Samenvatting

Governments face major societal challenges that cannot be tackled easily. In this article, Professor Van de Donk reflects on the proposition that dealing with issues requires connective public administration experts, and a societal public administration. For many years (two decades), Van de Donk has held a chair with the same title. He argues that although societal administrative sciences are desirable and can be helpful, the phenomenon is not limited to mere societal issues. Societal public administration can best be seen as a mixed field of public, private, hybrid and societal organizations, which includes several roles and responsibilities, with diverging worldviews and policy views. At the same time, that is where connective experts can be most meaningful; they can uncover, interpret and connect divergent images.