Fabricating the People: Politics and Administration in the Biopolitical State

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments A long, rich line of nurturing relationships made possible the composition of this work. It is a pleasure to acknowledge them here. I am grateful for the many enriching discussions about this project.Thanks, in particular, to Marshall Alcorn, Ami Avitsur, Corey Davis, Michael Dimock, Amy Gignesi, Susan Halebsky-Dimock, Allan Jones, Aaron Kupchik , Elena Kupchik, Victoria Ludwin, Nick Samuels, Brad Snyder, and Andrew Zimmerman. Of the many colleagues who have offered (and continue to offer) engaging criticisms of my work, I thank Kym Thorne, Louis Howe, Matthew Witt, Patricia Mooney-Nickel, Frank Scott, and Eric Austin. I am also grateful for early discussions about the problem of representation with participants of the 2002 Postmodern Public Administration Study Group of the European Group of Public Administration, specifically Isabel da Costa, Anna Maria Campos, Peter Bogason, and Paul Frissen. David John Farmer and Margaret Stout generously read a draft of the whole manuscript and offered insightful feedback on the text and its structure. I thank H. George Frederickson for his encouragement of this project, and Steven Aufrecht for his early support. I have been fortunate to have arrived at the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University during an exciting, even historic time for the state of Arizona, the university, and the school. There is a palpable optimism about the future and an inspiring sense of possibility. This spirit has certainly found its way into this book. I have been supported by an enviable group of colleagues. I should especially like to thank Laura Peck, Khalid Al-Yahya, Barbara McCabe, Janet Denhardt, Joe Cayer, and Heather Campbell—each has given to the completion of this book considerable time, patience, and energy. I would also like to acknowledge the research assistance of Heidi Spann, who was of great help with chapter 4, and Qian Hu and Greg Jordan, who were invaluable in the final preparation of the manuscript. I am most grateful to Robert Denhardt for his support of this project and, just as important, for his cultivation of an open, dynamic intellectual environment at ASU as director of the School of Public Affairs. Our school, with the diverse range of methodologies and theoretical approaches it houses, practices precisely the kind of social science of which the world needs more. At ASU, I have been part of the ongoing dialogue of the TOC group. This venue has proved vital to me in fleshing out many inchoate ideas, and I thank Kelly Campbell, Michael Coyle, Chao Guo, and Heather Stickeler for their discussions and their intellectual and emotional range. The University of Alabama Press stands as one the important presses in the history of public administration. Publishing many classic works in the field, it continues to support cutting-edge advances in public administration thought. I extend deep appreciation to the staff at Alabama, unfailing advocates of this project; this publication is testament to that advocacy. I am very honored indeed that this book is published under the imprimatur of The University of Alabama Press. I wish also to acknowledge the kind permission of Sage Publications and Administrative Theory & Praxis to use here portions of previously published materials. Portions of chapters 1, 4, 5, and 7 appeared, respectively, in “The Death of the Practitioner,” Administrative Theory & Praxis, 28(2) (2006): 190–207; “Performance Anxieties: Shifting Public Administration from the Relevant to the Real,” AdministrativeTheory & Praxis, 28(1) (2006): 89–120; “Authority, Representation, and the Contradictions of Post-traditional Governing ,” American Review of Public Administration (2006); “Constitution as Executive Order: The Administrative State and the Political Ontology of ‘We the People,’” Administration & Society 37(4) (2005): 445–482. I give special thanks to Hugh Miller and Camilla Stivers. Hugh and Cam read the manuscript in its entirety with great care and attention.Their critiques and recommendations dramatically improved the final product, and our exchanges about the text exemplified their own remarkable work on discourse and dialogue. I could not have completed this project without them. I owe the deepest of thanks and appreciation to Lori Brainard and Michael Harmon, who serve as invaluable mentors, friends, and intellectual guides. Orion White is a dear friend and sharp critic. He has “sufx / Acknowledgments fered” many iterations of this work and, such is his way, always prompted new thoughts that kept the discourse moving.Words will certainly fail to articulate the manifold ways in which I am grateful to Cynthia McSwain. So...