2026 Public Administration Theory Network (PATNet) Hybrid Conference
Multiplicity in Motion: Governance, Theory, and the Many Worlds of Public Administration
गति में बहुवचनता- शासन, सिद्धांत एवं लोक प्रशासन की विविध लोकायनाएँ
(26th February- 1st March 2026) | A Hybrid Conference
Submit your proposal at the following link: https://forms.gle/sNTy9EqdFsSz5q9Y9
The 2026 Public Administration Theory Network (PATNet) Conference marks a historic moment as it convenes for the first time in South Asia, hosted in New Delhi, India. In a region defined by complexity and contradiction, we invite global scholars, practitioners, and activists to come together under the theme: Multiplicity in Motion: Governance, Theory, and the Many Worlds of Public Administration.
Public administration no longer resides in fixed centers. It traverses informal settlements, borderlands, algorithms, ancestral wisdoms, ecological frontiers, and diasporic networks. The world is not governed by a single rationality or institutional form, but by a mosaic of logics, layered sovereignties, and intersecting epistemologies. What does it mean to theorize administration from such multiplicities? What happens when we move beyond the dominant frameworks to embrace motion, fluidity, entanglement, and co-existence?
This theme invites us to reject universalism in favor of relationality. It welcomes Indigenous knowledge systems, postcolonial critique, feminist governance, spiritual bureaucracies, and insurgent publics. It urges a conversation across continents, castes, races, religions, ethnicities, and epistemologies—centering lived experience as theory, and administration as both broken and becoming.
Inspired by postcolonial theory (Achille Mbembe), subaltern critique, and global decolonial scholars (Walter Mignolo, Arturo Escobar, Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni), this conference seeks to amplify a pluriversal dialogue. We invite papers that push disciplinary boundaries, that foreground forgotten voices, and that reimagine what public administration might become in plural, interconnected, and dynamic worlds.
Conference Tracks (Suggested, not exhaustive):
Pluriversal Publics: Caste, race, religion, indigeneity, and intersectionality in administration
Theorizing Complexity: Entanglement, systems thinking, and liminal governance
Non-State and Emergent Forms: Mutual aid, informal institutions, and community-based governance
Sacred, Aesthetic, and Emotional States: Ritual, narrative, art, affect, and moral imagination in public life
Borderlands and Diasporas: Migration, exile, transnational bureaucracy, and mobile publics
Digital Motion: Algorithmic governance, technology use, surveillance, and data justice
Planetary Administration: Ecological governance, climate policy, and environmental justice and environmental racism.
Embodied and Experiential Theory: Positionality, storytelling, arts-based and decolonial methods
Manifold Development: Synergistic investments in health, education, and economy (and social development?)
✍️ Submission Guidelines
We invite paper proposals, panels, workshops, roundtables, artistic interventions, and experimental formats that challenge, reimagine, or expand the horizons of public administration theory.
Deadline for Submissions of Abstracts: 11th November 2025
Notification of Acceptance: 10th December 2025
🙏 Who Should Attend
This conference is open to scholars, students, artists, activists, and practitioners across the world—especially those working at the margins of mainstream public administration. Whether you write academic papers, build collectives, serve communities, or reframe paradigms, we invite you to co-create new vocabularies and future visions with us.
Completed papers can be considered for a special issue of Administrative Theory & Praxis surrounding the conference theme. All papers will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process. Find submission information at the journal’s website: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/madt20/current
Special Features of the Hybrid Conference
Global Accessibility: Scholars and practitioners worldwide can join with and without travel constraints.
Interactive Virtual Platform: Sessions will feature live discussions, Q&A opportunities, and breakout rooms for deeper engagement.
Recorded Sessions: If panelists and/or presenters agree, sessions will be recorded and available for later viewing, ensuring accessibility across time zones.
We encourage proposals that reflect innovative approaches to public administration theory, governance, and practice, with a particular interest in research that challenges conventional views or introduces new methodological perspectives.
Please be sure to indicate under which conference track your proposal best fits:
Panel Proposals
Panels are composed of 3-4 papers or presentations that are pre-arranged to address a common issue or theme. Panel proposals should include the following.
● Convener, Moderator, and Discussant names, affiliations, and email addresses.
● Title: Title of the panel for the program.
● Description: A brief description of the panel and its relationship to the conference theme
in 151 words or less.
● Paper Abstracts: Describe each paper in <151 words including the title, participant(s), not
attending author(s), organizational affiliations, and email addresses.
● Proposals should be designed to be sufficiently explored in one hour and 15 minutes. Proposals with too many participants may be asked to separate into two separate panels.
● Logistics: Please use this space to tell us if there are significant logistics challenges that
the conference committee can accommodate, such as Jewish Sabbath or other religious
considerations, accessibility differences, or other necessary accommodations.
Roundtables and Workshops Proposals
Roundtables and workshops create provocative, highly interactive discussions between
presenters and audience members. Roundtables are prearranged around a common theme or topic. Roundtable discussions are generally composed of 5-7 presenters and a discussant. Presenters may be asked a series of questions or given 5 minutes to briefly discuss their research as a means to spark discussion and contestation. These proposals are intended to generate audience involvement.
Please include the following information in your proposal:
● Conveners, Moderators, and Participants: Names, organizational affiliations, and email
addresses for each of the participants along with their participation roles.
● Title: Title of the roundtable/workshop for the program.
● Description: A description of the roundtable and its relationship to the conference theme
in less than 151 words
● Logistics: Please use this space to tell us if there are significant logistics challenges that
the conference committee can accommodate, such as Jewish Sabbath or other religious
considerations, accessibility differences, or other necessary accommodations.
Individual Presentations
If accepted by the program committee, individual papers will be grouped together in panel
proposals around topics that are arranged to speak to the conference theme. Proposal should include the following.
● Author(s): Name(s) of presenter(s), non-presenting author(s), along with affiliation(s) and
email address(es).
● Title: Title of the paper for the program.
● Abstract: A description of the paper and how it relates to the conference theme in less
than 151 words.
Deadline for Submissions of Abstracts: 11th November 2025
Notification of Acceptance: 10th December 2025