - Fellow, Institut für Hohere Studien (Institute fair Advanced Studies), Vienna (https://www.ihs.ac.at)

2018 - Adjunct Professor, Center for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, The University of Canberra (https://www.governanceinstitute.edu.au)

2017 - Senior Academic Advisor, International School for Government, King’s College London (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/isfg)

PREVIOUS POSITIONS

2018 Paul Lazarsfeld Visiting Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Vienna
2018 Lecturer, Institut für Politikwissenschaften, The university of Vienna
2011 - 2017 Professor of Urban Studies and Planning, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, University of Sheffield, UK
2014 - 2017 Associate Director, Crick Centre, University of Sheffield, UK
2008-2011 Research Director, Centre for Governance Studies, The Hague Campus, Leiden University, NL

2007-2011 Instructor Research Interviewing, Dutch Safety Board. (My work consisted of training the investigators in qualitative interviewing and supervising their interviews.)
2003-2009 Senior Research Fellow, Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, Leiden University, NL
1991-2011 Associate Professor, Department of Administration, Leiden University, NL
2007–2010 Research Associate, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, US
2010 Lecturer, Law & Society Program, Northeastern University, US
1976-1982 Policy Executive, Foundation for Educational Research, NL


FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS

2019 Visiting Scholar Thailand Research Fund, under the auspices of called "Thai Humanities Forum", Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok. The visit was organized by Piyapong Boossabong and Pobsook and Pobsook Chamsong of Chiang Mai University. The purpose of the visit was to work with local scholars and practitioners in Chiang Mai and Bangkok on promoting and developing delineative policy analysis

2011 Fellow of the British Royal Society of Arts
2007 Best article American Review of Public Administration (for: “Governance, Complexity and Democratic Participation: How citizens and public officials harness the complexities of neighbourhood decline”)
2004 Marshall E. Dimock Award for best lead article in Public Administration Review, in 2004 (for “’Knowing’ the Rules. Administrative Work as Practice”)
1991 Van Eesteren-Fluck Foundation, The Netherlands, Honourable Award for “Playing the System” in essay contest: "New Models in Conducting andApplying Research for Design, Planning and Policy Making"
1982-1987 Fulbright Fellowship for graduate study in the United States

VISITING APPOINTMENTS

University of Canberra, Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis (VisitingFellow, April, 2017); University of Birmingham, Institute for Local Government,(Visiting professor, 2008-2009), Research Fellow (Netherlands institute forCrime and law – 2003-2009), Ramkamgheng University, Institute of International Studies, Bangkok, Thailand (visiting professor, 2004), University of Vienna,Austria, Institut für Politikwissenschaft (Visiting Professor, 2003), University ofAmsterdam, Amsterdam School for Social Science Research (Staff member, 2002-2010), University of Oregon, Institute of Public Policy, Portland, Oregon (Visiting Professor, Hatfield Chair, 2000)

INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

2024 Member of the Commision Democracy in Digital Soceities, Austrian Academy of Sciences (until 2029

2017 - Member Editorial Board Administrative Theory and Praxis.
2016- International Advisory Board “exPERTs Project, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, University of Lisbon
2013-2016 Advisory Board, ESRC N8-grant: Knowledge that Matters: Realisingthe Potential of Co-production.
2006- 2016 Editorial Council, Critical Policy Studies
2006-2011 European Science Foundation, Steering committee Euroqual:Qualitative Research in the Social Sciences in Europe
2005-2008 Founder/Director, European Summer School in Policy Analysis(ESSPA) (with G. Capano (University of Bologna), H. Gottweis(University of Vienna)
2002- Convener, Standing Group Theoretical Perspectives in PolicyAnalysis, European Consortium for Political Science Research.
1999- Member Editorial Board, American Review of Public Administration
1997- 2001 Advisory Board, Netherlands Institute of Government
1994-2003 Editorial Board Administrative Theory & Praxis

GRANTS

  • 2013: COST Action “Comparing European Prostitution Policies: Understanding Scales and Cultures of Governance: http://prospol.eu. (Member Core Management Group. Chair: Working group 1: Prostitution Policies and Politics) (Until 2017; € 135.000 annually)

  • 2010: Flemish Advisory Board for Public Administration, Improving the Organisation of Flemish Integration Policies (€24.000, with Dr Trui Steen, Leiden University)

  • 2010: Ministry of the Interior: What Can Public Policy mediation mean for the Netherlands? (€20.000, with Dr David Laws, University of Amsterdam)

  • 2009: Nicis, Actie-onderzoek, De Coördinatie van de persoonsgerichte aanpak van veelplegers. (Action Research into Person-centered Approaches to Frequent Recidivism (€350.000) (This study had direct impact on a more comprehensive and coordinated approach to providing services to multi problem clients in the cities of Rotterdam and The Hague)

