000			01574nam a22001457a 4500
999			_c524369 _d524369
008			231110b ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
100			_aBlijleven, Wieke _945962
245			_aExpert, bureaucrat, facilitator: The role of expert public servants in interactive governance
260			_aLocal Government Studies
300			_a49(4), Aug, 2023: p.841-860
520			_aPublic servants in local governments, including policy experts, are increasingly expected to facilitate public participation and citizens’ initiatives. At the same time, critical research points out that their dominant or hesitant attitude and emphasis on rules and expert knowledge might hamper authentic participation. Based on shadowing and in-depth interviews, this article explores what tensions expert public servants (planners, lawyers, designers and historians) in Dutch municipalities experience when engaging the public, and how they handle these tensions in practice. The analysis shows that for expert civil servants, facilitating interactive governance means constantly finding a balance between their role as a bureaucrat, facilitator and expert. The findings show how expertise can both constrain but also enable facilitation, by mediating tensions between municipal and citizens’ demands. In addition, the findings shed new light on the close relationship between knowledge and trust in interactive governance. – Reproduced https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03003930.2022.2047028
773			_aLocal Government Studies
906			_aLOCAL GOVERNMENT
942			_cAR