Joris Voets
Biographic Data
| ID | 4220459 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Joris Voets |
| GIVEN NAMES | Joris |
| FAMILY NAME | Voets |
| SIGNATURE | VOETS J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ghent University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8266-8607 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 60 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Between blueprint and bricolage
Politico-administrative Configurations in Local Crisis Management
This article examines how local governments govern crises through the configuration of politico-administrative relations. It analyzes how four Flemish cities organized and adapted their crisis arrangements during the Covid-19 pandemic drawing on three analytical lenses: the political nature of crisis management, complementarity between political and administrative actors, and the role of anticipatory capacity shaped by local context. The study fo…
Crisis management in cities
Strategic planning and performance perceptions of managers and citizens
Although strategic planning is ubiquitous within public organizations and despite meta-analytical research showing that it impacts performance, important questions about why it does so remain unanswered. This article addresses this gap by identifying the mediators underlying the strategic planning – public service performance relationship. Multi-informant survey data from managers and citizens in 101 Flemish municipalities are analysed using PLS-…
Examining municipalities’ choices of service delivery modes through the lens of historical institutionalism
While the motives behind municipalities’ choices of service delivery modes may lie in the past, current research still pays little attention to history. Applied to the service delivery of two waste services in nine municipalities over the period 1962–2021, this study aims to overcome this limitation by bringing in historical institutionalism. Based on the analysis of a database covering 4,599 government documents and 30 semi-structured interviews…
Partisan political staff at the local level
This study explores the policymaking role of the chief of cabinet, as head of the partisan political staff and a central actor within politico‐administrative relations. We focus on the local government level, where the role of political staff is understudied. While the added value of partisan political staff can be diverse and comprise advisory and non‐advisory activities, we do assume an active policymaking role for the chiefs of cabinet within …
Policy coordination and integration in local government
The topic of policy integration has become an important component of several distinct lines of policy research. However, the concept of policy integration is notoriously difficult to specify and observe. This article provides valuable insights that explore the subjectivity of responses by political and administrative officials at the local level charged with policy integration. In response to its central question: ‘How do local politicians and ci…
Explaining municipalities’ (alternative) service delivery modes over time. The importance of coercive pressures
Extant research explains why municipalities choose certain service delivery modes over others, but that research is mostly static and pays little attention to the impact of central governmental policy. This study aims to overcome these limitations by employing a longitudinal multiple-case study design and bringing in new institutional theory. This research uncovers and explains delivery modes used for household waste collection in nine Flemish mu…
The Belgian and Dutch response to Covid-19
How did Belgian and Dutch mayors experience their own role and that of local government during the first few months of the COVID-19 outbreak? This question was addressed by drawing on three analytical perspectives (functional, territorial, and political) on local government systems and using a qualitative case study design. Interestingly, the position and leeway of Belgian and Dutch mayors did not differ that much during the first crisis months. …
Changing neo-corporatist institutions? Examining the relationship between government and civil society organizations in Belgium
Neo-corporatist relations consist of a stabilized institutional exchange between government, civil society and other social spheres. Current research suggests a destabilization of this relationship by ongoing governance developments, especially through the competitive pressures of NPM-style reforms. This article presents survey research of 339 civil society organizations in the neo-corporatist context of Belgium. We find little evidence of increa…
The Effect of the EU ‐Brand on Citizens’ Trust in Policies
Karens et al. (2016) conducted an experiment to measure the effect of the European Union (EU) brand on citizens’ trust in policies. Experiments conducted with economics students in Belgium, Poland, and The Netherlands showed a consistently positive and significant effect of applying the EU brand, on trust in the policies. This study presents seven replications conducted several years after Karens et al.'s experiments. The replications show no sig…
The co-production of public value in community development
This article deals with the different roles of the street-level professional in achieving public value in a co-productive community development project. The article focuses, in particular, on the question of how engaged street-level professionals combine different roles – as friend, leader, representative and mediator – in order to empower and include their target audience, thereby contributing to public value creation. This question was explored…
