CONCERTATION SPACES AS A LEVER FOR DEALING WITH THE PARADOXES OF PUBLIC ACTION IN A PROJECT CONTEXT

Abstract

This research focuses on the role of concertation spaces as a lever for the adoption of change projects in a public context. The numerous reforms that have reshaped public action over the past 30 years have given public managers a decisive role in the modernization of local authorities. In this article, we question the capacity of concertation as a relevant lever for regulating the public action paradoxes that arise during change projects. To do so, we carried out a 36-month research initiative at the CCAS (Municipal Center for Social Action) of a local authority. The object of the concertation was to evaluate professional practices related to the admission of residents into care homes for the elderly.Our results highlight several organizational paradoxes that impact the management of the care home: the paradox of the organizer, the paradox of learning, the paradox of identity and the paradox of practice. On the theoretical level, our research enriches the literature on organizational paradoxes by emphasizing the role that concertation can play in their regulation. On the empirical level, our results underline the role of concertation spaces in the context of a local authority as a vector for the construction of meaning, a place for questioning prescription, a place to produce identity, and a space for interorganizational learning. The limitation of this work is that concertation is essentially considered here in the context of imposed changes and not emerging changes. Lastly, the discussion outlines a number of avenues for engineering of concertation spaces that could be explored in future research.