PhD in Governance, Leadership and Trust

Coventry University

The theme focuses on the governance of complex transitions, and related questions of public authority and trust, political legitimacy and leadership. The ambition of the theme is to engender new insights on governance in a post-liberal context. Such new modalities are likely to be more dynamic and process oriented. They challenge current approaches to governance in politics, which are often linked to ''architectures'' and clear decision-making lines. In doing so, our work combines political ideas of trust with approaches to leadership from business and management studies. This approach builds on work around political legitimacy and is a key strength of the research endeavour in the theme. In particular, the theme is working on three interrelated questions. First, the research focuses on the modalities of governance in transitions from both violent conflict and authoritarianism and look into new ways such transitions can be approached and governed. Second, the theme investigates the functioning of leadership and public authority in areas characterised by violence and armed conflict. Third, we explore the relation of trust and distrust in the formation of political settlements and, especially, how distrust in and in the aftermath of violent conflict can be transformed institutionally.

Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations