Lars G. Tummers

Winner Dissertation Prize 2014

Dissertation
Policy Alienation. Analyzing the Experiences of Public Professionals with New Policies

Supervisors: Prof. dr V.J.J.M. Bekkers, Prof. dr A.J. Steijn
Co-supervisor: dr S. van Thiel
Nomination: Erasmus University Rotterdam, Faculty of Social Sciences

Report by the selection committee

Lars Tummers’ study takes its starting point in a topical societal problem, namely that of the new concept of ‘Policy Alienation.’ He raises the question of how the behavior of professionals influences the effectiveness of government policies, such as the policies that are considered useless by professionals. The concept of ‘Policy Alienation’ is not only useful for Public Administration studies, but also for, for example, sociology, health sciences, education and organizational sciences, thus demonstrating its broad significance. His research is theoretically innovative and is also methodologically and empirically well-grounded.