Public Administration ─ Traditions of Inquiry and Philosophies of Knowledge

Rather than choosing one set of research tools over another, Riccucci (public administration, Rutgers U.) demonstrates the importance of a variety of research traditions in studying and conducting research in public administration. She examines the debates over ontology, epistemology, and methodology in the field; the debate over whether the field is an art or a science; and other social sciences that deal with this debate. She then provides a framework for a number of research approaches--interpretivism, rationalism, empiricism, logical positivism, postpositivism, and postmodernism--and examples of different research methods, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Norma M. Riccucci is a professor of public administration at Rutgers University, Newark. She is the author ofUnsung Heroes: Federal Execucrats Making a Difference and How Management Matters: Street-Level Bureaucrats and Welfare Reform which won the 2009 Herbert Simon Book Award from the American Political Science Association.