Hendrik Wagenaar

Hendrik Wagenaar is fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, Austria, adjunct professor at the Institute for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra, and senior academic advisor at the International School for Government at King’s College London. He is widely cited in the areas of urban governance, citizen participation, prostitution policy, practice theory and interpretive policy analysis. His publications include the seminal Deliberative Policy Analysis. Understanding Governance in the Network Society (Cambridge University Press, 2003, with Maarten Hajer), Meaning in Action: Interpretation and Dialogue in Policy Analysis, (M.E. Sharpe, 2011), Practices of Freedom: Decentred Governance, Conflict and Democratic Participation (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and Designing Prostitution Policy. Intention and Reality in the Sex Trade, Policy Press, 2017. With Helga Amesberger and Sietkse Altink). His latest book is The Pandemic Within. Policy Making for a Better World (Policy Press 2021. With Barbara Prainsack). In this book the authors critically engage with the many assumptions that hold back progressive policy making in a range of domains. Hendrik has long experience of working with policy makers and using participatory research methods in working with stakeholders, citizens and policy makers. His 2007 article in the American Review of Public Administration which he uses complexity theory to explain the remarkable power of citizen participation in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, received the ARPA Best Article award of that year. Currently he researches commons – bottom-up initiatives of citizens who produce social goods and services – and writes about the possibility for deeper forms of democracy in the contemporary political economy.