Ongaro, Edoardo and van Thiel, Sandra. “Languages and Public Administration in Europe” In The Palgrave Handbook of Public Administration in Europe, edited by Edoardo Ongaro and Sandra van Thiel, 61-98. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place ” George Bernard Shaw.

Ongaro and van Thiel’s article in The Palgrave Handbook of Public
Administration in Europe raises the question whether we understand eachother
when we use the same key concepts in the study of public administration.

The first section outlines the idea behind the article. Even if English is a lingua franca in academia, the various authors’ culture and linguistic background may influence
their perception of concepts.
Then Ongaro and van Thiel lets a number of scholars in the field reflect on how
the following concepts can be understood/interpreted in the various languages in Europe:
accountability, agency/agencification, governance, leadership, management/
public management, public administration, performance, policy, public values,
security. In addition they reflect on central concepts in their
respective languages that do not communicate well into English.

The result is a very instructive demonstration that the core concepts of public administration, have a lot of different challenges in being translated into various languages – a fact which poses a challenge to for instance teaching public administration in the vernacular languages. Trying to stick to your mother tongue might be difficult when communicating insights from the international academic arena.

English is a dominant language in the international academic sphere. I believe precise communication across cultural and linguistic borders is attainable, however –
there might be an interesting richness of diverse meanings which are more or
less hidden behind the use of the same English key concepts.

The article gives insight into how not only obscure phrases, but also key concepts might create communication challenges for academics originating in different countries and cultures. Next time I read an article or speak with a colleague from another country – I might just be haunted by the question: are we speaking about the same thing even if we are using the same concepts? Hopefully – that will lead to interesting clarifications and new insights.