Relevant Research to Reinvigorate the Performance Movement: Critical Reflection and Hopeful Advancement – A Symposium and Special Issue Organized by Public Performance & Management Review (PPMR)

Call for Papers

Relevant Research to Reinvigorate the Performance Movement: Critical Reflection and Hopeful Advancement – A Symposium and Special Issue Organized by Public Performance & Management Review (PPMR)

Journal: Public Performance & Management Review

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Submission deadline: 15 August 2026

This special issue revisits performance management as a major reform movement in public administration and asks how it can be intellectually and practically renewed. It focuses on the changing role of performance measurement, managing for results, and the research-practice gap in a field that has become more sophisticated but often less connected to real-world reform.

The call invites scholars to examine where performance regimes have grown, stalled, or declined across countries and regions, and what kinds of knowledge can genuinely support practice. It also welcomes work on future-facing questions, including the role of values such as equity, trust, and democracy, as well as the impact of generative AI and large language models on performance management.

Special Issue Editor

• Kaifeng Yang, Rutgers University–Newark, USA.

Scope

The special issue welcomes conceptual and empirical submissions using quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods. It is especially interested in rethinking useful knowledge in performance management, mapping the rise and fall of performance regimes, and identifying the “big questions” that should shape the next phase of the field. It also encourages comparative, critical, interpretive, constructivist, and marginalized perspectives that challenge mainstream paradigms.

Submission details

The first submission deadline is 15 August 2026. Authors should submit through the PPMR submission portal and select the special issue title during submission. Papers that pass peer review will be published in Public Performance & Management Review.

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