The study of the roles of space and place in contemporary public administration; the implications for public policy-making of the reconfigurations of spaces and places; and the use of information and communications technology to redesign organizations (for example, the e-Europe Action Plan). See Baltodano (1997) J. Pub. Admin. Res. 7, 6. Historically, the organization of government activity has been based on co-location of actor (public administrator), act (administration), and geographical setting (administrative unit); see Painchaud (1977) Publius 7.

Globalization brings about new spatial forms of organization and processes in a ‘virtual world’, and these new spatial forms of organization and processes represent new ‘public spaces’; see Toonen (1998) Public Admin. 76, 2. The key criteria in determining the appropriate sizes of administrative units may well be a sense of geographical identity for the ‘citizens’, and equity in resource distribution and access to services. See S. Crate (2003) and Ahas et al. (2005) Futures 37, 6.