Dr. Camilla Wanckel
Short biography
Camilla Wanckel has been a research associate at the Chair of Politics and Governance at the University of Potsdam since April 2018. As part of the EU-funded research project TROPICO (Transforming into Open, Innovative and Collaborative Governments), she completed her doctorate on the influence of information and communication technologies on political decision-making processes within state organizations. Prior to this, she completed her master's degree in political and administrative science with a focus on management and administration at the University of Konstanz and her bachelor's degree in politics and administration (with a minor in economics) at the University of Potsdam. During her studies, she gained valuable research experience at the interface of administration, organization and innovation - in Potsdam as a student assistant at the Chair of Politics, Administration and Organization and in Konstanz as a research assistant at the Chair of Organizational Studies.
As part of her academic work, Camilla Wanckel is also involved in the research community: from 2019 to 2022, she was spokesperson for the Forum for Young Government, Administration and Policy Research (FoJuS), and since 2024 she has been spokesperson for the Administration Working Group of the German Society for Evaluation (DeGEval).
Research
Camilla Wanckel's research focuses on the modernization of government and administration - with a particular focus on institutional change, state capacity building and the role of digitalization in public organizations. She also incorporates behavioral science perspectives in administrative research. At the center of her interest is the question of how a strategically forward-looking policy and sustainability aspects can be systematically integrated into legislation and decision-making processes - in the field of tension between new technical possibilities on the one hand and accelerating dynamics on the other. The latter include those often invisible factors that shape political and administrative action - such as informal structures, permanent time pressure or cognitive overload - whose effects she examines with regard to the steering ability of government and administration.
As part of the interdisciplinary DFG-funded project FISCAP (Building Fiscal Capacity), she and her colleagues are investigating the role of West German administrative assistance in the development of efficient financial administrations in the East German federal states following reunification. Among other things, the focus is on organizational principles - for example in relation to personnel structures and institutional routines - and their effects on the performance of tax offices.
Teaching
- Summer semester 2025 Political Consulting and Lobbying (Master, Seminar)
- Summer semester 2025 Media Democracy (Bachelor, Seminar)
- Winter semester 2024/25 Elections and voting behavior in Germany (Bachelor, Seminar)
- Winter semester 2024/25 Thinking, Feeling and Behavior in a Political Context (Bachelor, Seminar)
- Summer semester 2024 Thinking, feeling and behaving in a political context (Master, Seminar)
- Summer semester 2024 Political consulting - actors and dynamics (Bachelor, Seminar)
- Winter semester 2023/24 Thinking, Feeling and Behavior in a Political Context (Master, Seminar)
- Winter semester 2023/24 Digital governance along the policy cycle (Bachelor, seminar)
- Winter semester 2023/24 Ministerial administration in the political process
- Summer semester 2023 Political Consulting - Actors and Dynamics (Bachelor, Seminar)
- Winter semester 2021/22 Governance and Consulting in the Digital Age (Bachelor, Seminar)
- Summer semester 2021 Algorithmic Governance in the Policy Cycle (Bachelor, Seminar)
- Summer semester 2020 Governing and Consulting in the Digital Age (online course)
- Summer semester 2019 Ministerial administration in the political process
Publikationen
Wanckel, C. (2024). Keep me posted, but don’t stress me out: how the positive effect of social networking services on civil servants’ information use and political capacities can be attenuated by social media stress. Policy Sciences, 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-024-09539-4
Fleischer, J., & Wanckel, C. (2024). Creativity in policy capacity: Organizational and individual determinants. Public Administration Review, 84(2), 218-232. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13676
Wanckel, C. (2023). Introducing a digital tool for sustainability impact assessments within the German Federal Government: A neo-institutional perspective. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 89(2), 433-449. https://doi.org/10.1177/00208523211047093
Fleischer, J., & Wanckel, C. (2023). Job Satisfaction and the Digital Transformation of the Public Sector: The Mediating Role of Job Autonomy. Review of Public Personnel Administration. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X221148403
Wanckel, Camilla (2022). An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure – Building capacities for the use of big data algorithm systems (BDAS) in early crisis detection. Government Information Quarterly 39 (4), 101705. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2022.101705