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Taking Language Seriously
The Narrative Foundations of Public Administration Research
Jay D. White
Georgetown University Press

The logic of research in public administration, argues Jay D. White, may be more like that of storytelling than of conventional social science research. In Taking Language Seriously, he examines the linguistic, discursive, and narrative foundations of public administration research and develops a narrative theory of knowledge development and use for the field.

White builds his case for this narrative theory by showing how research on complex problems is grounded in language and discourse. He then explains how a variety of recent developments in philosophy and the humanities—positivism, postpositivism, hermeneutics, critical and legal theory, postmodernism, and poststructuralism—can contribute to our understanding of public administration research.

Focusing on the logical structures of three modes of research—explanatory, interpretive, and critical—White shows how each is equally legitimate, depending on the nature of the research questions.

This comprehensive yet clear discussion of the philosophical foundations of research in public administration advances an alternative theory of knowledge development that will be valuable for everyone in fields seeking to affect social, political, economic, and organizational change.

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front cover of Technology and the Resilience of Metropolitan Regions
Technology and the Resilience of Metropolitan Regions
Edited by Michael E. Pagano
University of Illinois Press, 2015
Can today's city govern well if its citizens lack modern technology? How important is access to computers for lowering unemployment? What infrastructure does a city have to build in order to attract new business?
 
In this new collection, Michael A. Pagano curates engagement with such questions by public intellectuals, stakeholders, academics, policy analysts, and citizens. Each essay explores issues related to the impact and opportunities technology provides in government and citizenship, health care, workforce development, service delivery to citizens, and metropolitan growth. As the authors show, rapidly emerging technologies and access to such technologies shape the ways people and institutions interact in the public sphere and private marketplace. The direction of metropolitan growth and development, in turn, depends on access to appropriate technology scaled and informed by the individual, household, and community needs of the region.
 
Contributors include Randy Blankenhorn, Bénédicte Callan, Jane Fountain, Sandee Kastrul, Karen Mossberger, Dan O'Neil, Michelle Russell, Alfred Tatum, Stephanie Truchan, Darrel West, and Howard Wial.
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Third Sector Management
The Art of Managing Nonprofit Organizations
William B. Werther Jr. and Evan Berman
Georgetown University Press, 2001

Trying to do good deeds does not guarantee that a nonprofit organization will succeed. The organization must do good deeds well. This textbook offers a blueprint for nonprofit success, adopting a strategic perspective that assumes vision, mission, strategy, and execution as the pillars upon which success is built.

While many experts on nonprofits argue that fundraising is the single key to success, William B. Werther Jr., and Evan M. Berman show that effective fundraising depends largely on how the nonprofit is positioned and how it performs. They address such issues as leadership and board development, strategic planning, staffing, fundraising, partnering, productivity improvement, and accountability.

Emphasizing the context of nonprofits and detailing improvements than can be made by managers at all levels, the book strikes a balance between policy discussion and practical usefulness. Written for use in graduate courses in nonprofit management, Third Sector Management will also be invaluable to directors, staff, volunteers, and board members of nonprofit organizations.

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front cover of The Three Ages of Government
The Three Ages of Government
From the Person, to the Group, to the World
Jos C.N. Raadschelders
University of Michigan Press, 2020
It is only in the last 250 years that ordinary people (in some parts of the world) have become citizens rather than subjects. This change happened in a very short period, between 1780 and 1820, a result of the foundations of democracy laid in the age of revolutions. A century later local governments embraced this shift due to rapid industrialization, urbanization, and population growth. During the twentieth century, all democratic governments began to perform a range of tasks, functions, and services that had no historical precedent. In the thirty years following the Second World War, Western democracies created welfare states that, for the first time in history, significantly reduced the gap between the wealthy and everyone else. Many of the reforms of that postwar period have been since rolled back because of the belief that government should be more like a business. Jos C.N. Raadschelders provides the information that all citizens should have about their connections to government, why there is a government, what it does, how it does it, and why we can no longer do without it. The Three Ages of Government rises above stereotypical thinking to show the centrality of government in human life.
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To Live and Die in America
Class, Power, Health and Healthcare
Robert Chernomas and Ian Hudson
Pluto Press, 2013

To Live and Die in America details how the United States has among the worst indicators of health in the industrialised world and at the same time spends significantly more on its health care system than any other industrial nation.

