Media Releases

Rotman Associate Dean joins new research network to study and design innovative ways of solving public problems

March 5, 2014

TORONTO, ON — A not­ed researcher and asso­ciate dean of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Rot­man School of Man­age­ment is one of the found­ing fac­ul­ty mem­bers of the MacArthur Foun­da­tion Research Net­work on Open­ing Gov­er­nance, which will seek to devel­op blue­prints for more effec­tive and legit­i­mate demo­c­ra­t­ic insti­tu­tions to help improve people’s lives.

Prof. Ani­ta McGa­han joins a pres­ti­gious group of 12 researchers in the Research Net­work which was announced today by The Gov­er­nance Lab (The Gov­Lab) at New York Uni­ver­si­ty.

Con­vened and orga­nized by the Gov­Lab, the MacArthur Foun­da­tion Research Net­work on Open­ing Gov­er­nance is made pos­si­ble by a three-year grant of $5 mil­lion from the John D. and Cather­ine T. MacArthur Foun­da­tion as well as a gift from Google.org, which will allow the Net­work to tap the lat­est tech­no­log­i­cal advances to fur­ther its work.

Com­bin­ing empir­i­cal research with real-world exper­i­ments, the Research Net­work will study what hap­pens when gov­ern­ments and insti­tu­tions open them­selves to diverse par­tic­i­pa­tion, pur­sue col­lab­o­ra­tive prob­lem-solv­ing, and seek input and exper­tise from a range of peo­ple. Net­work mem­bers include 12 experts in com­put­er sci­ence, polit­i­cal sci­ence, pol­i­cy infor­mat­ics, social psy­chol­o­gy and phi­los­o­phy, law and com­mu­ni­ca­tions. This core group is sup­port­ed by an advi­so­ry net­work of aca­d­e­mics, tech­nol­o­gists, and cur­rent and for­mer gov­ern­ment offi­cials. Togeth­er, they will assess exist­ing inno­va­tions in gov­ern­ing and exper­i­ment with new prac­tices and how insti­tu­tions make deci­sions at the local, nation­al, and inter­na­tion­al lev­els.

Sup­port for the Net­work from Google.org will be used to build tech­nol­o­gy plat­forms to solve prob­lems more open­ly and to run agile, real-world, empir­i­cal exper­i­ments with insti­tu­tion­al part­ners such as gov­ern­ments and NGOs to dis­cov­er what can enhance col­lab­o­ra­tion and deci­sion-mak­ing in the pub­lic inter­est.

Ani­ta M. McGa­han is Asso­ciate Dean of Research, PhD Direc­tor, Pro­fes­sor and Rot­man Chair in Man­age­ment at the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment. She is cross appoint­ed to the UofT’s Munk School of Glob­al Affairs; is a Senior Asso­ciate at the Insti­tute for Strat­e­gy and Com­pet­i­tive­ness at Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty; and is Chief Econ­o­mist at the Mass­a­chu­setts Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal Divi­sion for Glob­al Health and Human Rights. Her cred­its include two books and over 100 arti­cles, case stud­ies, notes and oth­er pub­lished mate­r­i­al on com­pet­i­tive advan­tage, indus­try evo­lu­tion, and finan­cial per­for­mance. Prof. McGahan’s cur­rent research empha­sizes entre­pre­neur­ship in the pub­lic inter­est and inno­v­a­tive col­lab­o­ra­tion between pub­lic and pri­vate orga­ni­za­tions. She is also pur­su­ing a long-stand­ing inter­est in the incep­tion of new indus­tries, par­tic­u­lar­ly in glob­al health.

Fur­ther infor­ma­tion on the Research Net­work is online at www.opening-governance.org.

The Rot­man School of Man­age­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to is redesign­ing busi­ness edu­ca­tion for the 21st cen­tu­ry with a cur­ricu­lum based on Inte­gra­tive Think­ing. Locat­ed in the world’s most diverse city, the Rot­man School fos­ters a new way to think that enables the design of cre­ative busi­ness solu­tions.  For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.rotman.utoronto.ca.

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For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact:

Ken McGuf­fin
Man­ag­er, Media Rela­tions
Rot­man School of Man­age­ment
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Voice 416.946.3818
mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca
Fol­low Rot­man on Twit­ter @rotmanschool
Watch Rot­man on You Tube www.youtube.com/rotmanschool