Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Florida Atlantic University

Thesis/Dissertation Co-Chair

Patterson, Patricia M.

Abstract

The purpose behind this dissertation is the creation, development, and illustration of a new strategy of inquiry in public administration. This new strategy of inquiry is a utopian/dystopian thought experiment. A utopian/dystopian thought experiment should provide its user with a way to develop a new/different viewpoint with which to examine an administrative activity. A researcher begins with an original viewpoint and should then develop a new/different viewpoint, a utopian/dystopian viewpoint, by engaging in a utopian/dystopian thought experiment. A utopian/dystopian thought experiment is developed in this dissertation by bringing together elements from utopian literature and scientific thought experiment literature using a public administration point of view. The research approach used in this dissertation is a three-phase process that involves reviewing and connecting pertinent literatures, using imagination and the process of writing to create a utopian/dystopian thought experiment, and illustrating and examining a utopian/dystopian thought experiment in public administration. In this dissertation, I seek to create a utopian/dystopian thought experiment as a new strategy of inquiry that is developed specifically for public administration. A utopian/dystopian thought experiment should provide an additional tool to the researcher who is seeking to expand the viewpoints through which the researcher can examine administrative activities.

Extent

228 p.

Comments

College for Design and Social Inquiry|Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|College for Design and Social Inquiry

Identifier

FA00000610

Format

pdf

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