New Sciences for Public Administration and Policy: Connections and Reflections

by Goktug Morcol (Editor)

This book is about the new sciences, a group of scientific theories that not only caught the attention of the natural scientists but also found some resonance in the social sciences. Arguably, the new sciences are symptomatic of a paradigmatic shift in sciences, or at least they represent a serious collective questioning of the fundamental philosophical assumptions and methodology of the Western, classical, modern, and positivistic science. The question we want to explore in this volume is whether and how the implications of chaos/complexity, second-order cybernetics, and quantum theories are relevant to the study of public administration and policy. The contributors to this volume differ in their interpretations of the new science theories. That is only natural because the originators of the theories themselves differ in their interpretations. The collection of articles included in this book is the product of the discussions between the authors via the Internet and at the annual conferences of the Public Administration Theory Network since 1995.

210 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999