On the afternoon of September 18, 2025, a new session of the Erudition Forum lecture series was successfully held in Conference Room 204, Building No. 5 by the School of Public Administration, South China University of Technology. The lecture was delivered by Professor Tom Christensen, Emeritus Professor of the Department of Political Science at the University of Oslo, Norway, and Member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. With the theme of The Future of Public Administration - Challenges and Possible Trends, Professor Christensen explored the future development trends and major challenges in the field of public administration, bringing a wonderful academic feast to the teachers and students present.

At the beginning of the lecture, Professor Christensen summarized the typical characteristics of the field of public administration. Regarding the future development direction of public administration, he proposed three possible paths: the continuation of current trends, the reappearance of old trends in new forms, and the interruption and shift of paradigms, pointing out that the field may present diversified development in the future.

At the theoretical level, Professor Christensen believed that public administration research has long been characterized by overemphasis on empiricism and neglect of theory, while rational choice theory lacks response to real-world experience. The future development direction may lie in the integration of organizational theory and institutional theory, as well as the construction of a middle-range theory system. Such theories emphasize the framework construction of complex realities and especially require the introduction of a political science perspective. He noted that public administration decision-making is always deeply rooted in the political context, but current research tends to be overly internalized, managerial and technical, ignoring the importance of its political and social background.

On specific topics, Professor Christensen sorted out several major research themes and their challenges, including wicked problems, crisis management, digital governance and the difficulties encountered in behavioral public administration. In response to the challenges of empirical research, he suggested taking public decision-making behavior as the core dependent variable, focusing on analyzing the impacts of independent variables such as structural institutional arrangements, demographic characteristics, organizational culture and hierarchical relations on behavior.

At the end of the lecture, Professor Christensen pointed out that there are still many gaps in the normative research of bureaucracy, and listed a series of research topics that need to be strengthened, calling for more academic attention.

  In the Q&A session, teachers and students present held in-depth discussions with Professor Christensen on issues such as how to apply the research methods and indicator systems of higher-level government reform to grassroots levels, how to quantify the role of technology in governance efficiency and how to improve English writing for international journal publication. The atmosphere was warm and academic exchanges were active. Through this lecture, the participants gained a systematic understanding of relevant theories and practices and benefited greatly. The lecture not only broadened the teachers' and students' understanding of cutting-edge disciplinary issues, but also provided valuable inspiration for follow-up research. All postgraduate students of the School of Public Administration attended the lecture online or offline, and school leaders, teachers and postdoctoral researchers attended and took group photos.