Edward Elgar Publishing House
CALL FOR CHAPTERS
Handbook of
Research Methods in Public Administration, Management and Policy: Breaking New Frontiers
Eran Vigoda-Gadot and Dana R. Vashdi (Eds)
The University of Haifa, ISRAEL
Background:
Advancing the quality and impact of public administration and public policy studies is a mission for scholars and practitioners who care about the nature and sustainable development of modern nations. Those who develop theories, and those who use them are all a mission-group, in an ongoing journey of building advanced societies, promoting the quality of services to citizens and solving grand policy problems. In the process of public problem solving another mission is essential. Training the next generations of students, scholars and practitioners who are looking for solutions for the problems of today and for the problems of the future. These intellectuals should be armed with state-of-the-art tools to help them address questions relating to the more daily issues of effectively serving the public, to designing and implementing policies as well as to the wicked problems of tomorrow.
Ambition and Goals
This book seeks to enrich the toolkit of a variety of audiences in dealing with public administration, public management and public policy problems. It focuses on unique research methods, specific research designs, and explicit research techniques that are useful for public administration and for public policy scholars and intellectuals, as well as for public administrators and practitioners.
The goal of this book is to add significant knowledge and experience to research methods in public administration, management and policy by exploring, in both a detailed and progressive manner, a variety of research methods that can take this field and discipline into the next generation of evolution. We hope to provide readers (students, academics, field experts, policy designers, policy makers, etc.) with the most advanced toolbox for understanding the science of public administration, management and policy. We will focus on innovative research architectures, useful research techniques and best practices for the study of modern bureaucracy and the behavior of its agents. By providing specific examples of how these methods are used will enable a down to earth understanding of a variety of intellectual paths and sophisticated techniques.
The vision behind this book is to strengthen the independence of the discipline by looming the most notable methods in conducting public administration research. This vision draws substance from our strong belief in the contribution of public administration and policy to the robustness of social science research and to the practical strategies of better running modern nations. We believe that public sector improvement and renewal begins with excellent research that promotes the most precise avenues for explanations of complex realities. To advance an understanding of science and reality one must bring together appropriate research tools and designs.
The purpose of the book is to present the most appropriate and suitable research methods for a variety of research questions in our discipline. These methods should and can be useful in policy studies, public management research, public human resources studies, local government studies, public budgeting and economics, environmental policy and deigns, and many other sub-fields. We argue that the current discourse about public sector modernization and its invigoration largely overlooks questions of methodological coherence and sophistication. Public administration databases offer a rich source of overt and covert facts and details that scientists of the future must learn to use. Methodological biases in our discipline are threatening the capacity of decision makers to use public assets properly in the sake of good governance. Global and comparative observations add to the knowledge we already hold and may direct explanatory models and the resulting decisions on which the public good is being manifested. Thus, we believe that breaking new frontiers of research and learning in public administration, public policy, good governance, and management of civil services must build on the most updated methodologies and research designs. Consequently, this book aims to enrich the professional and academic literature with innovative ideas of methodology (qualitative, quantitative, comparative, and integrative techniques) and to do so from a variety of perspectives, means and levels of analysis.
Call for Contributors:
Three major parts of the field will be covered: (1) background for research design and analysis: (2) traditional qualitative and quantitative analysis: (3) modern integrative analysis. You are invited to contribute a chapter based on proposals approved by the editors. Each chapter will be written such that the first part of the chapter introduces the research method, its purpose, advantages, disadvantages, assumptions, general use and a detailed description of the method. The second part of each chapter will be an example of a real research which used this specific method, including examples of data, tables and graphs. This way a systematic order of the chapters will be offered that can help readers use this book both as a guiding volume in advanced methodological courses as well as a useful tool for graduate students and experienced scholars who wish to familiarize themselves with new and up-to-date methods and approaches. The book will suggest a comprehensive platform for multilevel knowledge (descriptive, context-related explanatory, and evaluative) about research methods in and around the public sector. In line with this vision we encourage contributors to suggest both specific and integrative methods to the study of public administration, public policy, public management and governance and other public sector related arenas.
Timeline and submissions
Expected submission of pre-proposals (up to one page): April 30th, 2019
Decisions for pre-proposals: May 31st, 2019
Expected submission of full chapters (up to 8000 words): October 31st, 2019
Please submit pre-proposals to: Tal Shuval tal.shuval@gmail.com
Prof. Eran Vigoda-Gadot and Dr. Dana R. Vashdi
Division of Public Administration & Policy, School of Political Sciences,
University of Haifa, ISRAEL
dvashdi@poli.haifa.ac.il; eranv@poli.haifa.ac.il
____________________________
Prof. Eran Vigoda-Gadot, Dean
The Herta & Paul Amir Faculty of Social Sciences
Executive Dean, The Faculty of Management
Professor of Public Administration & Management,
The University of Haifa
Haifa 31905 Israel
eranv@poli.haifa.ac.il