公共行政研究的未来：编辑的视角

公共行政的角色自古以来便已存在，例如古埃及的税收管理和中国在公元前二世纪的公共管理实践。但现代公共行政研究始于20世纪初，例如1922年英国皇家公共行政研究所的成立和《公共行政》期刊的创刊，以及美国芝加哥的赫尔豪斯和纽约市政研究局的建立。尽管起源多样，公共行政的定义却深受英美传统的影响。现代公共行政研究历经身份危机和多次重要辩论，例如Simon和Waldo关于该领域是艺术还是科学的争论，以及Minnowbrook会议的新公共行政形式。

我们选择在此时讨论公共行政的未来，主要因为《公共行政》期刊迎来了百年纪念，同时全球在过去两年内经历了巨大变化。我们必须适应这些变化，重新定义我们的学科身份和社会贡献。作为领域内领先期刊的主编，我们每天与全球最前沿的研究接触，能够看到该领域的起源、预测其未来走向，并帮助其走向富有成果的道路。在这个快速变化的世界中，公共行政研究取得了显著进展，尤其是在研究方法、跨学科理论和研究问题上。我们还看到了在社会公平、比较行政、人工智能和气候变化等领域的新研究机会，希望鼓励和支持这些研究。

The role of public administration has existed since ancient times, such as tax management in ancient Egypt and public management practices in China in the 2nd century BC. However, modern research in public administration began in the early 20th century, with milestones such as the establishment of the Royal Institute of Public Administration in 1922 and its journal, Public Administration in the United Kingdom and the creation of Hull House in Chicago and the New York Bureau of Municipal Research in the United States. Despite diverse origins, the definition of public administration has been heavily influenced by Anglo-American traditions. Modern research in public administration has weathered identity crises and pivotal debates, such as the arguments between Simon and Waldo about whether the field is an art or a science, and the emergence of new forms of public administration at the Minnowbrook conferences.

We have chosen to discuss the future of public administration at this time primarily because the journal Public Administration is celebrating its centenary, and the world has undergone significant changes over the past two years. We must adapt to these changes, redefine our disciplinary identity, and enhance our societal contributions. As editors-in-chief of leading journals in the field, we are in daily contact with cutting-edge research worldwide, witnessing the origins of the field, predicting its future directions, and guiding it towards fruitful paths. In this rapidly changing world, significant progress has been made in public administration research, particularly in research methods, interdisciplinary theories, and research questions. We also see new research opportunities in areas such as social equity, comparative administration, artificial intelligence, and climate change, and we hope to encourage and support such research.

• 领域的开放性和包容性提升

• 对现实挑战的回应性提升

• Enhanced Methodological Rigor

• Increased Openness and Inclusivity in the Field 

• Enhanced Responsiveness to Real-World Challenges

在展望未来研究方向时，我们必须承认公共行政领域仍需变得更加包容，以更好地反映公共行政多样性的本质。我们还需要正视过去，包括公共行政在创造和持续社会不公与压迫中所扮演的角色。因此，未来的研究方向将包括以下几个方面：

• 提升多样性与包容性

公共行政需要更广泛地包容各种公共管理形式的多样性，并积极应对不同传统和历史对公共行政的影响，远超过传统的英美范式，扩展到更多的价值观和世界观。一些学者主张通过拒绝西方霸权，以本地知识和价值观为中心，抵制任何普世公共服务视角或伦理的基本变革，来进行更根本的变革。

• 应对全球挑战

公共行政领域面临着日益复杂的全球挑战，从气候变化到强制迁移，从新社会运动的崛起到不断加剧的不平等，从地缘政治力量基础的变动到兴起的民粹主义。公共行政研究将在这些领域展开新的研究，并深化我们对公共行政关键问题的理解。

• 回应社会问题

公共行政领域应该更加关注具体问题和跨学科的方法，或是从关注“大问题”转向“大挑战”，这样我们就能更好地回应复杂的社会问题。这种重新定位将促使我们采用更为问题导向的研究方法，充分利用公共行政的跨学科特性，帮助我们更有力地整合专业知识，激励更大规模的全球合作。另一种回应社会问题的方式是寻找成功故事，并探索公共行政的“光明面”，鼓励关注成功案例并探索事物如何以及为何在实践中运作的问题，以拓宽我们对危机、空洞化和失败之外的理解。

• 探索技术与伦理的交汇

公共行政领域技术的快速发展引发了对新工具如何改善公共服务和行政流程的兴趣。预计未来会有大量研究探讨这些技术在解决社会问题和为公民服务中的实际、政治和伦理方面的应用。尽管一些公共部门已积极采纳新技术，但其他部门仍面临挑战。例如，一些政府利用社交媒体增强公众参与，使用数据分析改进决策，但技术应用的普及率不均。未来研究的重点包括如何在招聘和资源需求预测等决策中整合人工智能和数据分析，同时需要深入探讨技术使用可能带来的伦理和控制问题。

