Muhammad Azfar Nisar
Biographic Data
| ID | 241712 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Muhammad Azfar Nisar |
| GIVEN NAMES | Muhammad Azfar |
| FAMILY NAME | Nisar |
| SIGNATURE | NISAR M A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lahore University of Management Sciences |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7201-3829 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 227 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Governance by artifacts
Administrative burden research has contributed to improved understanding of citizens' experiences while accessing state services. However, the significance of the material infrastructure within which citizen–administrator interactions take place remains largely absent from this line of research. To help address this research gap, this article uses ethnographic data to discuss the influence of material and virtual artifacts in bureaucratic offices…
Imagining an Otherwise Global Public Administration
Global public administration remains an incomplete project with contested notions of its aims and objectives. Given its disputed nature we focus on developing a negative definition of global public administration. We argue that a global public administration cannot be based on a singular ontology, western epistemology and Eurocentric research agenda. Moreover, a truly global public administration must not be committed to myopic limitations concer…
Decolonization and public administration
As the public administration community prepares to pick up the mantle of decolonization as guided by our American colleagues, a killjoy points out that this new wave of decolonization is simply another way in which the disciplinary colonial logic of the division of labor between the empire and its periphery are being reinforced. The spoilsport then presents their own vision of decolonization of the discipline, apparently too naïve to see the iron…
Governing Thirdness
Standing in the right corner
This is a brief response to the thoughtful comments by David Reed (2020) on my article (Nisar, 2020), which critiqued the practitioner centric nature of public administration research.The sociopoli
Repairing the State
Research on street‐level bureaucrats has identified their role as policy entrepreneurs through the adoption and advocacy of policy innovations. This article adds to this research by underscoring how street‐level bureaucrats use creativity and improvisation to find contextual solutions for emergent local policy problems in response to scarcity. We suggest that these practices of policy repair allow frontline bureaucracies to deal with personnel, p…
Speaking out
Brexit and Trump’s victory in the United States has sparked renewed academic interest in far-right populism. However, this academic discourse remains remarkably orientalist in its tenor and rhetoric. The focus of academic debates remains restricted to dissecting the rise of far-right populism in the Global North West, while similar movements in Global South East remain largely ignored. We argue that the contemporary academic discourse about the f…
What are men's roles and responsibilities in the feminist project for gender egalitarianism
The #MeToo and the Time's Up movements have captured the urgency to address systemic manifestations of sexism, patriarchy, and misogyny in all aspects of society. Among the myriad discourses that have been catalyzed by these contemporaneous movements includes one related to the role of men in achieving gender egalitarianism. Men are allocated unearned privilege associated with being a man in a culture that is inherently phallogocentric. This fact…
Crushed between two stones
Maternity leave forms the mainstay of work–life policies aimed towards creating an inclusive and diverse workplace. While extensive research has examined the impact of maternity leave on women's participation, progress and retention in the labour force, the institutional micro‐social foundations of implementation and interpretation of these policies remain underexplored. Based on an ethnographic study of Pakistani women doctors, this study explor…
Phenomenology of the stop
Limited access to public space for marginalized groups remains an understudied theme in citizenship research in public administration. To address this important research gap, using ethnographic research methods, this article investigates the influence of street-level policing on the everyday citizenship of the Khawaja Sira – a marginalized genderqueer group in Pakistan. Everyday citizenship is conceptualized as the inalienable, equal right of eve…
Administrative Capital and Citizens’ Responses to Administrative Burden
Administrative burden research has highlighted the multiple costs imposed by public policies and their impact on citizens. However, the empirical understanding of citizens’ responses to such burdens remains limited. Using ethnographic data of doctors applying for maternity leave in Pakistan, this article documents strategies used by citizens to navigate the administrative burden faced by them. Our findings suggest that these strategies are based …
Practitioner as the Imaginary Father of Public Administration
This article critiques the ideological position of the practitioner in public administration research based on Lacanian psychoanalysis. A review of empirical focus of public administration research reveals that the practitioner serves as an imaginary ideal for researchers and provides them with the semblance of a “useful” disciplinary identity. Public administration researchers spend all their efforts trying to pander to this mythical practitione…
Discovery, dissemination, and information diversity in networked groups
Dealing with disgust
Bureaucracy is deeply implicated in the biopolitical regimes that create and render invisible social waste—individuals classified as abnormal, deviant, or useless—in contemporary societies. According to previous theorists, bureaucracy is able to carry out this critical task through moral distance and reliance on technical efficiency. By specifically focusing on street-level bureaucrats, a unique tier of bureaucracy which is often afforded neither…
(Un)Becoming a Man
In the past decade, a few countries have created a third gender category to legally recognize gender-nonconforming individuals. However, we know relatively little about the response of the gender-nonconforming individuals toward the legal third gender category. To address this gap, this article analyzes the different social, religious, and institutional discourses that have emerged around the recently created third gender category in Pakistan and…
Practitioner Envy and Construction of the Other in Public Administration
