Dominant governance theories are drawn primarily from Euro-American sources, including emergent theories of network and collaborative governance. The authors contest this narrow view and seek a more globally inclusive and transdisciplinary perspective, arguing such an approach is more fruitful in addressing the wicked problems of sustainability--including social, economic, and environmental crises. This book thus offers and affirms an innovative governance approach that may hold more promise as a universal framework that is not colonizing in nature due to its grounding in relational process assumptions and practices. Using a comprehensive Governance Typology that encompasses ontological assumptions, psychosocial theory, epistemological concepts, belief systems, ethical concepts, political theory, economic theory, and administrative theory, the authors delve deeply into underlying philosophical commitments and carry them into practice through an approach they call Integrative Governance. The authors consider ways this approach to radical self-governance is already being implemented in the prefigurative politics of contemporary social movements, and they invite scholars and activists to: imagine governance in contexts of social, economic, and environmental interconnectedness; to use the ideal-type as an evaluative tool against which to measure practice; and to pursue paradigmatic change through collaborative praxis.
About the Author: Margaret Stout is an Associate Professor of Public Administration at West Virginia University. Her research explores the role of public and nonprofit practitioners in achieving democratic social and economic justice with specific interests in administrative theory, public service leadership and ethics, and sustainable community development. Dr. Stout's first career was in human resource development, with a focus on work/life balance programming. Leading directly out of related experiences in state-wide and regional community and economic development initiatives, her second career was in community and youth development, serving as an executive director, project manager, and consultant to nonprofit and government agencies in Arizona. These experiences inform both her research and teaching through extensive and meaningful community engaged scholarship.
Jeannine M. Love is an Associate Professor of Public Administration at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois. Her research analyzes rhetorics of individualism in political theory and practice, as well as social movements. Her work pays particular attention to issues of racial, economic, and food justice. Dr. Love's career in public administration began in 2000, when she began working as a child support caseworker in Columbus, Ohio. The practices she witnessed as a street level bureaucrat, particularly the problematic marginalization of the country's poorest residents, continues to motivate her research and teaching.
