This is an exceptional book that addresses issues of race and ethnicity in public administration from a wide range of topical areas, from education to housing. Each chapter is well-written and first-rate. As the issues relate to every facet of public administration, the book should be required reading for all students in the field as well as for practitioners.
Norma Riccucci, Rutgers Newark University, USA
Rutherford and Meier have collected an exceptional group of established and emerging scholars to tackle a thorny but often ignored issue that is vital to our politics and governance. Each chapter speaks to scholars and practitioners by relying on theory and empirical evidence to explore governance issues around race, representation, and inequality. The volume should be used as a core text for Public Administration courses and would be a nice addition to race and politics courses.
Don Haider-Markel, University of Kansas, USA
Rutherford and Meier have assembled a superb cast of scholars to reflect on the importance of race and racism in public administration. The volume offers an accessible introduction to the main currents of research in this area and marks a significant step forward in efforts to understand and address racial injustices in the administrative state. Highly recommended for students as well as advanced scholars.
Joe Soss, University of Minnesota, USA
Race and Public Administration
Issues of race permeate virtually every corner of policy creation and implementation in the United States, yet theoretically driven research on interactions of policy, race, and ethnicity rarely offers practical tools that can be readily applied by current and future civil servants, private contractors, or nonprofit boards. Arguing that scholarship can and should inform practice to address issues of equity in public affairs, rather than overlook, ignore, or deny them, Race and Public Administration offers a much-needed and accessible exploration of current and cutting-edge research on race and policy.
This book evaluates what contradictions, unanswered questions, and best (or worst) practices exist in conducting and understanding research that can provide evidence-based policy and management guidance to practitioners in the field. Individual chapters are written by established and emerging scholars and explore a wide range of policy areas, including public education, policing, health and access to health care, digital governance, nonprofit diversity, and international contexts. Together, the chapters serve as a link between theoretically informed research in public administration and those students and professionals trained to work in the trenches of public administration. This book is ideally suited as a text for courses in schools of public administration, public policy, or nonprofit management, and is required reading for those actively involved in policy analysis, creation, or evaluation.
Amanda Rutherford is an Assistant Professor in the ONeill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, USA. Her research focuses on organizational accountability and performance, inequality between majority and minority groups, and executive careers and decision-making processes and is often situated in the context of U.S. education. Her work has appeared in leading journals in the fields of political science, public administration, and higher education policy. In her spare time, Amanda swaps stories with her husband, Jeff (an administrator), plays in the park with her daughter, Kendall, and generally tries to keep Ken Meier sane.
Kenneth J. Meier is a Distinguished Scholar in Residence in the Department of Public Administration and Policy in the School of Public Affairs at American University, Washington, DC, USA. His research considers institutional theories of organizations and politics and spans areas of representation and equity, comparative public administration, education, health care, and local government. Ken has published over 20 books and over 250 articles and has served as the editor of four journals in the fields of political science and public administration. Ken enjoys a good Cajun dish, watching NCAA track and field championships, and, above all, time with his wonderful wife, Diane.
First published 2020
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2020 selection and editorial matter, Amanda Rutherford and Kenneth J. Meier; individual chapters, the contributors
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-89671-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-86199-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-01763-9 (ebk)
To Kendallmay you encourage your generation to love all, regardless of race, ethnicity, or nationality.
Adrian Brown is an Instructor in the School of Public Affairs in the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions at Arizona State University. Browns research interests include e-government, information and communication technologies, broadband access, digital literacy, program evaluation, and public administration and policy education.
Andre Dantas Cabral is a PhD candidate in the State, Government and Public Institutions at FGV/EBAPE, Brazil. His main research interests focus on representative bureaucracy as related to policing and education.
Seong K. Cho is a doctoral student in the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University. Her research focuses on housing policy, social equity, and public policy processes.
Jason A. Grissom is an Associate Professor of Public Policy and Education in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Peabody College at Vanderbilt University, where he also serves as faculty director of the Tennessee Education Research Alliance. His research uses large data sets and draws on the perspectives of political science, public administration, and economics to study the governance of K-12 education, including both its leadership/management and political dimensions.
Ashley Jones is a doctoral student in the department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations in the Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. She is interested in researching academic achievement gap closure for students of color and low SES students, specifically how implementing comprehensive social services within schools can impact racial disparities in academic achievement.
Eunji Lee is a masters student in organizational theory at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, the Republic of Korea, and a former student at FGV/EBAPE, Brazil. Her research interests currently focus on organizational diversity.