Robert Chernomas and Ian Hudson explain this contradictory phenomenon as the product of the unique brand of capitalism that has developed in the US. It is this particular form of capitalism that created both the social and economic conditions that largely influence health outcomes and the inefficient, unpopular and inaccessible health care system that is incapable of dealing with them.

The authors argue that improving health in America requires a change in the conditions in which people live and work as well as a restructured health care system.

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front cover of Toward a National Power Policy
Toward a National Power Policy
The New Deal and the Electric Utility Industry, 1933–1941
Philip J. Funigiello
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1973

Toward a National Power Policy offers a comprehensive analysis of the conflict between Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and the electric utility industry. Philip J. Funigiello outlines the origins and evolution of the privately owned industry, and the growth of an anti-monopoly movement in the 1920s. He details the four major areas of conflict between public and private interests: the Holding Company Act, the Rural Electrification Administration, the Bonneville Power Administration, and power planning for the second World War. Funigiello reveals the complexities of top-level policymaking and the networks of interpersonal relationships that led to both conflict and compromise, and concludes that the failure of the Roosevelt administration to develop a well-defined philosophy prevented the development of a national power policy.

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front cover of Traffic Safety Reform in the United States and Great Britain
Traffic Safety Reform in the United States and Great Britain
Jerome S. Legge
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1991

Recently, there has been a renewed concern with highway safety, reflected in wide media coverage and new laws aimed at reducing highway deaths and injuries. Legge examines three initiatives that have been studied only in isolation: stricter drinking-age laws, mandated use of seat belts, and deterrents to drunk driving. His research covers three large industrial states-New York, California, and Michigan, as well as Great Britain, each of which uses a different mix of these initiatives. Using a combination of theory and research methodology, Legge tests a number of models on how traffic fatalities might be reduced and offers valuable suggestions for policy makers, researchers, and activists.

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front cover of Tribal Administration Handbook
Tribal Administration Handbook
A Guide for Native Nations in the United States
Rebecca M. Webster
Michigan State University Press, 2022
A direct response to the needs and ambitions articulated by tribal administrators and leaders, this handbook seeks to serve practitioners, students, researchers, and community members alike. It grew out of an ongoing collaboration among scholars and practitioners from tribal nations, universities, tribal colleges, and nonprofit organizations who are developing practical and teaching resources in the field of tribal administration and governance. Designed as a readable, accessible volume, it focuses on three key areas: tribal management, funding and delivering core services, and sovereign tribes engaging settler governments. While the chapters complement one another by presenting a coherent and unified constellation of voices that illuminates a shared terrain of practical Indigenous governance, each chapter ultimately stands alone to accommodate a variety of needs and interests with specific best practices, quick-reference executive summaries, and practitioner notes to aid lesson applications. This humble collection of remarkable voices initiates a conversation about tribal administration that will hopefully continue to grow in service to Native nations.
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front cover of Truth in Public Life
Truth in Public Life
Vernon White, Stephen Lamport, and Claire Foster-Gilbert
Haus Publishing, 2020
In Truth in Public Life, three public servants—a theologian, an economist, and an ethicist—contend for both the existence and moral imperatives of absolute truth. Each argues that society, built on ethical leadership and communal accountability, cannot be sustained without a widespread commitment to objectivity. This commitment begins at the top: policymakers must resist political expediency, judges must believe victims, journalists must embrace complexity, and the public must hold its leaders accountable to consistent, ethical standards. This short book offers a potent reminder that in a world of fake news, state lies, and echo chambers, the truth matters more than ever. For our public institutions to survive, we must define and protect the truth against all comers
 
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