EuropeanPerspectivesforPublicAdministration:Seminar“Cultures,DiversityandPublic

Administration“

14-15December2017KULeuven

(Leuven,Belgium)

Session3:Religion,diversity,andPA

PresentationSofianeSahraoui

www. i ias - i i sa .o rg

Perspective on Culture, Religion, and PA

European Perspectives for Public Administration - EPPA Seminar

Leuven, 14-15 December 2017 Sofiane Sahraoui, PhD IIAS Director General

Fabienne Maron, PhD IIAS Scientific Director

Perspective on culture, religion, and PA

•  External (Muslim) perspective, not necessarily a local Islamic perspective (Foreign perspective)

•  Globalized professional cultures (Global perspective) •  Perspective on public administration (Local)

An External Islamic perspective

•  Perception of a neo-colonial, Islamophobic Europe vs. Europe as a space for economic, political, and social freedoms and opportunities

•  Concepts of public vs. private space is different in Islam than in Western Europe

•  “Laïcité” especially in the “Jacobine” sense is an irrelevant concept in Islam and belongs to a Christian historical trajectory

•  Islamic communities can thrive in Western contexts (e.g. USA) without identity alienation

•  Islam as part of a diverse community can enrich the shared public space

Public administration •  European = Western = Modern = Good (Drechsler) •  PA is a political vehicle for State actions and is not neutral nor

objective •  Its actions are the institutionalization of the power game between

the major political forces in the country/region/locality •  Interests of Muslim communities are not properly taken into

consideration •  Need to reconsider the value bases of PA and renegotiate to

integrate interests of all stakeholders •  European perspective: Historical or demographic Europe? •  Reinforce vs. reinvent the European perspective

How to deal with change?

•  To take into account different cultures and religions as key ingredients in building a new public space

•  Facilitate the emergence of authentic constructions of identity, culture and faith

•  Emphasis on context and culture in analyzing consequences of public action

•  Question the basics including historical assumptions about religion and State. Sacro-saint “laIcité” is a “religious fundamentalist” discourse

•  Visible diversity

Reinventing the European perspective on PA

•  Inclusive international offices instead of immigration desks (Kopric)

•  Diversity proof public sector (Kopric) •  Reinforce integration within a diversity framework and not

as assimilation •  Diversity is richness (Kopric) •  Cultural identity is the pillar of integration •  New public sector cultures which cannot be developed in

isolation from the surrounding political system •  Develop a north-south SCO dialogue

Reinventing the European perspective on PA

•  Reset the political game for better representativeness especially at the local level

•  Participatory democracy •  Political will and national debate and consensus •  Internal and external dialogue •  PA reform within a reinvented PA perspective `is not a

rational construction process of reengineering administration systems but the construction of a new social contract

Implications for teaching & research

•  New European PA cannot be analyzed with existing tools only

•  Participatory/engaged modes of research •  New paradigms/research methodologies •  Ethnographic/inductive not the Hofstede type •  Critical perspectives •  Need to develop in-house PA research agendas for a

greater impact •  Evidence-based social contract

Dialogue and Key issues

•  Religion, diversity and PA paradigms and approaches; •  Religion, values and ethics in defining public policies; •  Religion and public policies how religions influence/or not

public policies’ conception;

•  How public policies deal/or not with issues linked to religions, diversity and contemporary problems;

Dialogue and Key issues

•  Religion, diversity and civil services composition and recruitment; does religion/diversity matter?

•  Leadership, religion and PA; •  Contemporary crises management and religions: how to

deal with crises and questions linked religion and diversity in contemporary crises?

Next steps

ü  An interregional dialogue on Religions and PA;

> IIAS Study Group on Religions, Diversity and PA;

ü  A panel on this topic;

ü  A platform for further exchanges

THANK YOU

Contact International Institute of Administrative Sciences

6th Floor C Block Rue du Commerce 96

1040 Brussels (Belgium) Phone : +32-(0)2-536.08.80

Fax : +32-(0)2-537.97.02 E-Mail: info@iias-iisa.org Dr Sofiane SAHRAOUI

E-mail : s.sahraoui@iias-iisa.org Dr Fabienne MARON

E-mail : f.maron@iias-iisa.org