• 重返人文与同理心关怀

公共行政研究将继续探索领导力、激励和人才管理等重要主题，但也将扩展到价值观和政府角色等更广泛的议题。新兴的谦卑主题将成为未来研究的一个重点，反映在批判我们对衡量、激励和目标的过度依赖，以及理性、秩序和知识追求中的自信错觉。谦卑政府的概念可能促进对于承认我们并不知道所有答案时所产生的紧张和机会的深入分析。这种哲学转变将与公共行政研究的多元领域如合作生产、实验设计及不同知识体系的承认和权力向市民和社区的转移联系起来。同理心的回归将塑造未来研究的方向，强调人际关系如何重新聚焦于服务民众的政府工作。我们鼓励跨学科的探索，并引入国际和比较视角，以充分捕捉公共行政超越单一的人口统计学视角的人文前沿。

• Promoting Diversity and Inclusivity

Public administration needs to inclusively embrace diverse forms of public management and actively address the influence of different traditions and histories on public administration, well beyond the traditional Anglo-American paradigms, expanding to encompass a wider range of values and worldviews. Some scholars advocate for a fundamental transformation by centering local knowledge and values, rejecting any universal perspective or ethical imperialism in public service.

• Addressing Global Challenges

The field of public administration faces increasingly complex global challenges, from climate change to forced migration, from the rise of new social movements to escalating inequalities, and from geopolitical shifts to the rise of populism. Public administration research will embark on new studies in these areas, deepening our understanding of critical issues in public administration.

• Integration of Social Equity

Public administration research should integrate a social equity perspective across its subfields. For instance, in public budgeting research, exploring how to integrate social equity, studying the relationship between fiscal health and equity gaps. Public procurement research should promote the involvement of minority and diverse groups in government funding. Performance management needs to reveal how project impacts vary across different demographic groups. Public management research should experimentally understand how citizen participation methods that produce the most equitable results and their support methods. All these concerns are shared in social equity research: how to measure the level of fairness, and improving measurements of fairness within the community is particularly important to advance this field of study.

• Responding to Social Issues

The field of public administration should focus more on issues and interdisciplinary approaches, shifting from addressing "big questions" to "big challenges," which will enable us to better respond to complex social issues. This reorientation will encourage us to adopt more problem-oriented research methods, fully leveraging the interdisciplinary nature of public administration, enabling more effective integration of expertise, and inspiring broader global collaboration. Another way to respond to social issues is to seek out success stories and explore the "bright side" of public administration, encouraging focus on successful cases and exploring how and why things work in practice, broadening our understanding beyond crises, hollowing out, and failures.

• Intersection of Technology and Ethics
  

The rapid development of technology in the field of public administration has sparked interest in how new tools can improve public services and administrative processes. Future research is expected to explore extensively these technologies' practical, political, and ethical applications in addressing societal issues and serving citizens. While some government agencies have actively adopted new technologies, others still face challenges. For example, some governments use social media to enhance public engagement and utilize data analysis to improve decision-making, but the adoption rates of technology vary. Future research focuses on integrating artificial intelligence and data analytics into decision-making processes such as recruitment and resource demand forecasting. At the same time, there is a need for in-depth exploration of the ethical and control issues that technology use may bring.

• Return of Humanities and Empathy

Public administration research will continue to explore critical themes such as leadership, motivation, and talent management but will also expand into broader topics such as values and the role of government. Emerging themes of humility will become a focus of future research, reflecting on our excessive reliance on measurement, motivation, and goal-setting, as well as the self-deception in rationality, order, and knowledge pursuit. The concept of humble government may promote a deeper analysis of the tensions and opportunities that arise from acknowledging that we do not have all the answers. This philosophical shift will connect with the diverse fields of public administration research, such as cooperative production, experimental design, and the recognition and transfer of power to citizens and communities. The return of empathy will shape the direction of future research, emphasizing how interpersonal relationships can refocus government work on serving the public. We encourage interdisciplinary exploration and advocate for the inclusion of international and comparative perspectives to fully capture the humanistic frontiers of public administration beyond a single demographic lens.

