Public Administration & Social Equity – serie

Public Administration, Civic Engagement, and Spanish-Speaking Communities builds on the first bilingual (Spanish–English) special session at the National Academy of Public Administration’s 2022 Social Equity Leadership Conference. Expanding on the themes of that groundbreaking conversation, this interdisciplinary volume addresses the urgent need to center multilingual voices in the pursuit of social equity in public administration. It examines the lived experiences and systemic challenges faced by Spanish-speaking communities in the United States—from language and cultural barriers to generational divides and unequal access to technology—while also highlighting innovative approaches to inclusive service delivery and democratic participation.With 31 contributors representing diverse identities and disciplines, this volume models walking the social equity talk. Most chapters are coauthored by teams of scholars, students, and practitioners at different career levels, bringing forward the voices of Spanish-speaking communities alongside allies and social equity champions.Designed for faculty, students, researchers, and practitioners alike, the book offers both breadth and depth: each chapter can be read on its own, yet together they create a comprehensive portrait of civic engagement, governance, and social equity in Spanish-speaking contexts.

Public Administration, Civic Engagement, and Spanish-Speaking Communities builds on the first bilingual (Spanish–English) special session at the National Academy of Public Administration’s 2022 Social Equity Leadership Conference. Expanding on the themes of that groundbreaking conversation, this interdisciplinary volume addresses the urgent need to center multilingual voices in the pursuit of social equity in public administration. It examines the lived experiences and systemic challenges faced by Spanish-speaking communities in the United States—from language and cultural barriers to generational divides and unequal access to technology—while also highlighting innovative approaches to inclusive service delivery and democratic participation.With 31 contributors representing diverse identities and disciplines, this volume models walking the social equity talk. Most chapters are coauthored by teams of scholars, students, and practitioners at different career levels, bringing forward the voices of Spanish-speaking communities alongside allies and social equity champions.Designed for faculty, students, researchers, and practitioners alike, the book offers both breadth and depth: each chapter can be read on its own, yet together they create a comprehensive portrait of civic engagement, governance, and social equity in Spanish-speaking contexts.

What is the way that societies improve and solve problems? What is the purpose of business in society? Is there a role for markets and business in issues of civic good, justice, equality, education, environment, health or collective action? Current economic principles, which underpin our trust in markets are not value neutral. Therefore, how we design “market solutions” to problems should be the focus of vigorous and open debate. Multi-sector Partnership is a concept that has re-focused us on the meaning of the goods and social practices we value as citizens in a global society. Multi-sector partners emerge in society to offer innovative approaches to dealing with pressing, yet complex, social, economic and weather-related 21st century challenges.Multi-sector partnerships, loosely defined as activities with an embedded social purpose, is about using skills from a range of sectors to craft innovative responses to address social problems. It aims at social impact but does not exclude economic wealth creation. Thus, it is not limited to the non-profit or social sectors but seeks to mobilize and align interests of diverse stakeholders in the social, public and private sectors by creating non-financial incentives for collective action. Multi-sector partnerships involve recognizing that social problems are potential opportunities for collaboration, building on existing social networks, harnessing market forces that combine and mobilize resources, inciting positive change in various domains, and designing solutions for sustainable development.The purpose of this edited volume is to provide academic and practitioners with the essential conceptual frameworks and tools for creating successful Multi-sector ventures, initiatives, programs or partnerships that seek to tackle global social issues and collective action problems.

What is the way that societies improve and solve problems? What is the purpose of business in society? Is there a role for markets and business in issues of civic good, justice, equality, education, environment, health or collective action? Current economic principles, which underpin our trust in markets are not value neutral. Therefore, how we design “market solutions” to problems should be the focus of vigorous and open debate. Multi-sector Partnership is a concept that has re-focused us on the meaning of the goods and social practices we value as citizens in a global society. Multi-sector partners emerge in society to offer innovative approaches to dealing with pressing, yet complex, social, economic and weather-related 21st century challenges.Multi-sector partnerships, loosely defined as activities with an embedded social purpose, is about using skills from a range of sectors to craft innovative responses to address social problems. It aims at social impact but does not exclude economic wealth creation. Thus, it is not limited to the non-profit or social sectors but seeks to mobilize and align interests of diverse stakeholders in the social, public and private sectors by creating non-financial incentives for collective action. Multi-sector partnerships involve recognizing that social problems are potential opportunities for collaboration, building on existing social networks, harnessing market forces that combine and mobilize resources, inciting positive change in various domains, and designing solutions for sustainable development.The purpose of this edited volume is to provide academic and practitioners with the essential conceptual frameworks and tools for creating successful Multi-sector ventures, initiatives, programs or partnerships that seek to tackle global social issues and collective action problems.

