Public Servants’ Values and Mental Mediatization – An Empirical Study of Swedish Local Government

Authors

  • Johan Sandén School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University, Sweden
  • Jaakko Turunen School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University, Sweden

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58235/sjpa.v24i3.8596

Keywords:

local government, mediatization, mental mediatization, organisational professionalism, public servants’ values

Abstract

Public servants’ value dispositions is a central theme of inquiry in Public Administration research. Various trends and reforms in the public sector, New Public Management, the audit society, marketisation and mediatization, for example are expected to affect these values. This article analyses whether, and in what ways, mediatization affects public servants’ values. Drawing on survey data from local government officials, we explore the mediatization thesis at the level of individual public servants using the concept of mental mediatization. Regarding their values, we empirically establish a dominance of organizational professionalism rather than democratic professionalism among local government public servants. We then analyze mediatization at the level of individual public servants in local government, in contrast to previous research which has focused on the mediatization of politics and central government. While finding an interesting gap between strong beliefs in, but little self-assessed impact of, mediatization, the article rejects an expected correlation between mental mediatization and public servants’ value dispositions.

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Author Biographies

Johan Sandén, School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University, Sweden

Johan Sandén, MPA, is PhD-candidate at Södertörn university, Stockholm. His current research focuses on the impact of digitalization on teachers work. He also teaches in Public Administration, Political Science and commissioned education.

Jaakko Turunen, School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University, Sweden

Jaakko Turunen has a PhD in Political Science from Uppsala University, and is a researcher and lecturer in social work at Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden. His research focuses on language and politics, civil society, and social media’s role in political communication. His previous research has focused on Central and Eastern Europe and he is an editor of the Finnish Review of East European Studies.

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Published

2020-09-15

How to Cite

Sandén, J., & Turunen, J. (2020). Public Servants’ Values and Mental Mediatization – An Empirical Study of Swedish Local Government. Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration, 24(3), 3–28. https://doi.org/10.58235/sjpa.v24i3.8596

Issue

Section

Original Articles

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