Patricia M Shields
Biographic Data
| ID | 250866 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Patricia M Shields |
| GIVEN NAMES | Patricia M |
| FAMILY NAME | Shields |
| SIGNATURE | SHIELDS P M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Texas State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0960-4869 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 39 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 163 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 37 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1980 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Roundtable: Perspectives on The Public
The Case for Gauging as a Research Purpose in Public Administration: Connecting Purpose, Frameworks, Design, and Norms in Applied Research
This article proposes “gauging” as an unrecognized and useful research purpose for public administration. Unlike an explanatory research purpose, which uses an experimental logic and hypotheses, gauging incorporates a logic of rating and frameworks like standards. It is used in normative assessments such as accreditation, process evaluation, and regulatory policy. We argue that it should be part of public administration’s research tradition becau…
Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Armed Forces & Society: An Introduction
This commentary introduces the issue that celebrates Armed Forces & Society ( AF&S) at 50. In 1974, during the Cold War, Morris Janowitz launched an international and interdisciplinary journal that helped define a new scholarly field of study. We show how the articles of AF&S reflect the Janowitz’s goals by illustrating how journal content responded to the dynamic societal and security environments. We explore changes in the publishing environmen…
Jane Addams Papers Project
Exploring the Nexus of Military and Society at a 50-Year Milestone
There is an ongoing dependence and tension between the military and the society it protects. This article examines the relatively new “military and society” field using the 50-year anniversary of the journal Armed Forces & Society as a focal point. This dynamic field is influenced by world events, cultural trends, and politics. Civil-military relations is at the heart of the discourse. An international and interdisciplinary journal, Armed Forces …
Introduction to the Symposium on National Security and Social Science
This Symposium on the role of social science in security policy responds to Michael Desch’s 2019 book Cult of the Irrelevant: The Waning Influence of Social Science on National Security. Four articles consider Desch’s position that the social sciences are becoming increasingly irrelevant in security policy. Yagil Levy and Peter Feaver challenge Desch’s perspective. Alan Okros and Rebecca Jensen largely concur with Desch’s perspective. Rebecca Sch…
Perspectives on the Afghanistan War: Commentaries on a Misadventure
This article introduces the Symposium on the Afghanistan War. During and after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, emotions ran high. This special issue responds to public calls for further in-depth study of the Afghanistan War. We assembled an international array of interdisciplinary scholars who address reasons the mission became a misadventure. Additional papers focus on the consequences borne by the people who served and the institution…
How Afghanistan Influenced the Content of Armed Forces & Society: An Editor'S Reflection
This commentary examines the influence of the Afghanistan war on the content of Armed Forces & Society. My 20-year tenure as editor of Armed Forces & Society overlaps completely with the war. Using the lenses of the postmodern or post-Cold War military, I reflect on how the articles of this journal were influenced by the war. The postmodern military relies more heavily on volunteers, is more likely to engage in unconventional missions, and more l…
The Oxford Handbook of Jane Addams
Jane Addams stands as perhaps one of the most prominent female voices in social theory of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While built through books, essays, journal articles, and speeches, her intellectual legacy has seldom been recognized as academic by contemporary audiences. Yet, over the last 40 years, her contributions to sociology, philosophy, conceptions of democracy, inquiry, feminism, care ethics, community engagement, social eth…
The potential of working hypotheses for deductive exploratory research
While hypotheses frame explanatory studies and provide guidance for measurement and statistical tests, deductive, exploratory research does not have a framing device like the hypothesis. To this purpose, this article examines the landscape of deductive, exploratory research and offers the working hypothesis as a flexible, useful framework that can guide and bring coherence across the steps in the research process. The working hypothesis conceptua…
It is a Working Hypothesis: Searching for Truth in a Post-Truth World (part 2)
Public administration research methodology should be flexible and comprehensive enough to include many methodologies and approaches to inquiry. In this paper we show how certain kinds of qualitative and mixed method s tudies often lack of a clear theoretical s tructure and a s a result are poorly aligned across the stages of the research process. This paper introduces Working Hypotheses as a useful micro-conceptual framework with the capacity to …
