Towards Integrity – Integrity Education and Research at the National University of Public Service

Abstract

Research and curriculum development for public ethics and integrity have become the most innovative areas of the university, and generated new approaches to both content and methodology. The article positions the NUSP approach within the actual state of art of theory and practice. It proposes that in the post-communist region for effective improvement of integrity the reconceptualisation of corruption as a cultural problem is necessary, corrupt practices as memes, anticorruption as collective action problem. We propose that ample use of argumentative methods are necessary in training, research and technical support – methods that are not widely known or applied in the region yet. The article presents how this approach can be applied for training and the building up of an epistemic community that could support integrity development, and presents the results of the research that was conducted to measuring the effectiveness in the attitude change of participants involved in trainings.