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Amanda Clarke

Public Administration, Digital Government, Data Governance, Civic Technology

Email:amanda.clarke@carleton.ca
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Associate Professor

Graduate Supervisor, Master of Public Policy and Administration
Teaching Concentrations: Public Management, Digital Government, Data Science
Courses Taught: Public Management: Principles and Approaches, and Digital Government: Modernising policy, services, and administration for the digital age

Biography

Professor Amanda Clarke’s research examines public administration reform, public service delivery and the relationship between state and non-state actors, focusing in particular on the impact of digital technologies in these domains. She is author of Opening the Government of Canada: The Federal Bureaucracy in the Digital Age and a research fellow with the Canada School of Public Service. In 2021 she was awarded a Government of Ontario Early Researcher Award, and included in Apolitical‘s list of the Top 100 Most Influential Academics in Government. You can follow her work at amandaclarke.ca and on Twitter @ae_clarke.

Publications 

Auld, Graeme*, Ashley Casovan*, Amanda Clarke* & Benjamin Faveri*. 2022. “Governing AI Through Ethical Standards: Learning From the Experiences of Other Private Governance Initiatives.” Journal of European Public Policy. 19 pages. In press.

Wright, Julia M.*, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun*, Amanda Clarke*, Matthew Herder* & Howard Ramos*. 2022. “Protecting Expert Advice for the Public: Promoting Safety and Improved Communications.” FACETS. 7(1).

Clarke, Amanda. (2020). “Digital government units: what are they, and what do they mean for digital era public management renewal?” International Public Management Journal. 23(3): 358-379.

Clarke, Amanda & Elizabeth Dubois. (2020). “Digital era open government and democratic governance: The case of Government of Canada Wikipedia editing.” Canadian Public Administration.

Clarke, Amanda. (2019). “Data Governance: The Next Frontier of Digital Government Research and Practice” in Connected Canada: A Research and Policy Agenda for Digital Citizenship. Elizabeth Dubois and Florian Martin-Bariteau, eds. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, pp. 97-117.

Clarke, Amanda. (2019). “The Civil Service” in Canadian Politics, 7th ed., James Bickert & Alain G. Gagnon, eds. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Accepted for publication October 2018. 28 pages.

Clarke, Amanda. (2019). Opening the Government of Canada: The Federal Bureaucracy in the Digital Age. Vancouver: UBC Press.
***Included in The Hill Times’ Top 100 Best Non-Fiction Canadian Books in 2019

Clarke, Amanda & Benjamin Piper. 2018. “A Legal Framework to Govern Online Political Expression by Public Servants.” Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal, 21(1): 1-50.

Clarke, Amanda & Jonathan Craft. 2018. “The Twin Faces of Public Sector Design”. Governance. 32(1): 5-21.

Craft, Jonathan & Amanda Clarke (Eds). (2018). Issues in Canadian Governance. Toronto: Emond Montgomery.

Clarke, Amanda, Evert Lindquist & Jeffrey Roy. (2017). “Understanding Governance in a Digital Era: An Agenda for Public Administration Research in Canada.” Canadian Public Administration, 60(4): 457-475.

Clarke, Amanda & Jonathan Craft. (2017). “The Vestiges and Vanguards of Policy Design in a Digital Context“. Canadian Public Administration, 60(4): 476-497.

Clarke, Amanda & Francoli, Mary. (2017). “Digital Government and Permanent Campaigning” in Permanent Campaigning in Canada. Eds. Alex Marland, Anna Esselment & Thierry Giasson, pp. 241-258.

Clarke, Amanda & Margetts, Helen. (2014). “Governments and Citizens Getting to Know Each Other? Open, Closed and Big Data in Public Management Reform”. Policy & Internet, 16(4), 393-417.

Clarke. Amanda. (2014). “Business as Usual? An Evaluation of British and Canadian Digital Diplomacy as Institutional Adaptation” in Digital Diplomacy: Theory and Practice. Corneliu Bjola & Marcus Holmes, eds. London: Routledge.

Clarke, A., & Francoli, M. (2014). “What’s in a name? A comparison of ‘open government’ definitions across seven Open Government Partnership members”. eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government, 6(3). Available at http://www.jedem.org/index.php/jedem/article/view/227/289

Clarke, Amanda. 2014. “One of These Things is Not Like the Other: Bottom-up Reform, Open Information, Collaboration and…the Harper Government.” in How Ottawa Spends, 2014-2015. G. Bruce Doern & Christopher Stoney, eds. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Reports and Other Publications 

Clarke, Amanda. (2021). “One year into pandemic, federal digital government is largely business as usual”. Policy Options, 8 March.

Clarke, Amanda. (2019). “Transforming (Digital) Government in Ontario.” Three part blog series.

Clarke, Amanda. (2019). “Digital Government Doesn’t Equal Democratic Government.” Policy Options. 30 January.

Clarke, Amanda & Jonathan Craft. (2019). “Insights for Canada’s New Digital Government Minister.” Policy Options. 8 February.

Clarke, Amanda. (2017). “Why We Need Code for Canada.” The Hill Times. 10 April.

Clarke, Amanda. (2016) “Outrage over government Wikipedia edits sends wrong message”. Policy Options. Institute for Research on Public Policy.

Clarke, Amanda. (2016). “The Innovation Challenge: Modernizing the Public Service”. Policy Options. Institute for Research on Public Policy.

Clarke, Amanda. (2015). “We’ve Got Some Catching Up to Do: The Public Service and the 2015 Federal Election” in Canadian Election Analysis: Communication, Strategy, and Democracy. Eds. Alex Marland and Thierry Giasson. UBC Press and Samara Canada. Available at http://www.ubcpress.ca/canadianelectionanalysis2015/CanadianElectionAnalysis2015.pdf

Clarke, Amanda & Dubois, Elizabeth. (2015). “Forced to tweet in both languages ministers lose their impact.” The Globe and Mail. 19 February.