It is a Working Hypothesis: Searching for Truth in a Post-Truth World (part I)
Public administration research methodology should be flexible and comprehensive enough to include many methodologies and approaches to inquiry. In this paper we show how certain kinds of qualitative and mixed method s tudies often lack of a clear theoretical s tructure and a s a result are poorly aligned across the stages of the research process. This paper introduces Working Hypotheses as a useful micro-conceptual framework with the capacity to …
Positive Peace—A Necessary Touchstone for Public Administration
This article explores the concept of positive peace as a valuable “touchstone” for public administration, but one which is not part of the discipline’s lexicon because a negative definition of peace (the absence of violent conflict) is dominant. Here, peace is acknowledged as an essentially contested concept, and the authors argue that such a richer conceptualization of positive peace—one that is rooted in a reciprocal relationship ethic—is more …
Limits of Negative Peace, Faces of Positive Peace
Jane Addams: Progressive Pioneer of Peace, Philosophy, Sociology, Social Work and Public Administration
This book examines the life and works of Jane Addams who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1931). Addams led an international women's peace movement and is noted for spearheading a first-of-its-kind international conference of women at The Hague during World War I. She helped to found the Women's International League of Peace and Freedom. She was also a prophetic peace theorist whose ideas were dismissed by her contemporaries. Her critics confla…
Introduction to Symposium: Roundtable on the Ethics of Senior Officer Resignation in the United States
This Armed Forces & Society symposium on the ethics of senior officer resignation in the United States includes a collection of four papers, each looking at principled resignation in different ways. Two authors, Dubik and Snider, believe principled resignation of senior military officers is sometimes justified, especially in wartime, where their inherent morals clash with their professional demands; these senior officer’s ability to resign in pro…
Peaceweaving: Jane Addams, Positive Peace, and Public Administration
Beginning with the odd finding that “peace research is just the study of war,” this article explores “positive peace” as an important yet neglected notion in public administration. It does this by examining the ideas of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Jane Addams, a pioneer in public administration and peace theory. More than 100 years ago, Addams refined an expansive notion of peace that incorporated social justice and social equity. Addams’s feminist…
The Dynamics of Positivism in the Study of Public Administration: A Brief Intellectual History and Reappraisal
This article explores the development of three features of positivism from the 1800s to the present: the unity of science, the verification criterion of meaning, and the empiricist observation language. The development of these features is demonstrated in the mid-20th century public administration (PA) literature and in the self-reflective literature of the last three decades. Contemporary positivism has been substantially moderated: The verifica…
Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in Military Studies
Reconciling the Varieties of Pragmatism in Public Administration
Pragmatism has become a topic of growing discussion in public administration, as demonstrated by ongoing debate within the pages of Administration & Society. Karen Evans recently argued that the pervasive influence of logical positivism has produced a public administration, dominated by an ethically vacuous overemphasis on efficiency. Keith Snider recently responded to Evans by pointing toward confusion arising from debates between competing vari…
Out of the Woods: Facilitating Pragmatic Inquiry and Dialogue
In “Into the Woods,” Karen Evans describes an increasingly hollow public administration environment that is shaped by a misplaced quest for efficiency. She looks to the pragmatism of John Dewey as a way to remedy the situation. This article extends her analysis by linking pragmatism to reflective thought, inquiry, nonlinear dynamics, and communication theories. Finally, a few suggestions for how to more fully take pragmatism to the PA workplace a…
Strategic Assessment: A Realist‐Oriented Study
Rediscovering the Taproot: Is Classical Pragmatism the Route to Renew Public Administration
The origins of the influential American philosophy classical pragmatism and of American public administration overlap. On the surface, it appears that classical pragmatism had no influence on the emerging field of American public administration. Why were the two never properly wed? This essay first traces the historical connections that link public administration and classical pragmatism. Second, using a framework that is simple to remember, the …
Democracy and the Social Feminist Ethics of Jane Addams: A Vision for Public Administration