Images of Coordination
A crucial challenge for the coordination of horizontal policy programs—those designed to tackle crosscutting issues—is how to motivate government organizations to contribute to such programs. Hence, it is crucial to study how practitioners in implementing organizations view and appreciate the coordination of such programs. Assisted by Q‐methodology, this inductive study reveals three significantly different “images”: central frame setting, networ…
Why network structure and coordination matter
Although local governments attempt to promote sports among all layers of society, people with a lower socio-economic status are still under-represented in grassroots sports. Previous studies indicate that inter-sectoral networks and joint efforts can contribute to an increase in sport participation among these groups, but a systematic analysis of the structure, coordination and interactions in the networks is still missing. Insight into networks …
The Co-production of a Community
In order to deal with “wicked problems” like inequality and social exclusion, one needs the support of committed citizens (Brandsen et al. in Manufactured civil society: practices, principles and effects, Palgrave, London, 2014). A promising setting to examine to what extent this is the case is that of community development projects in derelict neighbourhoods where the largest representation of ‘marginalised’ citizens can often be found (Head in …
Autonomy and Reregulation
The autonomy of implementing agencies often seems to trigger reregulation of those agencies. Reregulation has two dimensions: the layering of different control mechanisms and the growth of the rules within those layers. Using a case study of social housing in Belgium, we explain the tendency to reregulate once autonomy is provided. We attribute the layering of rules to a conflict regarding oversight between the established legal profession and an…
The Impact of Public Branding
Branding has become common in the public sector as brands are increasingly used to influence citizens’ associations with public organizations and public services. Using experimental research replicated in three European countries, this article investigates the effect of using the European Union (EU) brand on trust in policies. Experiments were conducted among economics students in Belgium, Poland, and The Netherlands to test the hypothesis that a…
Contextualising City-regional Issues, Strategies and their Use
This paper presents a contextualised analysis of what might be called the city-regional debate. The debate is unfolded in terms of four types of city-regional issues, eight common strategies to tackle the latter and the use thereof in Flanders. It is concluded that the way in which city-regional issues are dealt with in Flanders can be explained by its regime, consisting of an administrative, political and cultural dimension, in terms of a centra…
Democracy in Area-Based Policy Networks
This article discusses the issue of democratic quality of area-based policy networks, with particular attention to the complex settings of network relations and to the changes in local regimes. It is argued that present associative and deliberative frameworks of democratic theory are useful but inadequate to enable proper assessments of multilevel and multiactor policy arrangements. The article therefore combines both frameworks with a contextual…
The Co-production of a Community
In order to deal with “wicked problems” like inequality and social exclusion, one needs the support of committed citizens (Brandsen et al. in Manufactured civil society: practices, principles and effects, Palgrave, London, 2014). A promising setting to examine to what extent this is the case is that of community development projects in derelict neighbourhoods where the largest representation of ‘marginalised’ citizens can often be found (Head in …
The Belgian and Dutch response to Covid-19
How did Belgian and Dutch mayors experience their own role and that of local government during the first few months of the COVID-19 outbreak? This question was addressed by drawing on three analytical perspectives (functional, territorial, and political) on local government systems and using a qualitative case study design. Interestingly, the position and leeway of Belgian and Dutch mayors did not differ that much during the first crisis months. …
The co-production of public value in community development
This article deals with the different roles of the street-level professional in achieving public value in a co-productive community development project. The article focuses, in particular, on the question of how engaged street-level professionals combine different roles – as friend, leader, representative and mediator – in order to empower and include their target audience, thereby contributing to public value creation. This question was explored…
Democracy in Area-Based Policy Networks
This article discusses the issue of democratic quality of area-based policy networks, with particular attention to the complex settings of network relations and to the changes in local regimes. It is argued that present associative and deliberative frameworks of democratic theory are useful but inadequate to enable proper assessments of multilevel and multiactor policy arrangements. The article therefore combines both frameworks with a contextual…
Policy coordination and integration in local government
