Name of event: 4th edition of the International Conference on Public Policy (ICPP4)
The 4th edition of the International Conference of Public (ICPP4) was organized by the International Public Policy Association (IPPA), a leading international organization in the field of policy science. It aims to promote the international diffusion of knowledge on public policy, disseminating and promoting current research on public policy and its use by policy-making organizations. Regional studies are perfectly positioned within the IPPA aims, since several domestic and/or European policies require the involvement of sub-national actors (regional and local) for the policy elaboration and implementation. In this context, the ICPP4 activities represented for me a great opportunity to reinforce the theoretical arguments of my research which has a strong empirical focus on sub-national policies.
ICPP4 took place at the University of Concordia, between the 26th – 28th June, with a pre-conference session on the 25th June. During all the activities of the Conference, I had opportunity to promote the RSA and the RSA community, and opportunities offered to members. This mainly happened in the Registration Area of the ICPP4 where, in agreement with Clarisse Boyer (Project Manager at the IPPA and responsible for communications for the ICPP4), I displayed some RSA flyers with information about RSA activities and journals. The stand was situated next to the IPPA stand, and it was a very good additional opportunity for me to disseminate RSA information with people that could appreciate the complementary of the two Associations, as well think about a possible future affiliation with the RSA. The pre-conference aimed at Early Career scholars gave me ample opportunity to meet young scholars who were interested in the activities of the RSA. I also promoted the RSA activities during the panel where my article was presented. Being a panel on policy implementation, several scholars were present who focused on the implementation of specific public policies by regional actors across the world. Realising how also their academic interests aligned with the RSA’s aims, most of them were excited about the RSA opportunities that I presented and asked me for further information. In addition, several scholars were very interested in the aims of the RSA journal Territory, Politics, Governance, and in several cases, I underlined the added value that a possible submission of their article to this journal could have on their career progression. Finally, through my Twitter account [@MattiaCasula1], I posted several tweets to encourage people to have a look at the RSA initiatives and opportunities in the Exhibition Area.
Finally, both my article and my research benefited from this opportunity: Firstly, as the panel was about policy implementation arrangements and the different theoretical and methodological elements related to the organizational, structural and managerial aspects that were discussed in-depth by high qualified international scholars, I received good comments and feedback which will help me improve the theoretical argument of my paper. Secondly, the event gave me some good opportunities to discuss how to connect common trends in regional and urban studies with the solid, dated and well-established theories in the field of public policy.