This article focuses on the personal dimension of the identity crisis in public administration and its impact on academic research. Devoid of a socially recognizable secure academic identity, practitioner represents the closest to an authentic identity for the public administration researcher. This identification with the practitioner comes at a price and leads to the treatment of “public” as the Other in public administration research. Drawing i…
Foundations of Relating
Despite the importance of peers in forming role expectations, fostering group identity, and facilitating job learning, limited theory and empirical evidence exist on the antecedents of street‐level peer relationships. To address this gap, the authors draw on social capital and social exchange theories to develop hypotheses about the micro‐social foundations of street‐level bureaucrats’ peer selection. The hypotheses are tested using a rich data s…
Administrative Capital and Citizens’ Responses to Administrative Burden
Administrative burden research has highlighted the multiple costs imposed by public policies and their impact on citizens. However, the empirical understanding of citizens’ responses to such burdens remains limited. Using ethnographic data of doctors applying for maternity leave in Pakistan, this article documents strategies used by citizens to navigate the administrative burden faced by them. Our findings suggest that these strategies are based …
Foundations of Relating
Despite the importance of peers in forming role expectations, fostering group identity, and facilitating job learning, limited theory and empirical evidence exist on the antecedents of street‐level peer relationships. To address this gap, the authors draw on social capital and social exchange theories to develop hypotheses about the micro‐social foundations of street‐level bureaucrats’ peer selection. The hypotheses are tested using a rich data s…
Dealing with disgust
Bureaucracy is deeply implicated in the biopolitical regimes that create and render invisible social waste—individuals classified as abnormal, deviant, or useless—in contemporary societies. According to previous theorists, bureaucracy is able to carry out this critical task through moral distance and reliance on technical efficiency. By specifically focusing on street-level bureaucrats, a unique tier of bureaucracy which is often afforded neither…
(Un)Becoming a Man
In the past decade, a few countries have created a third gender category to legally recognize gender-nonconforming individuals. However, we know relatively little about the response of the gender-nonconforming individuals toward the legal third gender category. To address this gap, this article analyzes the different social, religious, and institutional discourses that have emerged around the recently created third gender category in Pakistan and…
Decolonization and public administration
As the public administration community prepares to pick up the mantle of decolonization as guided by our American colleagues, a killjoy points out that this new wave of decolonization is simply another way in which the disciplinary colonial logic of the division of labor between the empire and its periphery are being reinforced. The spoilsport then presents their own vision of decolonization of the discipline, apparently too naïve to see the iron…
Practitioner as the Imaginary Father of Public Administration
This article critiques the ideological position of the practitioner in public administration research based on Lacanian psychoanalysis. A review of empirical focus of public administration research reveals that the practitioner serves as an imaginary ideal for researchers and provides them with the semblance of a “useful” disciplinary identity. Public administration researchers spend all their efforts trying to pander to this mythical practitione…
Imagining an Otherwise Global Public Administration
Global public administration remains an incomplete project with contested notions of its aims and objectives. Given its disputed nature we focus on developing a negative definition of global public administration. We argue that a global public administration cannot be based on a singular ontology, western epistemology and Eurocentric research agenda. Moreover, a truly global public administration must not be committed to myopic limitations concer…
What are men's roles and responsibilities in the feminist project for gender egalitarianism
The #MeToo and the Time's Up movements have captured the urgency to address systemic manifestations of sexism, patriarchy, and misogyny in all aspects of society. Among the myriad discourses that have been catalyzed by these contemporaneous movements includes one related to the role of men in achieving gender egalitarianism. Men are allocated unearned privilege associated with being a man in a culture that is inherently phallogocentric. This fact…
Crushed between two stones
Maternity leave forms the mainstay of work–life policies aimed towards creating an inclusive and diverse workplace. While extensive research has examined the impact of maternity leave on women's participation, progress and retention in the labour force, the institutional micro‐social foundations of implementation and interpretation of these policies remain underexplored. Based on an ethnographic study of Pakistani women doctors, this study explor…
Phenomenology of the stop
Limited access to public space for marginalized groups remains an understudied theme in citizenship research in public administration. To address this important research gap, using ethnographic research methods, this article investigates the influence of street-level policing on the everyday citizenship of the Khawaja Sira – a marginalized genderqueer group in Pakistan. Everyday citizenship is conceptualized as the inalienable, equal right of eve…
Practitioner Envy and Construction of the Other in Public Administration
This article focuses on the personal dimension of the identity crisis in public administration and its impact on academic research. Devoid of a socially recognizable secure academic identity, practitioner represents the closest to an authentic identity for the public administration researcher. This identification with the practitioner comes at a price and leads to the treatment of “public” as the Other in public administration research. Drawing i…
Discovery, dissemination, and information diversity in networked groups
Practitioner Envy and Construction of the Other in Public Administration
This article focuses on the personal dimension of the identity crisis in public administration and its impact on academic research. Devoid of a socially recognizable secure academic identity, practitioner represents the closest to an authentic identity for the public administration researcher. This identification with the practitioner comes at a price and leads to the treatment of “public” as the Other in public administration research. Drawing i…
Foundations of Relating