The topic of policy integration has become an important component of several distinct lines of policy research. However, the concept of policy integration is notoriously difficult to specify and observe. This article provides valuable insights that explore the subjectivity of responses by political and administrative officials at the local level charged with policy integration. In response to its central question: ‘How do local politicians and ci…
Why network structure and coordination matter
Although local governments attempt to promote sports among all layers of society, people with a lower socio-economic status are still under-represented in grassroots sports. Previous studies indicate that inter-sectoral networks and joint efforts can contribute to an increase in sport participation among these groups, but a systematic analysis of the structure, coordination and interactions in the networks is still missing. Insight into networks …
The Effect of the EU ‐Brand on Citizens’ Trust in Policies
Karens et al. (2016) conducted an experiment to measure the effect of the European Union (EU) brand on citizens’ trust in policies. Experiments conducted with economics students in Belgium, Poland, and The Netherlands showed a consistently positive and significant effect of applying the EU brand, on trust in the policies. This study presents seven replications conducted several years after Karens et al.'s experiments. The replications show no sig…
Contextualising City-regional Issues, Strategies and their Use
This paper presents a contextualised analysis of what might be called the city-regional debate. The debate is unfolded in terms of four types of city-regional issues, eight common strategies to tackle the latter and the use thereof in Flanders. It is concluded that the way in which city-regional issues are dealt with in Flanders can be explained by its regime, consisting of an administrative, political and cultural dimension, in terms of a centra…
Partisan political staff at the local level
This study explores the policymaking role of the chief of cabinet, as head of the partisan political staff and a central actor within politico‐administrative relations. We focus on the local government level, where the role of political staff is understudied. While the added value of partisan political staff can be diverse and comprise advisory and non‐advisory activities, we do assume an active policymaking role for the chiefs of cabinet within …
Democracy in Area-Based Policy Networks
This article discusses the issue of democratic quality of area-based policy networks, with particular attention to the complex settings of network relations and to the changes in local regimes. It is argued that present associative and deliberative frameworks of democratic theory are useful but inadequate to enable proper assessments of multilevel and multiactor policy arrangements. The article therefore combines both frameworks with a contextual…
Contextualising City-regional Issues, Strategies and their Use
This paper presents a contextualised analysis of what might be called the city-regional debate. The debate is unfolded in terms of four types of city-regional issues, eight common strategies to tackle the latter and the use thereof in Flanders. It is concluded that the way in which city-regional issues are dealt with in Flanders can be explained by its regime, consisting of an administrative, political and cultural dimension, in terms of a centra…
Autonomy and Reregulation
The autonomy of implementing agencies often seems to trigger reregulation of those agencies. Reregulation has two dimensions: the layering of different control mechanisms and the growth of the rules within those layers. Using a case study of social housing in Belgium, we explain the tendency to reregulate once autonomy is provided. We attribute the layering of rules to a conflict regarding oversight between the established legal profession and an…
The Impact of Public Branding
Branding has become common in the public sector as brands are increasingly used to influence citizens’ associations with public organizations and public services. Using experimental research replicated in three European countries, this article investigates the effect of using the European Union (EU) brand on trust in policies. Experiments were conducted among economics students in Belgium, Poland, and The Netherlands to test the hypothesis that a…
The Co-production of a Community
In order to deal with “wicked problems” like inequality and social exclusion, one needs the support of committed citizens (Brandsen et al. in Manufactured civil society: practices, principles and effects, Palgrave, London, 2014). A promising setting to examine to what extent this is the case is that of community development projects in derelict neighbourhoods where the largest representation of ‘marginalised’ citizens can often be found (Head in …
Why network structure and coordination matter
Although local governments attempt to promote sports among all layers of society, people with a lower socio-economic status are still under-represented in grassroots sports. Previous studies indicate that inter-sectoral networks and joint efforts can contribute to an increase in sport participation among these groups, but a systematic analysis of the structure, coordination and interactions in the networks is still missing. Insight into networks …
Images of Coordination
A crucial challenge for the coordination of horizontal policy programs—those designed to tackle crosscutting issues—is how to motivate government organizations to contribute to such programs. Hence, it is crucial to study how practitioners in implementing organizations view and appreciate the coordination of such programs. Assisted by Q‐methodology, this inductive study reveals three significantly different “images”: central frame setting, networ…
