Susan T. Gooden, PhD

Professor, Public Administration

Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs

Virginia Commonwealth University

United States

stgooden@vcu.edu

Conferences held every 20 years beginning in 1968

Designed to assess where the field of public administration is going and where it needs to go

Has an intentional impact on the intellectual development of public administration

A generational narrative within public administration

Led by Dwight Waldo, Maxwell School, Syracuse University, USA

Lens by which the learning and exchange of new knowledge may be evaluated (Kim, et.al 2010)

Non-scripted; ad hoc discussion groups form as conference unfolds

Held over 2-3 days in the remote Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York

Group of 35-40 “best and brightest” “rising stars”

Set within an important U.S. social context (Vietnam War, The Great Society, civil rights, protests); Era of big government

Group of 34 young public administration male scholars who were trained as political scientists

Quest for relevancy

Major intellectual contribution

Five normative core values

Rejects the idea of public administrators as value neutral

Identifies core values of public administration

Wrestles with conflicting views of the field

Mixture of original “Minnows” and younger scholars

50% female

Overall less controversial and less influential than Minnowbrook I

Public administration as independent discipline

General focus Specific themes

Challenges to the legitimacy of government

“Scientific” tools vs. art of administration

More risk-adverse group of academics

Controversial election of President Bush Post 9-11 attacks Natural disasters Eve of election of first African-American

nominee for President, Barack Obama Two parts (original for younger scholars);

conference for mixture Included 30 veterans of Minnowbrook I or II

General focus Specific themes

Global context

Future search of public administration

Governmental capacity gaps in addressing public problems

Quest for relevance

Academic publications following Minnowbrook (books and academic journals)

Important misses (inclusion of economics; reinventing government)

The Minnowbrook experience

Is this a useful approach for public administration scholars in other countries to consider?

Will it foster a greater understanding of the complexity of public administration globally?

Might it provide an important comparative 20 year generational assessment from young scholars in public administration?

Is the Minnowbrook concept of interest to public administrator academics in Korea?