  • 2009: Nicis; Internationaal vergelijkend onderzoek naar prostitutiebeleid in Nederland, Oostenrijk en Zweden. (An International Comparative Study of Prostitution Policy in The Netherlands, Austria and Sweden) (€750.000) (This project was designed according to principles of deliberatie policy analysis. The reserach proceeded in close consultation with the participating cities in the Netherlands and Austria. While the city Vienna used the results of the study to recalibrate their prostituion policy, the Dutch cities embraced a more punitive ’trafficiking’ framing of prostituion. The Dutch Senate used the results of the study to strike down a regressive new national prostitution law, as evidenced by the minutes of the session. As PI I had briefed some senators about the results of our study. I subsequently advised sex workers in the founding of their advocacy organisation PROUD, and was a member of a ’knowledge network’ of sex workers and activists on prostituion policy in the Netherlands)

  • 2007-2008: Honours Class: New Democratic Governance: Trends, Rationales, Challenges”, University of Leiden (grant €15.000)

  • 2005: NOW/STIP research grant: “Stedelijk Burgerbestuur als Bestuurlijk Arrangement: maatschappelijke complexiteit en praktijken van burgerschap” (Citizen Participation as an Administrative Arrangement: Social Complexity and Participatory Practices) (Dutch National Science Foundation, € 280.000) (The impact of this study was mostly on citizen initiatives in low-income neighbourhoods in the Netherlands and Belgium. The PI and one of his PhD students became leading advisors to the so called Citizen University, an initiative of citizen commons in different European countries to exchange experiences with citizen participation.)

  • 2003: Research grant Netherlands Ministry of Social Affairs: “Buurten, Leefbaarheid en Participerende Democratie” (Neighborhoods, Quality of Life, and Participatory Democracy) (€ 50.000)

  • 1993: Research grant Netherlands Ministry of Education: “Evaluatie van de Commissie Programma-Evaluatie”. (Evaluation of the Committee for Programme Evaluation) (€55.000)

  • 1991 National Institute of Mental Health, research grant for “Outcomes of Mental Health Service Systems”, Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry ($500.000; with Professor Barbara Dickey)

Whitaker Health Sciences Fund (USA): fellowship for dissertation research (1985-1987).


TEACHING, SUPERVISION OF GRADUATE STUDENTS AND POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS

TEACHING

I have extensive teaching experience at all levels in the following areas:

  • Urban Studies and Planning: as a professor at the University of Sheffield and as Associate professor at the University of LeidenI taught course and seminars related to urban governance, participatory democracy, food management, and ethics, values and theory in planning.

  • Public Policy and Public Administration: At all the universities that I worked I taught courses and seminars on policy studies, policy practice, human resource management, and administrative practice

  • Interpretive Research Methods: at the University of Leiden, University of Sheffield, University of Vienna, the ECPR Methods School, and the Netherlands Institute of Government ((national graduate school in public administration and political science), I taught courses and seminars in qualitative and interpretive research methods, as well as qualitative interviewing and data analysis. At the University of Amsterdam I taught an intensive graduate seminar on Deliberative Policy Analysis

PhD SUPERVISION


By way of preface: in the Netherlands only full professors have the right to act as“first supervisor” for PhD students. All other ranks, such as my own at the time(Associate Professor), can only act as secondary supervisor. In the cases below Iinitiated the project and/or acted as de facto primary supervisor.

Completed

  • Haket, Vera, Changing Stories in Penal Law: the development of storiesabout rape in criminal trials, Universiteit Leiden (in Dutch);

  • Caroline Raat, Schoordijkreeks, ISBN 978-90-5454-226. People withPower: “rechtstatelijkheid” as a civil virtue in public organizations, Bju, DenHaag 2007Universiteit Tilburg. (in Dutch);

  • Hartendorp, Rogier, Practically Speaking: everyday civil law as practicaljudgement). Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam,

  • Specht, Maurice, Citizen Participation as Governance: social complexity andpractices of urban governance Universiteit Leiden (in Dutch);

  • Krieger, Yulia, Shifting the Norm: Reforming Social Protection in afragmented Society. The case of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Maastricht School ofGovernance;

  • Wan, Xiaoyuan, “Changing Governmentalities and Power Relations inChinese Street-level Government’s Community Construction” Practices.The case of Nuanluoxiang. The University of Sheffield

  • Cheng, Zifei, “Heritage Conservation in China”, The University of Sheffield3

  • Morales Garcia de Alba, Emma, Middle-Class Gatedness: Policies, Practicesand Meanings in the Proliferation of Middle Class gated Communities inMexcio.The University of Sheffield

