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"In this innovative book, Jacob Torfing, a leading scholar of the field, critically evaluates emerging ideas, practices and institutions that are transforming how public governance is perceived, theorised and conducted in practice. Identifying cutting-edge developments in public governance, this incisive book analyses new forms of political leadership, public management, public organisation, administrative steering, cross-boundary collaboration, public regulation and societal problem-solving. Examining some of the most significant instances of public governance transformation, chapters explore the effects of transformations from sovereign to interactive political leadership, from national to multi-level governance, and from hard to soft power. With a novel focus on the production of innovative public value outcomes, the book considers how these developments interact with and are influenced by new digital technologies and increasing globalisation. Torfing concludes with a reflection on how best to comprehend, study and take advantage of current and future transformations in public governance. A novel rethinking of how current societies are governed, this book will inspire students, scholars and practitioners of political science, public policy, regulation and governance, and public administration management to reconsider how public governance and administration may be organised in the future to present innovative solutions to societal problems."--

Public sector innovation is important because the pressures of growing expectations from citizens, budget crunches, and a surge of complex governance problems cannot be solved by standard government solutions or increased funding. In order to innovate, government increasingly needs to collaborate with networks of partners across agency boundaries and especially with the nonprofit and private sectors to find new solutions. This interaction within a network can enhance creative and effective governance solutions. In this book, Jacob Torfing closely examines the link between network-based collaborative governance and innovation, proposes a framework for the study of collaborative innovation, and discusses this approach in light of theoretical insights from other disciplines and from examples of public innovation drawn from the United States, Europe, and Australia. This book will move scholars closer to being able to develop a theory of collaborative innovation

"Governance Through Civil Society" published on by Oxford University Press.

The present paper aims to apply the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau in a concrete study of the ideologization of the welfare state in Denmark in the postwar period. Why was 'the welfare state', initially, constructed as an empty signifier, which constituted a nodal point in totalizing vision about how to organize the whole of society? How was, later, the empty universalism filled by a particular political project. My claim is that 'the welfare state' emerged as an empty signifier in response to societal dislocation. The particular content of the welfare state project was determined in and through policitical struggles in which the social-democratic party played a crucial role. The paper first discusses Laclaus account of the relation between the universal and the particular. It then offers some methodological reflections about how to apply discourse theory in empirical studies. Finally it provides a detailed discourse analysis of some crucial historical texts and contexts.

Collaborative innovation is a new method for creating public innovation that both takes issue with the traditional appraisal of innovation heroes and with the idea that public innovation is primarily a result of stable bureaucratic procedures or market-based competition. The strength of collaborative innovation is that the interaction between public and private actors sharpens the problem definition, generate more and better ideas and build ownership to new and bold solutions. However, there are many barriers to collaborative innovation in the public sector and there is, therefore, a great need for innovation management in order to remove or at least reduce the barriers. The article delineates three new roles for innovation managers that will help to support processes of collaborative innovation. The argument is illustrated by an empirical case study of the formulation of an exit strategy for gang members in Copenhagen, who want to leave a criminal environment and establish a new and safer life. The conclusion evaluates the collaboration innovation method in the light of the transition from New Public Management to New Public Governance.