The Lunch Club #4

Annemarie van Paassen (November 29, 2012)




Communicative performance of government in crisis

As Europe experiences a time of crisis, the two leading parties of the Netherlands took pride in quickly establishing good relationships, trust and a swift elaboration of a core government programme after the elections. However, within two weeks the new government coalition faced media upheaval about the Health Insurance Premiums to the point that they had to re-open negotiations. When we look at the negotiation and communication process from a performance perspective in which contextual interactions itself produces social realities, what did we see? What are strong points and things to be improved? Students are invited to discuss the communicative performance of the government in a time of crisis, which requires tough measures.
Annemarie van Paassen previously worked in and is now assistant professor of communication for sustainable development in the rural areas, notably in Africa and Asia. Prime focus is multi-level learning and negotiation for natural resource management and rural development; the role of researchers in change processes; the role of boundary-spanning objects such as models in stimulating knowledge integration, learning and transformation.

Read more about Annemarie van Paassen on her personal page.