Joint Doctoral Workshop in Comparative Public Administration (CPA) of the IDHEAP, WIPCAD and NIG, 5-7 October 2016, Lausanne, Switzerland

‘Wicked problems’, ‘uncertainty’ and ‘Switzerland’ do not seem to go together. And yet, this organized country is surprisingly complex as the two WIPCAD Fellows Eva Schindler and Lydia Malmedie discovered during a 3-day Doctoral Workshop in Comparative Public Administration. Organized jointly by IDHEAP University of Lausanne, Netherlands Institute of Government (NIG) and WIPCAD, this workshop was a good opportunity to present and receive in-depth feedback on one’s own research and learn about comparative approaches in Public Administration research from professors with expertise in local administrations, public management, the management of courts, as well as citizen participation in urban municipalities. The sixteen doctoral researchers from Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany followed insightful lectures by Prof. Dr. Bas Denters (NIG/ University of Twente), Prof. Dr. Sabine Kuhlmann (University of Potsdam), Prof. Dr. Yves Emery (IDHEAP, Lausanne), Prof. Dr. Andreas Ladner (IDHEAP, Lausanne). Prof. Dr. Isabella Proeller (University of Potsdam) organized intensive 1-hour peer-review sessions for the doctoral researchers that allowed participants to present their research in small groups , answer  questions and receive feedback from fellow students and professors. Site visits to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court in Lausanne as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Palais des Nations of the U.N. in Geneva were exclusive opportunities to engage with experts and get to know the fellow participants.