Foreword: research ideals and realities - Chester A. Newland Preface: making sense with diversity: the context of research, theory, and knowledge development in public administration - Jay D. White and Guy B. Adams Part 1: the nature of research in public administration Enthralled with modernity: the historical context of knowledge and theory development in public administration - Guy B. Adams On the growth of knowledge in public administration - Jay D. White A science of public administration? - Gregory A. Daneke An examination of the debate over research in public administration - Richard C. Box Part 2: assessments of published research Research methodology in the public administration review, 1975-1984 - James L. Perry and Kenneth L. Kraemer Public administration research: work in PAR, 1940-1984 - Robert A. Stallings and James M. Ferris Public administration reserch: an assessment of journal publications - David J. Houston and Sybil M. Delevan Part 3: assessments of doctoral research and educations Dissertations and publications in public administration - Jay D. White Revisiting the doctoral dissertation in public administration: an examination of the dissertation of 1990 - Robert E. Cleary Doctoral programs in public administrations: an outsider's perspective - Robert A. Stallings Part 4: research and knowledge development in an applied professional fiels Do physicists use case studies? Thoughts on public administration research - Mary Timney Bailey Policy analysis in the postpositivist era: engaging stakeholders in evaluating the economic development district's program - Marisa Kelly and Steven Maynard-Moody Grout: alternative kinds of knowledge and why they are ignored - Mary R. Schmidet Stories managers tell: why they are as valid as science - Ralph P. Hummel