Media Coverage 

“Federal government went on ‘draconian witch hunts’ after news stories on Wikipedia edits by bureaucrats.” 3 June 2020. The National Post.

“The Twin Faces of Public Sector Design.” 22 July 2019. The Mandarin.

Interview on the Code for Canada fellowship and government tech talent needs. 24 July 2019. All in a Day, CBC Radio.

Interview on government use of social media influencers. 15 June 2019. The House, CBC Radio.

“Crafting a Digital Democracy.” 27 February 2019. Policy Options.

Interview on the Canadian Digital Service. 14 December 2017. The Current, CBC Radio.

SPPA News

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Auditors have a role in Canadian AI governance initiatives, but it needs clarification

By Graeme Auld, Amanda Clarke, Benjamin Faveri Private auditors provide third-party conformity assessments against principles, practices, standards, and legislation. Big names in this field include accounting firms like EY and Deloitte and technical inspection firms like Bureau Veritas and Intertek. These firms already play a significant role in... More

Monday, February 6, 2023

Amanda Clarke Mentioned in Globe and Mail Op-Ed

In sea of consulting contract problems, the Conservatives only dream of their whale CAMPBELL CLARK PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 3, 2023 The Conservatives had so much there in front of them. All the opposition did. They were reviewing the growing mountain of government contracts issued to consultants, including $116-million and counting to the high-priced... More

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Amanda Clarke: The Public Service’s Reliance on Consulting Firms

McKinsey a ‘distraction’ from problem of consulting contracts, researcher tells MPs By Nojoud Al Mallees The Canadian Press Mon., Jan. 30, 2023 OTTAWA - A researcher testifying before a parliamentary committee on the rise in government contracts awarded to McKinsey & Company said the focus on that one consulting firm is a distraction.... More

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Amanda Clarke: Tenure = Nirvana?

The lead-up to tenure is a stressful, frantic period of writing, teaching, and research. But once you’ve been promoted, then what? Professors Irena Knezvic and Amanda Clarke share how they navigated that transition and what they are doing now. Learn more on the Research Shop Talk podcast with FPA’s Kyla Reid… Join us for... More

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Amanda Clarke Talks to the Globe and Mail

Federal contract outsourcing increased by 24 per cent to $14.6-billion last year BILL CURRY AND MAHIMA SINGH The $14.6-billion figure for federal outsourcing is based on an entry in the public accounts for professional and special services. A research group at Carleton University that has been studying outsourcing trends recently reported a... More

Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Governing Artificial Intelligence Through Ethical Standards

Major efforts are afoot to govern the ethics of artificial intelligence. In a recent paper, Graeme Auld, Amanda Clarke, Ashley Casovan, and Benjamin Faveri offer a dynamic look at pathways along which private governance is engaged to shape future AI governance. Taking lessons from other private governance cases for sustainability, the pathways... More

Thursday, March 3, 2022

Amanda Clarke Co-Authors Op-Ed in the Globe and Mail on Expert Advice

It’s time to protect expert advice WENDY HUI KYONG CHUN, AMANDA CLARKE, MATTHEW HERDER, HOWARD RAMOS AND JULIA M. WRIGHT CONTRIBUTED TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL Like many other countries, Canada has been wrestling with a chaotic information ecosystem that amplifies misinformation and disinformation for some time. This chaos contributes to the... More

Wednesday, January 5, 2022

Amanda Clarke Speaks to the National Post about IT Paperwork in Government

How much paperwork does it take to approve a (small) government website? 39,230 words A federal public servant revealed that when his team wanted to launch a simple website with 4,305 words, he had to submit internal documents almost 10 times as long OTTAWA – The internet age has brought us an app for... More

Thursday, December 23, 2021

Amanda Clarke: Apolitical’s 100 Most Influential Academics in Government

SPPA Professor Amanda Clarke was named one of Apolitical’s 100 Most Influential Academics in Government: Policymaking Process & Approaches Amanda Clarke CANADA Associate Professor Amanda Clarke is Associate Professor and Public Affairs Research Excellence Chair at Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration. Her... More

Monday, December 20, 2021

2021 Highlights in SPPA

From new research funding to teaching awards to timely events, there are many reasons to celebrate the outstanding efforts of everyone in the Faculty of Public Affairs (FPA) this year. While we faced many challenges, 2021 also presented new opportunities, which were embraced by the faculty, staff and students within FPA. What follows is... More

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

SPPA Researchers Establish Lab to Study Decentred Governance in the Digital Era

Processes like seafood sustainability labelling programs or efforts to improve working conditions in the transnational supply chains for apparel and electronics are being devised and driven by non-governmental actors. Digital era tools are interwoven in these efforts. Block chain technologies, for example, are increasingly used for secure... More

Monday, August 9, 2021

Moving Fast and Breaking Public Trust: How Digital Reforms in Government Must be More Accountable to Citizens

Amanda Clarke is a recipient of the 2021 Early Researcher Award. By Joseph Mathieu Even as the Ontarian and Canadian governments are boldly considering digital reforms to meet their citizens’ needs, there is a risk that this work is undermining citizen trust, not bolstering it. “We know very little about what Canadians actually want, and... More

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Professor Amada Clarke publishes a headlining article in Policy Options

Associate Professor Amada Clarke published a featured article in Policy Options titled “One year into pandemic, federal digital government is largely business as usual”   “Predictions the pandemic would help modernize the public service have proven unrealistic. In some areas, it might be moving in the wrong direction. It’s been a year... More

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