1st Edition
Post-Traditional Public Administration Theory For Better Governmental Praxis
This book describes what is argued to be the most effective way of doing public administration thinking. Its aim is to encourage governments to govern fundamentally better in terms of policy and administration.
A better understanding of context and identities, imaginization, epistemic pluralism, anti-administration, and the context of economics are examples of what is critical for high effectiveness. The pieces included in this book have been handpicked from the vast academic collection that David Farmer has authored over the last thirty years and which were published in the Journal of Administrative Theory and Praxis and the Journal of Public Administration Education. Collectively, these chapters are intended to help governments use post-traditional public administration theory in order to achieve better praxis.
Introduction
1. Contemplating Bureaucracies: A Tale of Identities – Essay 4
2. In the Pink?
3. Contemplating Cops: A Tale of Identities – Essay 1
4. Contemplating Cops: A Tale of Identities – Essay 2
5. Contemplating Bureaucracies: A Tale of Identities – Essay 3
6. Imagine! Preface to the Post-Traditional
7. Theorizing in Perspective: Epistemic Pluralism
8. The Allure of Rhetoric and the Truancy of Poetry
9. Because My Master Bathes Me
10. Mapping Anti-Administration: Introduction to the Symposium
11. Dogs of War: Fighting Back
12. Public Administration in a World of Economics
13. Coping With The Super-Abstract: Teaching About the Implications of Postmodernism for Public Administration
14. A Conversation Between Song Jinzhou and David John Farmer
15. The Ladder of Organization-Think: Beyond Flatland
16. Red Queen
17. Power Speaking v. Speaking to Power: A Discourse War?
18. Fractured Governmentality: A Night in the Emergency Room (E.R.)
19. Froglets or Fairy Tales?
20. Tonto and the Lone Ranger: Concepts Reveal, Concepts Mask
21. Expanding the Ethical Sphere
22. Medusa: Helene Cixous and the Writing of Laughter
23. Somatic Writing: Attending to Our Bodies
24. Silence
25. Power of Refusal: Introduction to the Symposium
26. Anti-Admin: With Help from Herbert Marcuse
27. Love and Un-Engineering
28. The Devil's Rope
29. Frigginomics Begins in Kindergarten: The Social Construction of "Normal" Citizens and Their Dreams
30. Wal-Mart®: Neo-Feudal (K)Night?
31. Change the Course, Neurons!
32. The Spirit of Our Age: PA-think as Uncovering
33. A Dancing Star: Arguments From Imagination
Biography
David John Farmer is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Public Affairs at the School of Government and Public Affairs, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA. He has worked as a budget, an administrative and an economic analyst. He was Special Assistant to the N.Y.P.D. Police Commissioner and a Division Director in the U.S. Justice Department.
