Write a note on postmodern trends in Public Administration.

Postmodern trends in Public Administration:

Postmodernism challenges the traditional approaches to thinking and knowledge acquisition. Hence, they rely on multiple methods to capture the social and cultural construction of realities. Postmodern scholars criticised the positivist paradigm for being one-dimensional and argued that the foundations of public administration have been built on faulty beliefs and interpretations. Hence, they followed a host of qualitative methods like dialectic, historical analysis etc. Bogason presents the traits of Postmodem public administration theory as: dialectic, deconstruction, deterntortalisation, imagination, and alterity

i) Dialectic: Denhardt has argued that owing to Positivism trends, we had lost the capacity to tell what isreal. In this line of thought, the scholars advocate to explore the possibilities and relationships that the administrators encounter in their everyday experiences vis-a-vis language, culture, discourse, local knowledge with citizens. In these lines, the dialectic nature of public administration stresses the importance and responsibilitics of incumbents to be self-reflective and facilitative as they operate in uncertain conditions. According to Jun, ‘dialectic’ is a method for humanizing and democratizing organisational processes by recognising the participation of individuals in interpreting the meaning of the contnent.

ii) Deconstruction: Deconstruction is a Postmodern method of analysis that intends to critically analyse the centralising tendencies of TPA as well as to understand the changing nature of diverse society. Based on the works of Jacques Derrida and Jean-Francois Lyotard, Deconstruction has been used as an alternative perspective in public administration for critically interpreting the text, that is, the grand narratives of Weber, Taylor, Wilson etc, to uncover its contradictions and hidden assumptions. The Postmodern scholars were not interested in advocating for a unified theory rather they supported in accommodating fragmented and diverse perspectives in promoting creativity.

iii) Deterritorialisation: According to Bogason, Deterritorialisation negates modern understandings of representations, which claim scientific propositions. Unlike TPA which focuses on symmetrical, homogeneity, and universal knowledge, the central elements of postmodernists include ‘reality’ in terms of asymmetrical, heterogeneity, and local knowledge. The presence of community radio station, is an appropriate example for Deterritorialisation.

iv) Imagination: According to Frederickson, imagination is an important element of Postmodem public administration because of its usage of metaphor, images, allegory. stories and parables. This aspect enables people to find alternate ways of thinking instead of generalising. Scholars perceive that what ‘rationalisation’ is for TPA, “imagination” is for Postmodern analysis. For instance, in the year 2015, the district administration of Calicut, Kerala initiated an innovative project called ‘Compassionate Kozhikode’ to help institutions, such as, mental health care institutions, old age homes etc. With the aim to bring together people with a motive of altruism. this project received international accolades including the Social Media for Empowerment Award in 2016.

v) Alterity: According to Bogason, the term ‘Altcrity’ means a moral stance that counters the concept of standard bureaucratic efficiency. It implies that every act of administration directly or indirectly affects another person, whether beneficiary or official or any other stakeholder. Secondly, it prefers diversity of opinions, attitudes, and assumptions and avoids any form of stereotyping administrators and citizens. Some of the characteristics of alterity include: openness to one another, opposing injustice, and helping service-orientation.

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