dr. Hester Paanakker

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Political Science and Public Administration

Assistant Professor, Research Programmes - Social Sciences, New Public Governance (NPG)

Personal information

Hester Paanakker is assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She is Board Member of the Section of Ethics and Integrity of Governance (SEIGOV) for the American Society of Public Administration (ASPA, 2014-2020) and coordinator of the Study Group of Quality of Governance for the International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS). She is co-chair of the Dutch Network Good Governance (Netwerk Goed Besturen). Within the Department, she coordinates the Quality of Governance track (Master) and the Master of Public Administration information activities and campaigns.

Research

Her research interests include quality and ethics of governance, public values and the management of street-level craftsmanship.

Hester's dissertation focused on value management and understandings of public craftsmanship in the Dutch prison sector. Other research includes topics like military ethics, international political violence, workplace aggression and leadership in Dutch detainee transport, police identity and conflicting values in administrative contexts.

With the IIAS Study Group on Quality of Governance, she is involved in promoting global research exchange on issues of governance quality, with a substantial focus on international public values and global ethics and integrity research.

Teaching

Current teaching: