The knowledge-building process of public administration research: a comparative perspective between Brazil and North American contexts
| Date | 01 March 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020852316637660 |
| Published date | 01 March 2017 |
| Author | Alketa Peci,Marcelo Fornazin |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
International Review of
Administrative Sciences
2017, Vol. 83(1S) 99–119
!The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0020852316637660
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International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Article
The knowledge-building process
of public administration research:
a comparative perspective
between Brazil and North
American contexts
Alketa Peci
Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration, Brazil
Marcelo Fornazin
Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), Brazil
Abstract
Assessments of public administration research in the Global South are relatively scarce,
although they are relevant in moving beyond a North–South dichotomy in understand-
ing the knowledge-building process of public administration. In this article, we apply a
content analysis to 592 Brazilian publications in order to assess the subjects of the
studies, their cognitive orientations, their methodological strategies, and their institu-
tional aspects, and compare these results with previous evaluations of North American
publications. Our findings indicate that a ‘‘North American way of doing research’’ is
gaining ground as the legitimate way of doing public administration research in Brazil,
despite a research agenda that reflects subjects of practical relevance to the Brazilian
public sector. Such intellectual mimesis, associated with the existence of a weak and
unequal institutional network for academic research, may influence the ‘‘parochialism’’
of public administration research.
Points for practitioners
The research reveals that the subjects of public administration publications also reflect
the dynamics of public administration as a field of practice, reflected in topics of empir-
ical interest to the Brazilian public sector that are cognitively and, partly, methodologic-
ally discussed from a North American perspective. The similar trends in the cognitive
dimensions that both regions share may also recursively reflect the diffusion of public
sector reforms from developed to developing countries, particularly as a consequence
of New Public Management, which has also taken place in countries like Brazil.
Corresponding author:
Alketa Peci, Getulio Vargas Foundation—Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration,
Praia de Botafogo, 190, sala 525 RJ Rio de Janeiro 22250-900, Brazil.
Email: Alketa.Peci@fgv.br
Keywords
Brazil, methodology, paradigms, public administration research
Introduction
Public administration (PA) scholars who work within the North American context
have been engaged in long-term debates about the paradigmatic orientation(s) of
PA as a field, including its intellectual core (Adams, 1992; Bingham and Bowen,
1994; Box, 1992; Kellough and Pitts, 2005; Lan and Anders, 2000; Miller and Jaja,
2005; Raadschelders and Lee, 2011; Rhodes, 2011; Stallings and Ferris, 1988;
Streib et al., 2001; White, 1986; Wright, 2011; Zalmanovitch, 2014). Evaluations
of PA research in terms of quality, methodology, content, or institutional aspects
have been omnipresent since the 1970s. Most evaluations recognize the lack of
straightforward disciplinary boundaries and of a dominant intellectual approach
in PA research, as well as, at the same time, evidence an enormous intellectual and
institutional diversity. These evaluations also point to very distinct denominations
of public management, bureaucracy, organizational studies, governance, and
public policy implementation, among others (Kelman, 2007; Lynn, 1996; Pitts
and Fernandez, 2009). Despite such diversity, these evaluations share common
concerns regarding the quality of research (Box, 1992; Cleary, 1992; Gill and
Meier, 2000; Perry and Kraemer, 1986), and often its relevance to practice and
practitioners (Kelman, 2007; Orr and Bennett, 2012). Many others also recognize
the exponential growth of the field, at least in terms of the output of academic
programs or publications (Lan and Anders, 2000; Perry and Kraemer, 1986;
Raadschelders, 2011).
However, do such evaluations highlight particularities of the North American
‘‘way’’ of doing PA research? Or, may some of their findings either be applied to
other contexts or be related to the nature of PA research in a broader sense?
Research in other contexts also reveals several critical shortcomings or institutional
peculiarities of PA research (Kim, 2012; Wu et al., 2013), indicating that there
might be shared concerns in doing PA research.
In this article, we examine the current state of PA research in Brazil, based on a
comparative approach that makes contrasts with previous evaluations from North
America. This comparison is grounded on the premise that such an analysis may
help elucidate the enduring or distinctive features of PA research and its governing
paradigms beyond national contexts. We share Pitts and Fernandez’s (2009) view
about the relevance of understanding how PA is going about advancing knowledge,
particularly beyond a North–South dichotomy. Similar to Rhodes (2011) or
Raadschelders (2011), our understanding is that the study of PA is, on the one
hand, both culturally and nationally bound and, on the other, a global phenom-
enon in which a comparative and international perspective is important.
To examine the state of PA research, we analyze, through a content analysis of a
sample of highly ranked Brazilian journal publications, the subjects that PA
100 International Review of Administrative Sciences 83(1S)
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