Forging Collaborations for Transformative & Resilient Policy Solutions: A Liberatory Public Service Perspective

• In Event: Grassroots Governance, Collaboration, Practitioner Discretion

Abstract

 We live in times of polycrises, from climate change to social injustice, poverty and hunger to wars and genocides, repeated cycles of harm and oppression creating more trauma in its wake than we may be able to heal. Furthermore, there continues to be an increasing erosion of trust in government and in the meaning and values of public service and the public administrative system that is foundational to the functioning of a healthy government. These polycrises have been in the making for a long time and are rooted in the intersectional systems of oppression.

However, as the theme of this conference “Forging Collaborations for Transformative & Resilient Policy Solutions” highlights, our calamitous times call upon us not only to examine systems of oppression but also to act with deep courage, build resilience, forge collaborations across networks rooted in interdependence, and to find pathways to come out of these catastrophes stronger, while persistently working to end the cycles of harm and oppression that fuel them in the first place. This article proposes a transformative approach by applying a novel theoretical framework of Liberatory Public Service (LPS) that invites and guides us to radically reimagine and cultivate an intentional practice of diversity, equity, inclusion, and liberatory justice (DEILJ) across public policy domains. LPS is shaped deeply by interdisciplinary social justice-focused academic scholarship and by grassroots social justice movement frameworks, including transformative justice, restorative justice, healing justice, trauma-informed approaches, disability justice, and intersectionality.

              The framework of Liberatory Public Service (LPS) seeks to both examine and address the historical and systemic injustices and also advance the work of building liberatory systems in diverse public policy and administrative contexts. We describe Liberatory Public Service (LPS) as a vision, a process, and a practice of creating the conditions for liberation to emerge through alignments across policy work, administrative work, structure and culture change work, and leadership praxis that serves- ‘all means all’ public. LPS involves the systematic removal of oppressive policies, administrative, and cultural barriers, one step at a time, until we collectively eliminate all forms of oppressive policies, administrative, and cultural barriers. LPS is not about simply dismantling structures or removing burdens to create a void. LPS is about replacing burdensome systems and procedures that are exclusionary, marginalizing, causing hurt and harm, with nourishing systems, inclusive cultures, procedures, and infrastructures that are rooted in collective work, accountability, transparency, demonstrate care, are trauma-informed, healing-oriented, and compassionately centering the margins.

Our article will thus discuss the theoretical building blocks, the core values, and key tenets of LPS. We will also reflect on challenges, rewards, and possibilities for applications and integration of LPS in diverse public policy domains using illustrative examples from the contexts of education, the workplace, and health policies.

Authors

• Rashmi Vijay Chordiya, Seattle University
  Presenting Author

• Meghna Sabharwal, University of Texas, Dallas
  Non-Presenting Co-Author