Public Governance Research Blog

Hot off the heels of rubbing elbows with Bill Clinton at the first annual CDGC meeting [5], Prof. Dr. Harvey Goldstein is one of MODUL University Vienna's most distinguished academics. He holds the position of as Professor and Dean of the Program in Public Governance and Management.

The staff and faculty of MODUL University Vienna are thrilled to introduce their newest faculty member, Dr. M. Graziano Ceddia, Associate Professor at the Department of Public Governance and Management. He holds a BSc, from the University of Siena, Italy and MSc and PhD degrees from the University of York, UK.

The Danube Delta, the Lesachtal, the Lubusz country and the Slovak Karst – Aggtelek Karst have some things in common: They are European cross border regions with important natural heritages and each of them has been designated as ‘Landscape of the Year’ by the International Friends of Nature. Naturefriends International and MODUL University Vienna among others are partners in a project which aims at creating a network of these regions with a particular focus on tourism.

Harvey Goldstein, head of the Department of Public Governance and Management at MODUL University Vienna, and Gunther Maier from WU-Wien have published an article in the Journal of Planning Education and Research that examines whether the subjective value of journals by scholars in the field of planning is related to journal impact factors. Impact factors are based upon incidence of citations of the articles published in a given journal. Goldstein and Maier found that there is no statistical relationship, and urge university administrators to be cautious in using journal impact factors for making personnel decisions and for evaluating the scholarly productivity of academic departments.

The question of how universities can support policy processes for sustainable development was addressed by Sabine Sedlacek, member of the Department of Public Governance and Management of MODUL University Vienna, during the 50th European Congress of the Regional Science Association International, which took place in Jönköping (Sweden) in August 2010. The goal was to filter factors enhancing sustainable development as well as obstacles and barriers.

At the "Central Europe toward Sustainable Building" conference, which took place in Prague in June/July 2010, Sabine Sedlacek from the Department of Public Governance and Management presented two studies about the effectiveness of regional councils for sustainable building. Results from an online survey about governance aspects of sustainable building councils provide a valuable insight in their structures, their working processes and the role they play in regional governance settings. The question “Do green building councils make sense?” was subsequently assessed.

The departments of Public Governance and New Media Technology of MODUL University Vienna have launched a common research project with other research institution to establish a Climate Change Collaboratory. The collaboratory aims to strengthen the relations between Austrian scientists, policy makers, educators, environmental NGOs, news media and corporations - stakeholders who recognize the need for adaptation and mitigation, but differ in worldviews, goals and agendas.

In March 2010, the 12th Winelands Conference on Public Leadership for Added Citizen Value took place at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. The public governance department of MODUL University Vienna had the honor to present two research papers about the role of universities in the governance of (sustainable) local and regional development.

[20]MODUL University Vienna has just recently launched three fanpages on the social networking platform Facebook. Besides a general representation of the University on Facebook, there is a page for the Bachelor of Business Administration in Tourism and Hospitality Management and the Master of Business Administration in New Media Technology and Management programs.