Trial Lecture: Johannes Sandvik Førde
On 11 October Johannes Sandvik Førde will give his trial lecture for the degree of PhD at UiB
Main content
Title:
Coordination for wickedness and the Norwegian authorities handling of the covid 19 pandemic
Topic:
"Use the theoretical framework elaborated in the paper 'Organizing for Wickedness' presented in your thesis to discuss how well Norwegian authorities handled the COVID-19 pandemic in the period from 2020 to 2022. Conclude the discussion by presenting some hypotheses about the role of coordinating organizations in tackling wicked problems and their effectiveness."
Reasoning:
The paper "Organizing for Wickedness", presented as the third paper in Johannes Førde’s thesis, has a theoretical aim of creating a new analytical framework to better understand different organizational setups for coordination in situations of wickedness. The paper argues that "for wicked problems, there will be a need for more facilitating and coordinating organizational arrangements," typically involving the creation of a coordinating agency. However, the paper does not present any empirical evidence to support this claim.
The committee would therefore like Førde to reflect on how the framework can be applied by examining one of the most significant crises Norwegian authorities have had to manage since World War II: the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the committee wants to challenge Førde to take his analysis beyond what is discussed in the paper by generating some hypotheses about the role of coordinating agencies in tackling wicked issues, based on the presented framework.
