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Advanced Introduction to Public Governance (3EC)

Date
January 21-23, 2026
Apply for this course here

Instructor
dr. Sjors Overman (Utrecht University) 

Course fees

  • Free for NIG members
  • €500,- for non-members from an NIG member institution
  • €750,- for third parties

Short course description
Public governance is the answer to many ills of today’s world. Mitigating large problems including climate change, diseases, (forced) migration, and poverty require some form of governance. But that is easier said than done, because these large problems are essentially messy, have no clear problem definition, and involve competing interests. Governance is much more than just designing an ‘optimal’ solution to a problem. Understanding public governance involves understanding the logic of institutions, politics and bureaucracies. It requires balancing performance, legitimacy, accountability, and other public values.

The central question in this course is: What is public governance and how do we theorize in public governance? Answering these questions is essential to study public governance in a rigorous way. We will delve into large societal problems and apply different approaches and theories of governance to gain a deeper understanding of these problems. We will notice that good theories of governance can be instrumental to governance, critical of governance, as well as explanatory.

The course is aimed at researchers who are interested in governance theories, but do not have a background in Public Administration or Political Science. The course treats governance as ‘the interaction between government and non-government actors engage d in the governing of specific public problems.’ (Ansell 2023: 3). It is an essential course for PhD candidates in Governance who come from a different background, as well as for PhD candidates in other disciplines who want to study governance as part of their program.