Read more
"This powerful collection shows that 'public value' has come of age... Its reach has extended far beyond the Anglosphere from which it has emerged. And it provides a prism for strategic thinking about how governments are to deal with the grittiness of the contexts and challenge they currently face. This must-read volume sits at the cutting edge of these important developments."
- Paul't Hart, Professor of Public Administration, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
"Challenges to Public Value Creation is a wonderful addition to the growing literature on public value creation."
- John M. Bryson, McKnight Presidential Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota, USA
"The purpose of government is to create public value. While this has become an increasingly accepted refrain in public policy, administration, and management, numerous questions remain about where, when, why, how, and by whom public value is created. With everything from philosophical and conceptual arguments to empirical analyses and cases the contributors to this noteworthy volume.... offer new ideas, reveal important insights, suggest exciting directions for research and practice, and ultimately give more substance and shape to the idea of public value creation."
- Tina Nabatchi, Director, Program for the Advancement of Research on Confl ict & Collaboration, Syracuse University, USA
This volume examines fundamental questions about the public value of public decisions. More specifi cally, it seeks to assess whether all public decisions create public value, if it is possible to know what value for the public as a whole a government decision will create, and how government offi cials can justify their decisions in terms of public value. Leading experts bring a diverse array of perspectives on the normative, epistemological, and processual challenges to identifying, describing, measuring, and evaluating the public value claims that public offi cials often articulate in defending their decisions, and the results that citizens often seek. The book will appeal to scholars and students of public policy and public administration.
Brian J. Cook is Emeritus Professor of Public Administration and Policy at Virginia Tech, USA.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction. Chapter 2: The Challenge of Government: Public Value Is Unknowable. Chapter 4: The Cloud of Unknowing: The Theory and Practice of Public Value in Times of Extremity. Chapter 6: Public Value is Knowable, Public Value Creation is Not. Part 2: The Complexities of Authority and Process in Defining and Creating Public Value in Particular Contexts. Chapter 9: Public Value Contestation in the Era of Fiscal Austerity and Crisis: Lessons from the State Takeover System in Michigan. Chapter 11: Frontline Value Crafting: On the Micro-creation of Public Value at the Street Level. Part 3: Rethinking and Reshaping Processes and Authorities to Create Public Value. Chapter 14: Invulnerability as Public Value: A Micro-Level Approach for Public Value Creation, Implementation, and Evaluation. Chapter 16: Conclusion.
About the author
Brian J. Cook is Emeritus Professor of Public Administration and Policy at Virginia Tech, USA. He served as chair of the Center for Public Administration and Policy from 2010 to 2014 and 2018 to 2019. He also served on the political science faculty at Clark University from 1984 to 2008.
