Media Relations
Press Release:
MEDIA
CONTACT:
Lisa
Freed
561-297-3022,
lfreed@fau.edu
FAU Hosts International Scholars
Conference Focusing
on Anti-essentialism
BOCA RATON, FL (February 28, 2007) - Florida Atlantic University’s School of Public Administration in the College of Architecture, Urban and Public Affairs will host “Anti-essentialism in Public Administration” on March 2 and 3 at The Ramada Hollywood Beach Resort, Hollywood Beach.
The conference will bring together international scholars who write about public administration and political theories. Additional theorists’ topics include the de-centering of public institutions, the implications of apparent movement from stable-granite institutions to dynamic ever-changing networks, inter-agency task forces and trans-institutional conversations.
The following conference paper topics include:
- Anti-Essentialism in Multicultural Societies: Facilitating Multicultural Discourse through Tolerance of Cultural Pluralism , by Dragan Staniševski. This paper will examine the value of cultural tolerance within diverse societies focusing on reducing cross-cultural tensions and facilitating public policy deliberations.
- The New Deal’s Caring State: A Foundational Narrative for Contemporary Public Administration , by DeLysa Burnier. Significant contributions of women administrators within the New Deal period and gender-inclusive viewpoints into the traditional versions of American public administration history will be the focus of this paper.
- The Hermeneutics of Government Contracting: Questions of Meaning, Anti-Essentialism and Anti-Foundationalism , by Jay D. White. White’s paper will employ the process of hermeneutics, a model of interpretation, to examine the legitimacy of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, as well as their impact on the meanings of public policy and the actions of public managers.
- Innocence, Blame and Accountability: Avoidance and Sensemaking in Public Administration , by Jonathan Anderson. This paper will explain the “accountability game,” which is an attempt to disentangle a complex concept of the value of accountability, social construction, functions in government and enforcement methods of accountability.
Thirty-two additional scholars will present their paper topics at the conference.
For more information, visit www.fau.edu/caupa/spa/antiessenconf.html or contact Dr. Hugh Miller, director and professor of FAU’s School of Public Administration in the College of Architecture, Urban and Public Affairs, at 954-762-5650.
- FAU -
