Reflecting on over 100 years of public administration education

Research in the field of public administration has changed and advanced significantly in recent years. These advancements concern both how we engage in research-such as the methods we apply, the interdisciplinary nature of the theories we use, and the research questions we ask. Increasingly, we are witnessing a shift in public-sector values away from efficiency and effectiveness and toward a paradigm that highlights equity. In this article, we reflect on these changes from our position as editors-in-chief of some of the leading journals in the field. In addition to describing the progress of this discipline, we explore emerging windows of opportunity for new research. One such window is research on ways to incorporate interdisciplinary perspectives and methods. We also see the need for work in such areas as social equity, comparative administration, artificial intelligence, and climate change. Finally, we argue for a more proactive approach in disseminating research to those involved in the day-to-day decision-making processes of public organizations. | INTRODUCTIONThe role of public administration emerged with the development of the first formal governments. In ancient Egypt, pharaohs deployed servants to do their bidding and tax collectors to find and manage the flow of resources (El Baradei, 2021;Ferlie et al., 2005). The first concerted effort to improve public management practices occurred in

Section: Connecting With Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

The future of public administration research: An editor's perspective

McDonald

Hall

O’Flynn

et al. 2022

“…Public administration degrees, especially at the graduate level, largely remain a professional degree path. As such, public administration education serves as an important means of professionalizing public sector workers (Farrell et al, 2021). Thus, PA education can serve as a means of not just training public administrators and emerging scholars to conduct this type of participatory research, but also as a venue for building collaborative relationships with practitioners and communities, in addition to establishing and institutionalizing norms around how practitioners, communities, and researchers should interact and work together to solve public problems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

CO‐DESIGN‐ing a morecontext‐based, pluralistic, and participatory future for public administration

Schwoerer

Keppeler

Mussagulova

et al. 2022

Public administration (PA) increasingly faces new and emerging challenges. To address such challenges, researchers can work collaboratively with practitioners to identify and tackle the most pressing issues. Yet, intentionally establishing an ongoing dialogue not only between researchers and practitioners but between researchers, practitioners, and the communities that PA scholarship and practice are intended to impact can enhance all stakeholders' understanding of complex social problems and improve solutions. Forms of participatory and context-based research such as this are called many things across disciplines, but PA has yet to embrace such approaches fully. Thus, we introduce a framework entitled CO-DESIGN, intended to illustrate the process of advancing PA research through the co-production of knowledge between researchers, practitioners, and communities.Additionally, it serves as an acronym outlining eight focal areas we argue the co-production of knowledge can help advance. We discuss the CO-DESIGN process and agenda, including its implications for the field.

“…Such a liberatory agenda is tantamount to remembering and bearing witness to suffering, which should inform future administrative practices and forgiveness, repentance, reparations, and healing efforts. At the same time, this can help the field as it ventures to make sense of the business of government in perpetual crisis (Farrell et al, 2021). Apropos, this vignette examines social equity and oppression in the context of Chile's 2019 estadillo social [social outburst] and the use of administrative evil as a case study with implications for other Latin American countries.…”

Section: Vignette 5: Dei and Liberationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A long road: Patterns and prospects for social equity, diversity, and inclusion in public administration

McCandless

BishuÂ

HernÃ¡ndezÂ

et al. 2022

Public Administration, the field's oldest journal, is now 100 years old. Despite this centenary, it has only been relatively recently that scholars have examined questions of: (1) how diverse, equitable, and inclusive the field is; (2) how oppressive administrative structures marginalize groups; and (3) what principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) mean globally. We seek to contribute to this conversation by reflecting on what is currently known about answers to these questions, especially from global perspectives. We do this by presenting five purposively selected vignettes, each on some dimension of DEI. We frame and analyze these vignettes using Gooden's “name, blame, and claim” framework. Reflections are offered regarding how the field can better center and achieve DEI.