Some Evidence of a Pluralistic Discipline: A Narrative Analysis of Public Administration Symposia

In: Public administration review: PAR, Volume 65, Issue 6, p. 728-738

Abstract

This article investigates the discipline of public administration as it is manifested in symposium articles published during the period 1985–99. What was the field trying to accomplish? The method of investigation is narrative analysis. Using specific discourse markers (method, substantive contents, and authorial intentions), the authors found a wide variety of purposes and projects in the symposia investigated. The condition of public administration, they conclude, is distinguished by a radical pluralism—a striking absence of any singular conception of public administration scholarship.