Postmodern Public Policy

by Miller, Hugh T.

• ISBN13: 9780791454909
• ISBN10: 0791454908
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-09-01
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

Postmodern Public Policy introduces new ways of investigating the urgent difficulties confronting the public sector. The second half of the twentieth century saw approaches to public administration, public policy, and public management dominated by technical-instrumental thought that aspired to neutrality, objectivity, and managerialism. This form of social science has contributed to a public sector where policy debates have been reduced to "bumper-sticker" slogans, a citizenry largely alienated and distant from government, and analysis that ignores history and context and eschews the lived experiences of actual people. Hugh T. Miller brings together the latest thinking from epistemology, evolutionary theory, and discourse theory in an accessible and useful manner to emphasize how a postmodern approach offers the possibility of well-considered, pragmatic solutions grounded in political pluralism and social interaction between public service professionals and community members.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Brief of the Argument	x
Plan of the Book	xiv
Acknowledgments	xv
The System and its Nemesis	1	(20)
Encroachments	4	(7)
Hyperrationality	11	(10)
The Mutation of Meaning	21	(12)
Some Examples of the Disconnect	23	(7)
The Instability of Language	30	(3)
Idea Contagion	33	(18)
Memetics	33	(6)
Memetics and Postmodernism	39	(7)
The Prospects for Rational Sorting	46	(5)
Contextualism	51	(14)
Situation and Intentionality	51	(3)
Practical Discourse	54	(7)
A Perspective on Change	61	(4)
Policy Inquiry	65	(22)
Epistemology as Abstract Univeralism	67	(6)
Facts Are Word-Shaped Things	73	(6)
Self-Referential Systems	79	(4)
Perspectival Small t Truth	83	(4)
Democratic Discourse	87	(18)
The End of Universals?	87	(4)
Monologic Discourse: An Oxymoron	91	(1)
Vibrant Pluralism	92	(9)
An Ethos of Discourse	101	(4)
References	105	(8)
Index	113