In Democracy and Social Ethics, feminist, settlement worker, peace activist, social reformer, and scholar Jane Addams articulates a bottom up participatory democracy. The elements of her social democracy (social claim, sympathetic understanding, experience, scientific attitude, dignity of the everyday, idealized rule of living) are described and linked to Addams social feminisms. Her conceptualization of democracy contrasts and complements with t…
Civil-Military Relations: Changing Frontiers
The Community of Inquiry: Classical Pragmatism and Public Administration
This article argues that the community of inquiry notion of the classical pragmatists has much to offer public administration theory and practice. The community of inquiry is an ideal position from which public administrators can effectively examine how they approach problems, consider data, and communicate. Participatory democracy is a vital component of the community of inquiry developed by John Dewey and Jane Addams. The recognition of partici…
Pragmatism: Exploring Public Administration's Policy Imprint
Public administrators are often described as pragmatic. Yet few scholars have investigated what this might mean. This article introduces the notion of policy imprint-the effect that professional groups have on policy. Pragmatism is championed as an organizing principle that explains the public administration (PA) policy imprint. The pragmatism of William James and John Dewey is described and applied to PA. Because PA leaves its imprint where theo…
Peaceweaving: Jane Addams, Positive Peace, and Public Administration
Beginning with the odd finding that “peace research is just the study of war,” this article explores “positive peace” as an important yet neglected notion in public administration. It does this by examining the ideas of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Jane Addams, a pioneer in public administration and peace theory. More than 100 years ago, Addams refined an expansive notion of peace that incorporated social justice and social equity. Addams’s feminist…
Classical Pragmatism: Engaging Practitioner Experience
Published in Administration & Society , Vol. 36, No. 3, July 2004. 351-361 (Copyright 2004 Sage Publications)
A New Paradigm for Military Policy: Socioeconomics
Socioeconomics is a new, more moral economic theory developed by Amitai Etzioni. Its purpose is to replace neoclassical economics. This article advocates socioeconomics as a paradigm for military policy and begins by showing how neoclassical economics has influenced military policy. Criticisms of the neoclassical approach by military sociologists are reviewed. Socioeconomics is briefly explained, key elements of the two models are compared, and s…
Enlistment During the Vietnam Era and the 'Representation' Issue of the All-Volunteer Force
Democracy and the Social Feminist Ethics of Jane Addams: A Vision for Public Administration
In Democracy and Social Ethics, feminist, settlement worker, peace activist, social reformer, and scholar Jane Addams articulates a bottom up participatory democracy. The elements of her social democracy (social claim, sympathetic understanding, experience, scientific attitude, dignity of the everyday, idealized rule of living) are described and linked to Addams social feminisms. Her conceptualization of democracy contrasts and complements with t…
Classical Pragmatism Does Not Need an Upgrade: Lessons for Public Administration
In 2003, Administration& Society published Patricia Shields's “The Community of Inquiry: Classical Pragmatism and Public Administration.” Shortly thereafter, Hugh Miller responded with “Old Pragmatism Needs and Upgrade” in the Disputatio Sine Fine section of Administration& Society. He argued that scholars like Shields, Evans, and Snider should incorporate the ideas of Richard Rorty into their scholarship. Miller's article was followed by a serie…
Out of the Woods: Facilitating Pragmatic Inquiry and Dialogue
In “Into the Woods,” Karen Evans describes an increasingly hollow public administration environment that is shaped by a misplaced quest for efficiency. She looks to the pragmatism of John Dewey as a way to remedy the situation. This article extends her analysis by linking pragmatism to reflective thought, inquiry, nonlinear dynamics, and communication theories. Finally, a few suggestions for how to more fully take pragmatism to the PA workplace a…
How Afghanistan Influenced the Content of Armed Forces & Society: An Editor'S Reflection
This commentary examines the influence of the Afghanistan war on the content of Armed Forces & Society. My 20-year tenure as editor of Armed Forces & Society overlaps completely with the war. Using the lenses of the postmodern or post-Cold War military, I reflect on how the articles of this journal were influenced by the war. The postmodern military relies more heavily on volunteers, is more likely to engage in unconventional missions, and more l…
Reconciling the Varieties of Pragmatism in Public Administration
Pragmatism has become a topic of growing discussion in public administration, as demonstrated by ongoing debate within the pages of Administration & Society. Karen Evans recently argued that the pervasive influence of logical positivism has produced a public administration, dominated by an ethically vacuous overemphasis on efficiency. Keith Snider recently responded to Evans by pointing toward confusion arising from debates between competing vari…
The Oxford Handbook of Jane Addams