  • Duiveman, Robert, Co-producing Policy Research, University of Amsterdam,

  • Pu Niu, How ‘government intervention’ can contribute to deliver social justice in the urban village regeneration in China. University of Sheffield

  • Zhen Lu, Educational Inequality in China. University of Sheffield

I served as external examiner for six PhD these at: Luleå University of Technology, Erasmus UniversityRotterdam, University of Utrecht, University of Groningen, University ofEdinburgh, University College London

EXTERNAL TEACHING

I am an experienced and well-regarded teacher of qualitative and interpretiveresearch methodology at the graduate level. I have organized, and taught in, anumber of graduate summer schools on the design and methodology ofinterpretive social research. I organized (with Herbert Gottweis and GilibertoCapano) the European Summer School in Policy Analysis (2005-2008). I taught inthe Netherlands Institute of Governance (1997-2011), the ECPR Methods Schoolin Ljubljana (2011-2014). I also gave summer classes in Roskilde (Denmark),Tampere (Finland) and currently at the Humboldt Universität in Berlin (2016-present). In addition I taught qualitative methods to various groups ofprofessionals, such as the inspectors of the Dutch Safety Board.

KEY NOTE AND INVITED LECTURES

2023 The Pandemic Within: Policy Making for a better World. SESC-IFSR Systems Thinking Symposium. Systems Thinking in the Postpandemic Era, Beijing and online, Feb 21-24, 2023

2018 The Emergence of Civic Enterprise. Paul Lazarsfeld Lecture, University of Vienna.

2017 The Emergence of Civic Enterprise. Social Innovation, Governance and Democratic Renewal in a Neoliberal World. Parliamentary Triangle Public Lecture Series. The Old Parliament House, Canberra, April 3, 2017

“Burgerinitiatief in Neoliberale Tijden”, (Citizen initiatives in Neoliberal Times”), Seminar The Co-operative Society”, Pakhuis De Zwijger, Jan 24, 2017

2015 Wagenaar, H. “Democratic Transfer: Everyday Neoliberalism, Hegemony and the Prospects for Democratic Renewal, invited lecture at Tsinghua University, Department of Politics, Dec 7, 2015

Wagenaar, H, "To What Extent Is Collaborative Governance in Prostitution Possible?", Keynote Address at the COST Action IS1209 Prospol Meeting, Porto, September 21, 2015)

2014 “The Promise of Democracy? Civic Enterprises and the Transformation of Capitalist Democracy”, Department of Planning, University of Groningen, NL.

2013 “The Agonistic Experience: Informality, Hegemony and Transformative Democracy”, planning/conflict – cities and citizen ship in times of crisis, Instituto de Ciênsias Sociais, University of Lisbon, PT

2012 Citizen Participation and Public Safety, Seminar “20 years of citizen participation in The Hague”, City of The Hague, NL.

Regulating Prostitution: Results of an International Comparative Study of Prostitution Policy, Center for Social Policy at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, University of Massachusetts, US.

2010 “Prostitution Policy as Morality Politics”, ESF Workshop on Exploring and Comparing Prostitution Policy Regimes in Europe. London, Birkbeck, University of London, UK

“Enacting Complexity: Resilience, Urban Governance and Pragmatism”, 8th AESOP Planning and Complexity Workshop – ‘Resilient Cities’, Stockholm Resiliency Centre, Stockholm, SE

2009 ESRC seminar “Policy as Practice: Understanding the Work of Policy- Makers”, University of Birmingham, UK

2008 “Complexity and Public Policy”, ESRC seminar “Complexity in the Social Sciences”, London School of Economics, UK

“Complexity and Public Policy”, Eurocities: “Innovations in Governance”. The Hague.

“Interpretive Policy Analysis”; Seminar: Interpretive Methods University, Department of Politics, University of Essex

“An Epistemology of Practice” (with Noam Cook), Seminar: The Practice Perspective in Political Science. Institut für Hohere Studiën, Vienna, Austria.

2007 “An Epistemology of Practice”, Workshop: The (Re-) turn to Practice. Thinking Practices in International Relations and Security Studies European University Institute, Florence, IT.

2005 “An Epistemology of Practice” Conference: Practice Studies in Public Policy, University of Tampere, FI.

2003 “Democracy and Prostitution: Decriminalizing Prostitution Policy In the Netherlands”, Truman School of Public Affairs, University of Missouri, US

2000 “The Narrative Construction of Public Policy”, Seminar: Interpretation and Narrative in Policy Analysis, University of Oregon, Portland, USA.


LANGUAGES

Fluent in Dutch and English. German: comprehension excellent, spoken German good.