Carey Doberstein is Associate Professor of Political Science with training and research in Canadian politics, public policy, and public administration.

His research has focused on the governance and policy innovations and challenges associated with homelessness, affordable housing, drug policy, and other issues that cut across levels of government in Canada.

Related to this work on governance, he studies arms-length agencies and authorities in Canada (examples in British Columbia: BC Housing, BC Ferries, Translink, health authorities like Vancouver Coastal Health, BC Energy Regulator, etc.) to explore how their semi-autonomous structure influences their performance as public organizations, their accountabilities to the public, and their potential to be hyper-politicized.

He also maintains a research programme focused on public servant behaviour in Canada, often in collaboration with Étienne Charbonneau at ENAP in Montreal.

His research methods traverse qualitative, quantitative, and experimental approaches.

Doberstein is Associate Editor of Canadian Public Administration (2016-present).

He holds a SSHRC Insight Grant (2023-2026) investigating arms-length agencies and authorities in Canada from the lens of performance, accountability, and politicization.

Areas of research:

Governance: homelessness; housing; health care; drug policy; and other urban or local issues that have multi-level governance challenges; arms-length agencies in Canada

Public administration: survey research and experimentation focused on public servant behaviour in Canada (often in collaboration w/ Étienne Charbonneau at ENAP in Montreal)

Public/citizen engagement and local democracy: survey research and local planning simulations

For all publications, see my Google Scholar page.

J.E. Hodgetts Prize for Best Article in Canadian Public Administration (2020), for “Experimenting with public sector innovation: Revisiting Gow for the digital era.”, w/ Étienne Charbonneau.

Best Article Award in Policy and Society (2020), for “Understanding inclusion in collaborative governance: a mixed methods approach”, w/ Christopher Ansell, Hayley Henderson, Saba Siddiki, and Paul ‘t Hart.

Current graduate students:

Sarah Ferencz (PhD, 2024-)

Katelynn Kowalchuk (PhD, 2021-)

Teaching in Winter 2024-25: POLI 101: Government of Canada (Term 2: January 2025)