Jane Addams stands as perhaps one of the most prominent female voices in social theory of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While built through books, essays, journal articles, and speeches, her intellectual legacy has seldom been recognized as academic by contemporary audiences. Yet, over the last 40 years, her contributions to sociology, philosophy, conceptions of democracy, inquiry, feminism, care ethics, community engagement, social eth…
Introduction to Symposium: Roundtable on the Ethics of Senior Officer Resignation in the United States
This Armed Forces & Society symposium on the ethics of senior officer resignation in the United States includes a collection of four papers, each looking at principled resignation in different ways. Two authors, Dubik and Snider, believe principled resignation of senior military officers is sometimes justified, especially in wartime, where their inherent morals clash with their professional demands; these senior officer’s ability to resign in pro…
The Dynamics of Positivism in the Study of Public Administration: A Brief Intellectual History and Reappraisal
This article explores the development of three features of positivism from the 1800s to the present: the unity of science, the verification criterion of meaning, and the empiricist observation language. The development of these features is demonstrated in the mid-20th century public administration (PA) literature and in the self-reflective literature of the last three decades. Contemporary positivism has been substantially moderated: The verifica…
Why They Fight
Zen and the Art of Higher Education Maintenance: Bridging classic and romantic notions of Quality1
The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest for life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning. The university imparts information but it imparts it imaginatively (Whitehead, 1929 p.139
Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Armed Forces & Society: An Introduction
This commentary introduces the issue that celebrates Armed Forces & Society ( AF&S) at 50. In 1974, during the Cold War, Morris Janowitz launched an international and interdisciplinary journal that helped define a new scholarly field of study. We show how the articles of AF&S reflect the Janowitz’s goals by illustrating how journal content responded to the dynamic societal and security environments. We explore changes in the publishing environmen…
Perspectives on the Afghanistan War: Commentaries on a Misadventure
This article introduces the Symposium on the Afghanistan War. During and after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, emotions ran high. This special issue responds to public calls for further in-depth study of the Afghanistan War. We assembled an international array of interdisciplinary scholars who address reasons the mission became a misadventure. Additional papers focus on the consequences borne by the people who served and the institution…
Freud, efficiency and pragmatism
"A Comment on "Veteran Status, Earnings, and Race: Some Long Term Results
Enlistment During the Vietnam Era and the 'Representation' Issue of the All-Volunteer Force
Military Leadership: In Pursuit of Excellence
A Preliminary Analysis of Personnel Officials' Satisfaction with Affirmative Action Policy Implementation in Selected Texas State Agencies
Books in review
Freud, efficiency and pragmatism
A New Paradigm for Military Policy: Socioeconomics
Socioeconomics is a new, more moral economic theory developed by Amitai Etzioni. Its purpose is to replace neoclassical economics. This article advocates socioeconomics as a paradigm for military policy and begins by showing how neoclassical economics has influenced military policy. Criticisms of the neoclassical approach by military sociologists are reviewed. Socioeconomics is briefly explained, key elements of the two models are compared, and s…
Sunset as Oversight: Establishing Realistic Objectives
After an auspicious beginning, sunset reform remains an institutionalized form of legislative oversight in 26 states. This study moves beyond the simplistic notion that the success or failure of sunset review is a function of its ability to terminate agencies and toward a more complete understanding of the role that sunset review has come to play in state government. This understanding can help us establish more realistic objectives by which to j…
Pragmatism: Exploring Public Administration's Policy Imprint
Public administrators are often described as pragmatic. Yet few scholars have investigated what this might mean. This article introduces the notion of policy imprint-the effect that professional groups have on policy. Pragmatism is championed as an organizing principle that explains the public administration (PA) policy imprint. The pragmatism of William James and John Dewey is described and applied to PA. Because PA leaves its imprint where theo…
Zen and the Art of Higher Education Maintenance: Bridging classic and romantic notions of Quality1
The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest for life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning. The university imparts information but it imparts it imaginatively (Whitehead, 1929 p.139
The Community of Inquiry: Classical Pragmatism and Public Administration
