Academic Year 2021/2022

Change is all around us: indeed, our world is often characterised as VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous). Yet managing or leading change is hard. The journey often asks us to traverse deep moral, ethical, affective and psychological terrain. While the technocratic elements of change management are important; implementing, leading and managing change requires much more than technical skill and knowledge.   

This course draws from business and public administration literatures on organisational change, with some elements from broader literatures on sociotechnical and cultural change. Its goal is to explore and critique theory and application, as well as facilitate the development of capabilities in change management and change leadership.  

Each session of the course will involve lectures (including guest lectures from public servants and change agents), facilitated discussions on the readings (led by participants) and short activities (e.g. on communication and conflict resolution) to develop skills and capabilities necessary for leading and managing change.

By the end of the course, the goals are for participants to:

1. Hold a solid theoretical understanding of change or transition (at the organisational and societal level);
2. Feel comfortable applying the theoretical understanding in a real-life situation relevant to current or potential work (in government or non-profit sector);
3. Feel more agency and skill in navigating and managing change.

In this special topics course, we will cover a variety of issues related to postsecondary education. Some of these issues are common across the world  (e.g., the trend toward universality and the continued persistence of inequalities) while others are particular to Canada (e.g., the focus on Indigenous education and the particularities of Canadian federal-provincial relations).  The course will be run as a seminar with extensive student participation both in presenting and discussing course materials and in choosing issues to study in the last part of the term. The major assignments will include a 3,000 word term paper along with a reading memo and a briefing note.

This course takes an in-depth interdisciplinary approach to the study of the energy industry, with regulation providing the vital link among the economic, engineering, legal and environmental viewpoints. While advanced undergraduate students could also take the course, it is pitched at level where a background in public policy analysis, microeconomics, data science or engineering is ideal.

Among the topics will be the economic rationale for regulation; the roles of federal and provincial regulators; competition in energy markets; regulation of rates and services; and new technology challenges for power sector regulation. Special attention will be devoted to energy resources (oil and natural gas) and to electricity generation, transmission and distribution facilities. Most of these topics also have application in other industrial sectors such as telecommunications and transport. Students will learn to critically use and apply major techniques, models and frameworks in principle and in contemporary energy issues, and to collect, work with and evaluate energy data. Students will get the chance to apply some of the methods and models in an applied individual project at the end of the course.

Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) considerations are bringing new scrutiny to the role and implications of public policy in (re)presenting and (re)producing social identities.  This seminar examines the language and discourse of public policy through the critical lens of EDI to uncover and unpack the ways in which different social identities are described and deployed in policy texts.

Students will be introduced to theoretical perspectives and concepts from within and outside the field of public policy studies to inform and help guide their explorations of contemporary EDI policy texts.  They will be challenged to consider how different and intersecting social identities not only emerge from policy texts but also how they operate in real-world contexts, impacting the lives of those they mean to demarcate.

This course will provide students with an opportunity to engage in critical debate and reflection on themes in EDI and the role public policy plays in undermining or advancing meaningful and sustainable change.

Description coming…

Transportation policy has pro­found ef­fects on the national economy and the mobility of individual Canadians.  Look no further than the Covid-19 restrictions to see it up close and personal.  This course will enable students to participate in framing and im­ple­menting government and indust­rial trans­port­ation policy that touches the lives of everyone.  The course will cover all the principal modes—road, rail, air, and marine.  And it will deal with urban mobility and infrastructure, safety and security, technology and inno­vation, and regional priorities and challenges, along with a special look at the pandemic shock-waves and how we are likely to emerge from the stunning disruption.

This course is designed to provide a broad understanding of the aviation industry, a highly regulated and complex mode of transport. It will use a multidisciplinary approach of analysis, combining economic, business and negotiation principles, law as well as technology, among others. A practitioner’s perspective will also be provided to help students integrate theoretical concepts with real-life situations/events. At the end of the course, students will be able to explain the key components of the sector as well as its public policy underpinnings. In addition, they will gain critical insights into the challenges and issues faced by airlines, airports and the federal government. Registration is open to students in all faculties where an elective in public policy and administration at the master’s level can count towards their degree.