Toward Open Public Administration Scholarship
نویسندگان
چکیده
This essay focuses on the potential of information communication technologies to move the Public Administration (PA) scholarly community into a new information paradigm. We begin with a review of conventional approaches PA scholars use to communicate with each other, students, and practitioners. After illustrating advances in Web applications, we call for an ‘‘Open PA Scholarship’’ in which research, teaching, and engagement are conducted in a more participatory, timely, and effective manner enabled by new technologies. We conclude with a proposal of Online PA Commons, an interactive Web platform that may facilitate the development of such scholarship. In 1988, the Minnowbrook II conference focused on ‘‘public management in an interconnected world’’ (Bailey and Mayer 1992). Discussions about this theme continue today and were reflected in debates at the Minnowbrook III meeting during fall 2008, albeit with a different flavor. Now this ‘‘interconnected world’’ is all around us, supported by a flow of information previously unimaginable. Many would agree the biggest change since 1988 is this new digital interconnectedness, enabled by advances in information technology hardware—our computers, cell phones, other types of hand-held devices—and platforms such as the Internet, Web-based databases, and search engines. As these new information communication technologies (ICTs) reshape the way society interacts, we observe parallel changes in the landscape of public affairs, which urge us to reconsider the role of Public Administration (PA) scholarship and how we share our research and enhance our teaching. Conventionally, governments use exclusive powers, such as tax authority or service monopolies, to provide specific public services within particular jurisdictions.Management and policy implementation are structured mainly hierarchically. Intergovernmental relations are assumed to be principle-agent problems of coordination; nonprofit and business, if involved, are mere vendors of public service provision (Knott 1993). This traditional view has changed. Today’s governments function more like information nodes (Fountain 2001), working together with other governments, other sectors, and the public in an interactive network (Agranoff 2008b; Koontz et al. 2004). State and local governments interact with each other horizontally in policy competition, collaboration, or Konstanzer Online-Publikations-System (KOPS) URL: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-0-357164 Erschienen in: Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory ; 21 (2011), Suppl. 1. S. i175-i198 https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muq072
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