This book pulls literature together to examine the quality of climate governance based in the experience of Global South regions—Africa, Latin America, and Caribbean. While these regions are resilient, the IPCC 2022 Report indicates that the effects of climate change are crippling their thinly structured governance systems and limited capacities. For example, in addition to environmental devastation, loss of life, and livelihoods, these regions have endured most of the “loss and damage” due to climate change impacts. How are they responding? What are the outcomes? And where do they go from here?Given this background, the book’s goal is to question assumptions about climate governance patterns, systems, institutions, and processes in these regions, using comparative analytical techniques while distilling information about policy outcomes that other approaches do not provide. It argues that these regions and individual countries within them have a lot to learn from and about each other rather than look to the Global North and wealthy countries for economic, political, and administrative models that hardly match their lived experience and ontological outlooks. In doing so, it aspires to promote a fruitful South-South policy-related dialogue via scholarly exchanges and also contribute to advance the study and practice of international and comparative public administration. From this perspective, scholars, researchers, educators, public managers, and practitioners will find the book relevant to and useful for their respective endeavors.

This book pulls literature together to examine the quality of climate governance based in the experience of Global South regions—Africa, Latin America, and Caribbean. While these regions are resilient, the IPCC 2022 Report indicates that the effects of climate change are crippling their thinly structured governance systems and limited capacities. For example, in addition to environmental devastation, loss of life, and livelihoods, these regions have endured most of the “loss and damage” due to climate change impacts. How are they responding? What are the outcomes? And where do they go from here?Given this background, the book’s goal is to question assumptions about climate governance patterns, systems, institutions, and processes in these regions, using comparative analytical techniques while distilling information about policy outcomes that other approaches do not provide. It argues that these regions and individual countries within them have a lot to learn from and about each other rather than look to the Global North and wealthy countries for economic, political, and administrative models that hardly match their lived experience and ontological outlooks. In doing so, it aspires to promote a fruitful South-South policy-related dialogue via scholarly exchanges and also contribute to advance the study and practice of international and comparative public administration. From this perspective, scholars, researchers, educators, public managers, and practitioners will find the book relevant to and useful for their respective endeavors.

A Systems Approach to Public Administration uses General Systems Theory – a cross-disciplinary scientific philosophy first articulated by Ludwig von Bertalanffy then refined by Ervin Laszlo, and covering fields that include but are not limited to human psychology, cell biology, evolutionary biology, linguistics, the theory of consciousness and the human mind, and physics – to formulate “The Plan”: a series of social policies that if enacted, will enable all of humanity to live in the best possible world given the conditions of our existence.The notion that human society faces a series of unprecedented threats is no longer the purview of those wearing tinfoil hats or walking down Broadway with a sandwich board declaring “The End Is Nigh.” We are at a crossroads after which is, in all likelihood, the point of no return. The Plan transcends common, high-level platitudes to advance series of Public Private Trusts – Energy, Resource, Agriculture, Transportation, Health and Technology – in which members invest and become equity partners to create a “Virtual Commonwealth.” In so doing, we leverage our significant population, tax revenue and disposable income majorities to directly and immediately steer the political economy towards a sustainable, equitable, healthy future for everyone.

A Systems Approach to Public Administration uses General Systems Theory – a cross-disciplinary scientific philosophy first articulated by Ludwig von Bertalanffy then refined by Ervin Laszlo, and covering fields that include but are not limited to human psychology, cell biology, evolutionary biology, linguistics, the theory of consciousness and the human mind, and physics – to formulate “The Plan”: a series of social policies that if enacted, will enable all of humanity to live in the best possible world given the conditions of our existence.The notion that human society faces a series of unprecedented threats is no longer the purview of those wearing tinfoil hats or walking down Broadway with a sandwich board declaring “The End Is Nigh.” We are at a crossroads after which is, in all likelihood, the point of no return. The Plan transcends common, high-level platitudes to advance series of Public Private Trusts – Energy, Resource, Agriculture, Transportation, Health and Technology – in which members invest and become equity partners to create a “Virtual Commonwealth.” In so doing, we leverage our significant population, tax revenue and disposable income majorities to directly and immediately steer the political economy towards a sustainable, equitable, healthy future for everyone.

This book explores the intersection of social equity-related issues with concerns within the field of public administration in Canada. Shifts in public sector governance, populist discourse and political extremism, democratic instability, and super-wicked challenges such as climate change and environmental disasters, demographic transformations (aging society along with increased migration), financial crises, terrorism, housing crises, religious conflicts and racial inequities, dominate the landscape. This book challenges scholars from schools of public administration to use a social equity lens to reimagine and rethink the ways in which public administration is currently practiced, with the goal of abandoning colonial logics that betray social equity. The chapters in this volume include contributions from a diversity of authors, each contributing their unique perspectives on social equity as they relate broadly to their areas of expertise. The authors share a common interest in critically exploring how social equity intersects with their areas of public administration research or practice including concerns with environmental justice, Indigenous rights, education and decolonization.This book is intended for three audiences: (1) scholars who are also involved in teaching public administration; (2) students of public administration who want to learn more about what they are learning, and why social equity matters to their field of study; and (3) public administrators who are managing public institutions and who may also be involved in training public administrators.