Challenging Technicism: Space for the Individual Bureaucrat in Public Administration Theory and Practice

Authors

Nicole M. Elias, CUNY John Jay CollegeFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2012

Abstract

Participation in PAT-Net 2011 led me to rethink some basic assumptions surrounding public administration theory and what constitutes knowledge in public administration scholarship and practice. My reflection responds to the major questions posed during the Ph.D. Student Workshop on "Writing Theory in a Technicist Field": specifically, why a technicist attitude is so pervasive in a democratic society and what alternatives have been posited for confronting technicism to advance theoretical and critical scholarship.

Comments

This article was originally published in Administrative Theory & Practice, available at https://doi.org/10.2753/ATP1084-1806340208