Despite the importance of peers in forming role expectations, fostering group identity, and facilitating job learning, limited theory and empirical evidence exist on the antecedents of street‐level peer relationships. To address this gap, the authors draw on social capital and social exchange theories to develop hypotheses about the micro‐social foundations of street‐level bureaucrats’ peer selection. The hypotheses are tested using a rich data s…
(Un)Becoming a Man
In the past decade, a few countries have created a third gender category to legally recognize gender-nonconforming individuals. However, we know relatively little about the response of the gender-nonconforming individuals toward the legal third gender category. To address this gap, this article analyzes the different social, religious, and institutional discourses that have emerged around the recently created third gender category in Pakistan and…
Practitioner as the Imaginary Father of Public Administration
This article critiques the ideological position of the practitioner in public administration research based on Lacanian psychoanalysis. A review of empirical focus of public administration research reveals that the practitioner serves as an imaginary ideal for researchers and provides them with the semblance of a “useful” disciplinary identity. Public administration researchers spend all their efforts trying to pander to this mythical practitione…
Discovery, dissemination, and information diversity in networked groups
Dealing with disgust
Bureaucracy is deeply implicated in the biopolitical regimes that create and render invisible social waste—individuals classified as abnormal, deviant, or useless—in contemporary societies. According to previous theorists, bureaucracy is able to carry out this critical task through moral distance and reliance on technical efficiency. By specifically focusing on street-level bureaucrats, a unique tier of bureaucracy which is often afforded neither…
Speaking out
Brexit and Trump’s victory in the United States has sparked renewed academic interest in far-right populism. However, this academic discourse remains remarkably orientalist in its tenor and rhetoric. The focus of academic debates remains restricted to dissecting the rise of far-right populism in the Global North West, while similar movements in Global South East remain largely ignored. We argue that the contemporary academic discourse about the f…
What are men's roles and responsibilities in the feminist project for gender egalitarianism
The #MeToo and the Time's Up movements have captured the urgency to address systemic manifestations of sexism, patriarchy, and misogyny in all aspects of society. Among the myriad discourses that have been catalyzed by these contemporaneous movements includes one related to the role of men in achieving gender egalitarianism. Men are allocated unearned privilege associated with being a man in a culture that is inherently phallogocentric. This fact…
Crushed between two stones
Maternity leave forms the mainstay of work–life policies aimed towards creating an inclusive and diverse workplace. While extensive research has examined the impact of maternity leave on women's participation, progress and retention in the labour force, the institutional micro‐social foundations of implementation and interpretation of these policies remain underexplored. Based on an ethnographic study of Pakistani women doctors, this study explor…
Phenomenology of the stop
Limited access to public space for marginalized groups remains an understudied theme in citizenship research in public administration. To address this important research gap, using ethnographic research methods, this article investigates the influence of street-level policing on the everyday citizenship of the Khawaja Sira – a marginalized genderqueer group in Pakistan. Everyday citizenship is conceptualized as the inalienable, equal right of eve…
Administrative Capital and Citizens’ Responses to Administrative Burden
Administrative burden research has highlighted the multiple costs imposed by public policies and their impact on citizens. However, the empirical understanding of citizens’ responses to such burdens remains limited. Using ethnographic data of doctors applying for maternity leave in Pakistan, this article documents strategies used by citizens to navigate the administrative burden faced by them. Our findings suggest that these strategies are based …
Governing Thirdness
Standing in the right corner
This is a brief response to the thoughtful comments by David Reed (2020) on my article (Nisar, 2020), which critiqued the practitioner centric nature of public administration research.The sociopoli
Repairing the State
Research on street‐level bureaucrats has identified their role as policy entrepreneurs through the adoption and advocacy of policy innovations. This article adds to this research by underscoring how street‐level bureaucrats use creativity and improvisation to find contextual solutions for emergent local policy problems in response to scarcity. We suggest that these practices of policy repair allow frontline bureaucracies to deal with personnel, p…
Decolonization and public administration
As the public administration community prepares to pick up the mantle of decolonization as guided by our American colleagues, a killjoy points out that this new wave of decolonization is simply another way in which the disciplinary colonial logic of the division of labor between the empire and its periphery are being reinforced. The spoilsport then presents their own vision of decolonization of the discipline, apparently too naïve to see the iron…
Imagining an Otherwise Global Public Administration
Global public administration remains an incomplete project with contested notions of its aims and objectives. Given its disputed nature we focus on developing a negative definition of global public administration. We argue that a global public administration cannot be based on a singular ontology, western epistemology and Eurocentric research agenda. Moreover, a truly global public administration must not be committed to myopic limitations concer…
Governance by artifacts
Administrative burden research has contributed to improved understanding of citizens' experiences while accessing state services. However, the significance of the material infrastructure within which citizen–administrator interactions take place remains largely absent from this line of research. To help address this research gap, this article uses ethnographic data to discuss the influence of material and virtual artifacts in bureaucratic offices…
Political science (15 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Law (10 works) · Law (8 works) · Public Administration (7 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Public Administration (6 works) · Public relations (6 works) · Politics (5 works) · Public Policy and Administration Research (5 works)