Taking Language Seriously: The Narrative Foundations of Public Administration Research

by Jay D. White

Challenging scholars in public administration to be cognizant of the philosophical underpinnings of their field, White (public administration, U. of Nebraska, Omaha) argues that the logic of applied research in this discipline resembles storytelling more than traditional social science. With a nod to postmodernism (actually an entire chapter), his case for this narrative theory of knowledge is built by showing how inquiry into complex problems is grounded in language, discourse, and rationality; and how the logical structure of explanatory, interpretive, and critical research are equally legitimate depending on the nature of the question. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

217 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1999