Monitoring in beeld: een studie naar de doorwerking van monitors in interbestuurlijke relaties

Monitoring in the Dutch public sector An increasing stream of monitoring activities has entered the public sector. A lot of different monitors have been implemented in the Netherlands, like the police monitor, drugs monitor, integration monitor and the emancipation monitor. Although monitoring of policy processes is quite prevalent in the public sector, monitoring still remains an unexplored scientific theme, while most of the scientific attention is restricted to performance systems. In the current mode of monitoring is often approached in a rational way. Within the rational approach monitoring is seen as an objective search for facts in order to improve policy. The aim of this study however, is to widen this narrow focus and include two other perspectives as well, namely a political and cultural approach of monitoring. These three perspectives are not mutually exclusive. One of the assumptions of this study is that monitoring activities have impacts on intergovernmental relationships, this because monitors are used on different governmental levels. The impacts of monitors on intergovernmental relationships have not been studied as of yet. This is surprising, because in policy documents monitoring is connected with intergovernmental relationships. Research questions The main research question is formulated as followed: what are the impacts of monitors on intergovernmental relationships? This main question is divided into seven research questions

Kansen en dilemma’s van digitale democratie - Wat kan digitale burgerbetrokkenheid betekenen voor het Nederlandse parlement?

Nederlandse burgers willen meer betrokken worden bij politieke besluitvorming. Volgend voorjaar gaan we voor het eerst naar de stembus voor een nationaal referendum dat burgers zelf hebben aangevraagd. Ook het SCP-rapport Meer democratie, minder politiek en de monitor over de democratische legitimiteit in Nederland uit 2013 laten zien, dat de Nederlandse burger al jaren behoefte heeft aan meer directe betrokkenheid bij beleid en politiek. Onderzoek van het Rathenau Instituut toont aan dat ICT in belangrijke mate burgerbetrokkenheid bij het politieke proces kan faciliteren. En dat gaat verder dan het verzamelen van digitale handtekeningen voor een referendum. Open data, monitoring van sociale media, internetpeilingen, e-petities, twitteranalyses, sms-stemmingen: er zijn volop mogelijkheden om burgers directer te informeren, zelf input te laten leveren, ze te consulteren of te laten meebeslissen en te laten controleren. Mogelijkheden die voor de landelijke politiek interessant zijn, omdat op dat niveau face-to-face ontmoetingen tussen burgers en politici lastig te organiseren zijn

Jan Baptist Xavery (1697-1742): Een veelzijdig tuinkunstenaar

Dutch garden sculpture from the 18 th century is worthy of more systematic study. Such research may offer valuable insights into the position of garden sculpture within sculpture proper and its meaning in 18 th-century garden art. Jan Baptist Xavery is regarded as one of the most important sculptors working in the Netherlands during the 18 th century. His artistic career, his versatile body of work and his influence on other artists should therefore be studied in more depth. In view of the bloom in garden art in those days Xavery's significance as a 'garden artist' should not be overlooked in such a study. Garden sculptures should not be regarded as independent objects or pure decorative elements, but must be considered within the wider context of garden history. Tragically, many garden ornaments have been removed from their natural green environment. In their new settings they sometimes acquire a new meaning, but more often than not they are not done justice as the original harmonious 'composition' has been lost. As a result, this cultural-historical heritage is often treated indifferently. The few garden sculptures that have survived all calamities and can still be admired in public places are often placed at unsuitable locations and suffer from the weather or vandalism. Many garden sculptures, often damaged, have ended up anonymously in museum depots. Although they are safe there, the dreary catacombs of museums are a far cry from the green surroundings for which they were originally intended. Garden ornaments were, after all, not made for depots but to be looked at, studied and admired by enthusiasts, preferably in green surroundings. Otherwise, they will literally disappear from collective memory. Surely, the talented Jan Baptist Xavery and his contemporaries deserve a better fate than that

Jan Baptist Xavery (1697-1742): Een veelzijdig tuinkunstenaar

Dutch garden sculpture from the 18 th century is worthy of more systematic study. Such research may offer valuable insights into the position of garden sculpture within sculpture proper and its meaning in 18 th-century garden art. Jan Baptist Xavery is regarded as one of the most important sculptors working in the Netherlands during the 18 th century. His artistic career, his versatile body of work and his influence on other artists should therefore be studied in more depth. In view of the bloom in garden art in those days Xavery's significance as a 'garden artist' should not be overlooked in such a study. Garden sculptures should not be regarded as independent objects or pure decorative elements, but must be considered within the wider context of garden history. Tragically, many garden ornaments have been removed from their natural green environment. In their new settings they sometimes acquire a new meaning, but more often than not they are not done justice as the original harmonious 'composition' has been lost. As a result, this cultural-historical heritage is often treated indifferently. The few garden sculptures that have survived all calamities and can still be admired in public places are often placed at unsuitable locations and suffer from the weather or vandalism. Many garden sculptures, often damaged, have ended up anonymously in museum depots. Although they are safe there, the dreary catacombs of museums are a far cry from the green surroundings for which they were originally intended. Garden ornaments were, after all, not made for depots but to be looked at, studied and admired by enthusiasts, preferably in green surroundings. Otherwise, they will literally disappear from collective memory. Surely, the talented Jan Baptist Xavery and his contemporaries deserve a better fate than that

Monitoring: Functional or Fashionable?

An increasing stream of monitoring activities has entered the public sector. In the Netherlands there are hundreds of monitors on a wide range, so it can be stated that monitoring is fashionable in the Netherlands. But monitoring seems to be functional, too. Without monitoring, organisations would not even survive. Research about the use of research information and evaluations makes clear that information is not always used in a direct and transparent way. This statement raises three, interrelated research questions, which we try to answer in our paper: (1) What is the amount and the character of (intragovernmental) monitors in the public sector in the Netherlands? (2) What forms of utilisation can be distilled and how are intragovernmental monitors used in practice? (3) How do these functions of monitors relate to recent insights in the complexity of governmental performance and the role information can play in complex systems? The paper concludes with the observation that the current mode of monitoring is dominated by rationalistic assumptions. Important functions from a complexity perspective, as learning and communicating, seem to be underestimated. Monitoring is fashionable, but it seems to be less functional

Social media monitoring: Responsive governance in the shadow of surveillance?

__Abstract__ Social media monitoring is gradually becoming a common practice in public organizations in the Netherlands. The main purposes of social media monitoring are strategic control and responsiveness. Social media monitoring poses normative questions in terms of transparency, accountability and privacy. We investigate practices of social media monitoring in four Dutch public organizations. Policy departments seem to be more strongly orientated towards monitoring, whereas organizations involved in policy implementation seem to be more inclined to progress to webcare. The paper argues for more transparency on social media monitoring

Het managen van incidenten in het onderwijs. Praktische governance-lessen op basis van een vergelijkende case analyse

Bij iedere onderwijsorganisatie doen zich incidenten voor. Deze incidenten lopen soms ernstig uit de hand. Er zijn echter ook incidenten die tijdig en effectief worden aangepakt en niet uitgroeien tot echte ongelukken of zelfs misstanden. Aan de hand van zes concrete incidenten binnen het onderwijsdomein is onderzocht hoe dankzij adequaat optreden ongelukken zijn voorkomen en welke mechanismen daarbij een rol spelen