Susan T. Gooden, PhD Professor, Public Administration Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs Virginia Commonwealth University United States

 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 “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 Responsiveness Social Eq uity Administrative Responsibility Citizen C hoice Participative Deci sion Making

 Mixture of original “Minnows” and younger scholars  50% female  Overall less controversial and less influential than Minnowbrook I  Public administration as independent discipline

General focusSpecific themes  Challenges to the legitimacy of government  “Scientific” tools vs. art of administration  More risk-adverse group of academics Individualist Performance Measurement Technicist Mainstream s ocial science Social Equit y

 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 focusSpecific themes  Global context  Future search of public administration  Governmental capacity gaps in addressing public problems 1968, 1988, 2008 PACore theoretical base?Network governanceRole of globalization

 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?