LIST OF PANELS

In his 2014 Braibant lecture (Pollitt, 2015) Christopher Pollitt noted the existence of a multiplicity of administrative traditions, some long-standing but new entrants to the international and comparative conversation, and observed that there was now the potential for that conversation, while difficult, to be a rewarding one.  The panel will examine four questions.  The first is to consider whether such traditions exist, and the ways in which traditions differ -- such as the range of questions posed, and methods applied.  The second question is whether these traditions are likely to persist, or whether they are fading as a result of the "globalization" of the scholarly enterprise -- that is, the homogenizing effects of globalized publishing, conferences, and academic hiring.  The third question is whether the fading of traditions, if it is evident, should be regarded as a cause for concern.  To put it any other way, should we be pluralists, celebrating diversity in approaches, or should we encourage global convergence?  The fourth question: if we aim to be pluralists, how should we advance the conversation proposed by Pollitt in 2014?  The panel will aim for gender balance and also representation from at least one major country outside the developed world, such as India.

 
Candler, Gaylord George. 2014. "The Study of Public Administration in India, the Philippines, Canada and Australia: The Universal Struggle against Epistemic Colonization, and Toward Critical Assimilation."  Revista de Administração Pública 48 (5):1073-1093.

Charbonneau, Étienne, Luc Bernier, and Nicholas Bautista-Beauchesne. 2018. “Punching below its weight: Canadian public administration scholarship on the world stage.” Canadian Public Administration 61 (3): 359–382.

Gow, James Ian. 2009. "Evolution of Disciplinary and Paradigms in the Study of Public Administration in Canada." In The Evolving Physiology of Government: Canadian Public Administration in Transition, edited by O.P. Dwivedi, Tim A. Mau and Byron Sheldrick, 40-73. Ottawa, ON: University of Ottawa Press.

Pollitt, Christopher. 2015. "Towards a New World: Some Inconvenient Truths for Anglosphere Public Administration."  International Review of Administrative Sciences 81 (1):3-17.

0Roberts, Alasdair. 2017. "Our Asian Challenge."  Governance 30 (4):537-539.

In his 2014 Braibant lecture (Pollitt, 2015) Christopher Pollitt noted the existence of a multiplicity of "administrative traditions" -- that is, distinct ways of thinking about the domain of public administration and engaging in practice within it.  Some of these administrative traditions are very old, and some new.  Some dominate the "mainstream" journals while some are neglected.  Pollitt made the case for a conversation among administrative traditions, which he believed to be challenging but also potentially rewarding.

 This panel will take up Pollitt's invitation to have a conversation about administrative traditions.  We invite papers that address any of these four questions:  

1.   Whether such traditions exist, and the ways in which traditions differ -- such as conceptualizations of the field and its goals and problems, the range of questions posed in research, and methods applied.

2.   Whether these traditions are likely to persist, or whether they are fading as a result of the "globalization" of the scholarly enterprise -- that is, the homogenizing effects of globalized publishing, conferences, and academic hiring.

3.   Whether the fading of traditions, if it is evident, should be regarded as a cause for concern.  To put it any other way, should we be pluralists, celebrating diversity in approaches, or should we encourage global convergence?      

4.   And if we aim to be pluralists, how should we advance the conversation proposed by Pollitt in 2014?  For example, do our journals and conferences adequately represent major administrative traditions?  How should we change these institutions to assure fair representation and encourage dialogue?   

SOURCES:

• Candler, Gaylord George. 2014. "The Study of Public Administration in India, the Philippines, Canada and Australia: The Universal Struggle against Epistemic Colonization, and Toward Critical Assimilation."  Revista de Administração Pública 48 (5):1073-1093. 
• Charbonneau, Étienne, Luc Bernier, and Nicholas Bautista-Beauchesne. 2018. “Punching below its weight: Canadian public administration scholarship on the world stage.” Canadian Public Administration 61 (3): 359–382.
• Gow, James Ian. 2009. "Evolution of Disciplinary and Paradigms in the Study of Public Administration in Canada." In The Evolving Physiology of Government: Canadian Public Administration in Transition, edited by O.P. Dwivedi, Tim A. Mau and Byron Sheldrick, 40-73. Ottawa, ON: University of Ottawa Press.   
• Pollitt, Christopher. 2015. "Towards a New World: Some Inconvenient Truths for Anglosphere Public Administration."  International Review of Administrative Sciences 81 (1):3-17.
• Roberts, Alasdair. 2017. "Our Asian Challenge."  Governance 30 (4):537-539.