The GD study track, which builds on the complementary areas of focus at ISS and York, seeks to deepen applicants’ knowledge in problem situating approaches of public policy. Problem situating approaches emphasize the centrality of knowledge production in relation to public policy formulation. It engages and trains students in how to critically examine conceptual, theoretical and philosophical dimensions of problem identification before they are in turn situated within concrete, thematic and empirical policy domains. At a general thematic level, the track starts from the premise that governance entails a process which goes beyond the realm of nation states in policy making. Thinking about formal and informal institutions and the way in which they are formed, defined, changed, maintained or evolve allows applicants to situate and understand better the various logics of political and economic reforms operating across the implementation of various good governance related policies in the developing world. As such, the ISS’s situational analysis of governance in development, which draws on approaches in policy studies, international relations and international political economy, is combined with York’s situational analysis of governance related policies in development drawing on the interdisciplinary linkages between public administration, governance and organizational studies with a focus on conflict and development. From this perspective, an applicant wishing to study public policy in the context of developing countries with the objective to work for an international organization in the future should be attracted to this specific track.
Governance and Development track students will study at the Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands in the first year, and continue their studies at the University of York in the UK in the second year.