This article argues that the community of inquiry notion of the classical pragmatists has much to offer public administration theory and practice. The community of inquiry is an ideal position from which public administrators can effectively examine how they approach problems, consider data, and communicate. Participatory democracy is a vital component of the community of inquiry developed by John Dewey and Jane Addams. The recognition of partici…
Classical Pragmatism: Engaging Practitioner Experience
Published in Administration & Society , Vol. 36, No. 3, July 2004. 351-361 (Copyright 2004 Sage Publications)
Classical Pragmatism Does Not Need an Upgrade: Lessons for Public Administration
In 2003, Administration& Society published Patricia Shields's “The Community of Inquiry: Classical Pragmatism and Public Administration.” Shortly thereafter, Hugh Miller responded with “Old Pragmatism Needs and Upgrade” in the Disputatio Sine Fine section of Administration& Society. He argued that scholars like Shields, Evans, and Snider should incorporate the ideas of Richard Rorty into their scholarship. Miller's article was followed by a serie…
Democracy and the Social Feminist Ethics of Jane Addams: A Vision for Public Administration
In Democracy and Social Ethics, feminist, settlement worker, peace activist, social reformer, and scholar Jane Addams articulates a bottom up participatory democracy. The elements of her social democracy (social claim, sympathetic understanding, experience, scientific attitude, dignity of the everyday, idealized rule of living) are described and linked to Addams social feminisms. Her conceptualization of democracy contrasts and complements with t…
Civil-Military Relations: Changing Frontiers
Why They Fight
Rediscovering the Taproot: Is Classical Pragmatism the Route to Renew Public Administration
The origins of the influential American philosophy classical pragmatism and of American public administration overlap. On the surface, it appears that classical pragmatism had no influence on the emerging field of American public administration. Why were the two never properly wed? This essay first traces the historical connections that link public administration and classical pragmatism. Second, using a framework that is simple to remember, the …
Strategic Assessment: A Realist‐Oriented Study
Reconciling the Varieties of Pragmatism in Public Administration
Pragmatism has become a topic of growing discussion in public administration, as demonstrated by ongoing debate within the pages of Administration & Society. Karen Evans recently argued that the pervasive influence of logical positivism has produced a public administration, dominated by an ethically vacuous overemphasis on efficiency. Keith Snider recently responded to Evans by pointing toward confusion arising from debates between competing vari…
Out of the Woods: Facilitating Pragmatic Inquiry and Dialogue
In “Into the Woods,” Karen Evans describes an increasingly hollow public administration environment that is shaped by a misplaced quest for efficiency. She looks to the pragmatism of John Dewey as a way to remedy the situation. This article extends her analysis by linking pragmatism to reflective thought, inquiry, nonlinear dynamics, and communication theories. Finally, a few suggestions for how to more fully take pragmatism to the PA workplace a…
Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in Military Studies
Peaceweaving: Jane Addams, Positive Peace, and Public Administration
Beginning with the odd finding that “peace research is just the study of war,” this article explores “positive peace” as an important yet neglected notion in public administration. It does this by examining the ideas of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Jane Addams, a pioneer in public administration and peace theory. More than 100 years ago, Addams refined an expansive notion of peace that incorporated social justice and social equity. Addams’s feminist…
The Dynamics of Positivism in the Study of Public Administration: A Brief Intellectual History and Reappraisal
This article explores the development of three features of positivism from the 1800s to the present: the unity of science, the verification criterion of meaning, and the empiricist observation language. The development of these features is demonstrated in the mid-20th century public administration (PA) literature and in the self-reflective literature of the last three decades. Contemporary positivism has been substantially moderated: The verifica…
Limits of Negative Peace, Faces of Positive Peace
Jane Addams: Progressive Pioneer of Peace, Philosophy, Sociology, Social Work and Public Administration
This book examines the life and works of Jane Addams who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1931). Addams led an international women's peace movement and is noted for spearheading a first-of-its-kind international conference of women at The Hague during World War I. She helped to found the Women's International League of Peace and Freedom. She was also a prophetic peace theorist whose ideas were dismissed by her contemporaries. Her critics confla…
Political science (33 works) · Sociology (28 works) · Law (24 works) · Law (17 works) · Public Administration (16 works) · Epistemology (15 works) · Public Administration (14 works) · Philosophy (13 works) · Pragmatism (11 works) · Computer Science (10 works)