Overview
SPEA in Barcelona 2013
Policy, Governance and Management in a Multi-Level World
V482/V582 Topics in Public Affairs (6 cr.)
June 22 - July 20, 2013
Pictures from Dr. McGregor's recent visit to Barcelona!
Massive global forces have combined to transform the environment in which policy is made and public, private and nonprofit management is practiced. Among the transformations are: Decline of the old industrial order and the rise of new rules and standards defining productivity in the Information Age; new patterns of global competition and cooperation enabled by strategic applications of information and communications technology; transnational thickening in the interactions among public, private and nonprofit organizations; and new standards by which the performance of public, private and nonprofit organizations can be judged.
The premise of the proposed course is that rule-changing forces have unleashed cascading pressures rippling through legacy institutions of governance, creating multilevel challenges for policy makers and public administrators. This, in turn, makes the decisions and moves of public managers strategic rather than merely managerial. Moreover, the challenges confronting modern systems of governance require innovation rather than the mere maintenance of legacy systems and processes. Barcelona is an ideal place in which to study multi-level innovation in a global context, for it exists as a living laboratory within which change and innovation have been a recurring theme. Indeed, for over 2,000 years, the city and region have presented a remarkable record of confronting significant challenge and change, whether the focus begins with the Carthaginian founding and the Roman reprisals that dominated the Iberian peninsula or the Visigoth confrontation with the Moors and Frankish leaders -- Charles Martel and Charlemagne -- the archeological evidence remains for student exploration. In the later eras of maritime expansion and industrialization, the record becomes even more impressive as contributions to art and literature mirrored the ferment evident in an autonomous region within Spain. Thus, Barcelona became the first city in Spain to industrialize, accelerating a flourishing Catalan Renaizença and a move toward autonomy with the development of Catalonia’s modernista architecture and thriving cultural contributions, celebrated in the world exhibitions of 1888 and 1929.
While civil war slowed the pace of innovation and the era of General Francisco Franco stifled the move toward autonomy for forty years, it did not prevent the growth of Barcelona as a thriving economic engine that once again was able to reconstitute itself to host the 1992 Olympic Games and achieve legal autonomy under the 2006 Statute of Autonomy.
Thus, in 2010, not only is Barcelona a distinct cultural and economic region of an important member of the EU-27, it has also emerged as a significant transnational regional player in the 46-nation Mediterranean area. In addition, it is an important substate regional player within Spain, complete with distinct culture, language, artistic tradition, and traditions of innovation. In sum, Barcelona provides impressive examples of local government leadership and complex problem solving. Thus, in one urban location – a modern global city with a long history of challenge and change -- it is possible for a team of professors to present both theory and case examples of multi-level innovation in public policy making and administration. In essence, the city itself becomes part of a 6-credit seminar that, with the exception of a required field trip to Madrid and Toledo, provides immediate access to all the governance layers included in the seminar.
Accommodations
Students are housed in the Melondistrict Marina, a modern and air-conditioned, international student apartment building five minutes from the centrally located, Ciutadella campus of University of Pompeau Fabra (UPF). The standard room arrangement is a single room with private bathroom and services that include access to the fully equipped kitchen-living room shared by a 10 room suite, once-per-week room service for linen change and cleaning, Internet access (wired in rooms and Wi-Fi in the residence), and 24-hour building security including an electronic key. Students can check the Melondistrict Web site to view the facility and rooms and learn about additional service options, such as laundry. Students desiring to save $500 on the program sticker price may choose to share a twin room.
Meals are organized in two parts. First, the program price includes breakfast and lunch at the UPF cafeteria for all students. Second, students will be on their own to choose among several dinner options that include: returning to the UPF cafeteria, cooking in the Melondistrict suite kitchen, visiting local markets, or trying local restaurants. Students can therefore change dinner options over the course of the program as they become more comfortable exploring the choices available in a cosmopolitan Mediterranean city. In addition, as noted, several evening meals are already included in the program as part of planned roundtables and excursions.
Eligibility
Both undergraduates at the end of their sophomore year and graduate students in good standing are eligible to apply for admission. Undergraduates should have at least a 2.8 GPA. While preference and scholarship money will be given SPEA students, the course is open to undergraduate and graduate students from any related IU department. The syllabus calls for more difficult assignments and higher research expectations placed on graduate students in comparison to undergraduates.
SPEA in Barcelona Faculty
Professor Eugene B. McGregor, Jr., is Professor Emeritus of Public and Environmental Affairs. While still a full-time SPEA professor he served as SPEA Director of Overseas Education Programs through December 2010 and twice served as either director or co-director of the SPEA “EU in the Twenty-first Century” program that compared policy and administration initiatives in Paris, Brussels, Berlin and Warsaw. He has spent a career writing about change in complex public policy and management systems with research emphasizing public management strategy, focusing on the pace and direction of postindustrial change. In addition, he has served as a consultant to numerous public agencies and organizations, including the states of Maryland and Indiana, NASA (Goddard Space Flight Center), the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Office of Personnel Administration, the U.S. General Accounting Office, the National Academy of Public Administration, and the United Nations (China). He has taught at the University of Maryland and Syracuse University and has been a visiting professor at Erasmus University of Rotterdam and Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Martí Grau, is a member of the academic team, House of European History in Brussels, and is a visiting scholar at the University of Leuven. He is a former visiting scholar at SPEA and former Member of the European Parliament, where he served on the Foreign Affairs and Internal Market Committees, as well as in several parliamentary delegations for relations with foreign countries (including Canada, Japan, and the South Caucasus countries). He was also a member of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly. He holds a master’s degree in law and international studies from Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) in Barcelona and holds a post-graduate diploma from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna. He has worked at the European Institute for the Mediterranean in Barcelona and taught European Politics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Jacint Jordana, is Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) and since 2005 has served as Director of Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI), a think tank and research consortium of public Barcelona universities located at Elisabets, 10 – 08001 Barcelona. He is a well-published policy analyst on the subjects of multi-level regulation and telecommunications and trade policy. He has served as visiting fellow at the Wissenschaftszentrum in Berlin, visiting professor at the Nacional Europe Centre at Australian National University in Canberra, and visiting professor at the Institute for Social Development, Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C.
Faculty Vitaes
Questions?
Director of SPEA in Barcelona
Professor Emeritus Dr. Eugene B. McGregor