The co-production of public value in community development
This article deals with the different roles of the street-level professional in achieving public value in a co-productive community development project. The article focuses, in particular, on the question of how engaged street-level professionals combine different roles – as friend, leader, representative and mediator – in order to empower and include their target audience, thereby contributing to public value creation. This question was explored…
Changing neo-corporatist institutions? Examining the relationship between government and civil society organizations in Belgium
Neo-corporatist relations consist of a stabilized institutional exchange between government, civil society and other social spheres. Current research suggests a destabilization of this relationship by ongoing governance developments, especially through the competitive pressures of NPM-style reforms. This article presents survey research of 339 civil society organizations in the neo-corporatist context of Belgium. We find little evidence of increa…
The Effect of the EU ‐Brand on Citizens’ Trust in Policies
Karens et al. (2016) conducted an experiment to measure the effect of the European Union (EU) brand on citizens’ trust in policies. Experiments conducted with economics students in Belgium, Poland, and The Netherlands showed a consistently positive and significant effect of applying the EU brand, on trust in the policies. This study presents seven replications conducted several years after Karens et al.'s experiments. The replications show no sig…
Explaining municipalities’ (alternative) service delivery modes over time. The importance of coercive pressures
Extant research explains why municipalities choose certain service delivery modes over others, but that research is mostly static and pays little attention to the impact of central governmental policy. This study aims to overcome these limitations by employing a longitudinal multiple-case study design and bringing in new institutional theory. This research uncovers and explains delivery modes used for household waste collection in nine Flemish mu…
The Belgian and Dutch response to Covid-19
How did Belgian and Dutch mayors experience their own role and that of local government during the first few months of the COVID-19 outbreak? This question was addressed by drawing on three analytical perspectives (functional, territorial, and political) on local government systems and using a qualitative case study design. Interestingly, the position and leeway of Belgian and Dutch mayors did not differ that much during the first crisis months. …
Policy coordination and integration in local government
The topic of policy integration has become an important component of several distinct lines of policy research. However, the concept of policy integration is notoriously difficult to specify and observe. This article provides valuable insights that explore the subjectivity of responses by political and administrative officials at the local level charged with policy integration. In response to its central question: ‘How do local politicians and ci…
Strategic planning and performance perceptions of managers and citizens
Although strategic planning is ubiquitous within public organizations and despite meta-analytical research showing that it impacts performance, important questions about why it does so remain unanswered. This article addresses this gap by identifying the mediators underlying the strategic planning – public service performance relationship. Multi-informant survey data from managers and citizens in 101 Flemish municipalities are analysed using PLS-…
Examining municipalities’ choices of service delivery modes through the lens of historical institutionalism
While the motives behind municipalities’ choices of service delivery modes may lie in the past, current research still pays little attention to history. Applied to the service delivery of two waste services in nine municipalities over the period 1962–2021, this study aims to overcome this limitation by bringing in historical institutionalism. Based on the analysis of a database covering 4,599 government documents and 30 semi-structured interviews…
Partisan political staff at the local level
This study explores the policymaking role of the chief of cabinet, as head of the partisan political staff and a central actor within politico‐administrative relations. We focus on the local government level, where the role of political staff is understudied. While the added value of partisan political staff can be diverse and comprise advisory and non‐advisory activities, we do assume an active policymaking role for the chiefs of cabinet within …
Politico-administrative Configurations in Local Crisis Management
This article examines how local governments govern crises through the configuration of politico-administrative relations. It analyzes how four Flemish cities organized and adapted their crisis arrangements during the Covid-19 pandemic drawing on three analytical lenses: the political nature of crisis management, complementarity between political and administrative actors, and the role of anticipatory capacity shaped by local context. The study fo…
Crisis management in cities
Between blueprint and bricolage
Political science (15 works) · Public Policy and Administration Research (13 works) · Business (10 works) · Politics (10 works) · Economics (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Public Administration (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Public relations (7 works)