- "Skepticism toward the 'grand narratives' of modernism; rejection of epistemic (scientific) certainty or the stability of meaning; and sensitivity to the role of ideology in maintaining political power."
This theory considers how power and knowledge are constructed and contested within organizations, and challenges traditional assumptions about the role of public administration.
Modernity and Postmodernity: This topic explores the differences between modernity and postmodernity, and how postmodern theory challenges the assumptions and values of modernity.
Deconstructionism: Deconstructionism is a central concept in postmodern theory that seeks to uncover the hidden assumptions and power structures in language and culture.
Power and Control: This topic explores how power and control are exercised in contemporary society, and how postmodern theory challenges traditional notions of power and control.
Critique of Objectivity: Postmodern theory challenges the notion of objective knowledge, and argues that knowledge is always contextual and situated.
Identity and Difference: This topic explores how postmodern theory challenges traditional notions of identity and difference, and argues that identity and difference are always fluid and constructed.
Agency and Resistance: Postmodern theory challenges the idea that individuals are passive recipients of social forces, and argues that individuals have agency and can engage in resistance.
Postmodern Public Administration: This topic explores how postmodern theory can be applied to the field of public administration, and how it challenges traditional models of governance and public policy.
Postmodern Ethics: Postmodern theory challenges traditional ethical frameworks, and argues that ethics are always contextual and contingent.
Postmodern Culture: This topic explores how postmodern theory has influenced contemporary culture, and how it has challenged traditional forms of art, literature, and media.
Postmodernism and Globalization: Postmodern theory argues that globalization has led to the homogenization of culture, and challenges traditional notions of national identity and sovereignty.
Discourse Theory: This approach focuses on analyzing and interpreting conversations and dialogues in public organizations to understand how meanings are constructed, and social relationships are depicted in a pluralistic society.
Deconstruction Theory: This theory emphasizes the importance of understanding how power relationships are formed and maintained in public institutions. It seeks to reveal the underlying assumptions and meaning of organizational practices and behavior.
Feminist Theory: This approach focuses on gender equity and recognizes the contributions of women in public administration processes. It seeks to address gender bias in policymaking and service delivery.
Critical Theory: This approach critiques the existing power structures in society and proposes practical solutions to address social injustice and inequities. It offers a framework to understand how public institutions function in shaping society.
Social Constructivist Theory: This theory emphasizes the role of social context and shared meanings in shaping individuals' attitudes and behavior. It seeks to understand how these meanings and attitudes emerge and are transformed in public institutions.
Queer Theory: This approach focuses on the representation of gender and sexuality in public institutions. It seeks to understand how institutional norms and values influence the experiences of individuals who don't conform to traditional gender and sexual identities.
- "Claims to objectivity are dismissed as naïve realism, with attention drawn to the conditional nature of knowledge claims within particular historical, political, and cultural discourses."
- "Self-referentiality, epistemological relativism, moral relativism, pluralism, irony, irreverence, and eclecticism."
- "It rejects the 'universal validity' of binary oppositions, stable identity, hierarchy, and categorization."
- "Initially emerging from a mode of literary criticism, postmodernism developed in the mid-twentieth century as a rejection of modernism."
- "Postmodernism is associated with the disciplines deconstruction and post-structuralism."
- "Postmodernism has been observed across many disciplines."
- "Various authors have criticized postmodernism as promoting obscurantism, as abandoning Enlightenment, rationalism and scientific rigor, and as adding nothing to analytical or empirical knowledge."
- "Rejection of epistemic (scientific) certainty or the stability of meaning."
- "Sensitivity to the role of ideology in maintaining political power."
- "Claims to objectivity."
- "Moral relativism."
- "Stable identity."
- "In the mid-twentieth century."
- "The 'grand narratives' of modernism."
- "The stability of knowledge claims within particular historical, political, and cultural discourses."
- "Irony and irreverence."
- "Categorization."
- "Promoting obscurantism."
- "Hierarchy."