Two New Members of the Public-Private Platform

Karin Buhmann, Dr.scient.adm & PhD, is Associate professor at the Department of Intercultural Communication and Management at Copenhagen Business School. Karins' research and teaching focuses on sustainability with a particular emphasis on social issues, especially Business Responsibilities for Human Rights, labour standards, and social aspects of Corporate Social Responsibility (including social aspects of environmental sustainability and climate change, for example living conditions, health, access to food and land). Her recent research addresses amongst others the development of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the UN Global Compact from the perspectives of discourse theory and systems theory; CSR reporting as a driver for organisational change; EU policy and guidance on CSR and responsible sourcing; Transnational Business Governance Interaction; transparency and the market as drivers for responsible sourcing; certification and legality; and sustainable forestry in East and South East Asia between law and the market.

By approaching these issues from the perspective of public governance and public-private regulation Karin analyses how public and private organisations may work together to address global concerns related to sustainable human development and how public-private collaboration add to and result from a transnationalisation of sustainability governance and diverse forms of soft and hard law and guidance. With a background in international and public law she take a pragmatic approach to these issues, applying methods and theories from the social sciences to understand normative developments.

Karin’s research furthermore includes law and development and law reforms for human rights and social progress, particularly but not only focusing on China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Japan; and conflict resolution through alternative dispute resolution and mediation. Read more about Karin here. 

Mie Plotnikof is a PhD student at the Department of Operations Management and Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School. Her empirical research interests are concerned with existing and becoming forms of public management in the social policy areas - more specifically she is concerned with the potentials and challenges such impose to managing and organizing the work of public sector actors.  

In her research Mie explores particular puzzles at the intersection of specific empirical fields and theoretical conceptions. Her dissertation combines theories of public governance, organizational discourse studies and poststructuralist psychology to unfold and discuss the complexities of collaborative governance, when public managers pursue ideals of ‘stakeholder-involvement’, ‘co-creation’ and ‘shared decision-making’. The study is based on fieldwork from a variety of governance laboratories, through which two local governments have involved diverse stakeholders to develop their quality management of daycare. Both in her dissertation and in general Mie is interested in working across boundaries such as constructionist and poststructuralist theorizing, explorative methodology and critical management education/development.

Mie holds a Master Degree in Educational Research from University of Copenhagen, and has previously worked as external lecturer at University of Copenhagen and as an organizational consultant in the education and health sector.

Mie and Karins' work is highly relevant for the platform cluster of Shifting Forms of Public Governance, and the platform looks forward to follow and support Mie and Karin in their research.