在审视公共行政研究的现状和未来时，我们不容忽视一个重要问题：公共行政领域的学术根基始终关注行政实践。作为一个学科领域，我们面临的挑战是如何在保持研究科学严谨性的同时，以足够通俗易懂的方式向从业者社区传达研究成果。这一问题涉及两个重要方面：选择对公共行政从业者有用和感兴趣的研究主题，以及确保研究成果易于获取和应用。这两个方面对该领域的成长和发展至关重要。我们能否保持对政府和非营利组织管理的影响力，关键取决于我们是否能够与公共行政实践保持紧密联系。

• 选择对公共行政从业者有用和感兴趣的研究主题

朝向这个方向的第一步是重新审视我们研究的主题选择。作为研究人员，我们致力于推进理论和实证理解，但我们选择的研究重点也应该能够满足从业者的实际需求。改进对实践具有实际应用意义的研究焦点的责任，不仅仅在于研究人员，还在于期刊及其编辑们。以从业者为目标的文章可能会被更广泛阅读，但它们的被引用可能性较低。相反，高度科学的论文可能会增加作者的引用次数，但同时也可能具有更大潜力对我们周围社区产生有意义的贡献。我们不是建议放弃发表高度科学的文章，而是应增加发表对实践具有显著意义的材料的关注。

• 确保研究成果易于获取和应用

公众参与面临的最大障碍之一可能是获取成本的问题。公共行政领域的大多数期刊文章仅限于购买或通过期刊订阅获取。考虑到公共组织可获得的资源有限，获取可能或可能不包含所需信息的文章成本过高。近年来，我们看到一批新兴的开放获取期刊进入该领域，这令人振奋，但开放获取期刊的时间和成本都不容忽视。我们认为，建立一个在公共行政领域内可持续的开放获取研究模式，应效仿物理科学领域的做法：开放获取出版的成本可以纳入用于支持工作的拨款中。此外，大学、协会和出版商之间的出版协议可以更积极地追求，以便文章可以在开放获取的平台上发布，而作者无需承担成本。

• 开发学术研究的二级市场

期刊使命的差异反映了我们在研究中的选择：是关注公共行政的实践，还是注重纯科学？解决这一问题的可能方案是开发学术研究的二级市场。比如可以通过《政府财政评论》和《公共管理》等出版物发布科学研究的从业者友好版本，而《The Conversation》等媒体平台则有助于以更易理解的方式传播研究成果。虽然这些机会有些人已经接受，但实现频率有限。我们建议通过创建专门博客平台，将期刊文章转化为对从业者友好版本，有助于期刊继续专注于严谨的科学研究，同时更紧密地与公共行政实践联系。

When examining the current state and future of public administration research, we cannot ignore an important issue: the academic roots of public administration have always been focused on administrative practice. As a disciplinary field, we face the challenge of how to maintain rigorous scientific research while effectively communicating research findings in a manner that is accessible to practitioners. This issue involves two critical aspects: selecting research topics that are useful and of interest to public administration professionals, and ensuring that our research outcomes are easily accessible and applicable.

• Selecting Research Topics Useful and of Interest to Practitioners

The first step in this direction is to reconsider our choice of research topics. As researchers, we strive to advance theoretical and empirical understanding, but the focus of our research should also meet the practical needs of practitioners. The responsibility to improve research focus that has practical application significance is not only on researchers but also on journals and their editors. Articles aimed at practitioners may have broader readership but lower citation potential. Conversely, highly scientific papers may increase citations for authors, but they also have greater potential to contribute meaningfully to our surrounding communities. We are not advocating for abandoning the publication of highly scientific papers, but rather increasing the focus on publishing materials that have significant practical relevance.

• Ensuring Research Outcomes are Accessible and Applicable

One of the biggest barriers to public engagement may be the cost of accessing research. Most journal articles in public administration are restricted to purchase or through journal subscriptions. Given the limited resources available to public organizations, the cost of accessing articles that may or may not contain the required information is prohibitively high. In recent years, we have seen a surge of emerging open-access journals entering the field, which is encouraging, but the time and cost associated with open-access journals cannot be ignored. We believe that establishing a sustainable open-access research model in the field of public administration should follow the practices of the physical sciences: the cost of open-access publication can be included in funding to support work. Additionally, publishing agreements between universities, associations, and publishers can more actively pursue so that articles can be published on open-access platforms without cost to the authors.

• Developing a Secondary Market for Research

Differences in journal missions reflect our choices in research: focus on the practice of public administration or emphasis on pure science? One possible solution to address this issue is to develop a secondary market for research. For example, publications like Government Finance Review and Public Management could publish practitioner-friendly versions of scientific research, while platforms like The Conversation could help disseminate research findings in a more understandable manner. While some have already embraced these opportunities, they are realized with limited frequency. We suggest creating dedicated blog platforms to transform journal articles into practitioner-friendly versions to help journals continue to focus on rigorous scientific research while maintaining closer ties to public administration practice.